Chapter 18 #4
“Two,” I say with a grin as I hold up two fingers.
“How did such a kind and caring woman give birth to two borderline sociopaths? My doctor clarified for me.” When I’m met with confused silence, I can’t help but laugh.
“After my dad died, Mom dated a lot but she only remarried once. Chad Lighton. On the surface, he seemed decent. Had a steady job, bills were paid, needs were met. He took my mom on dates, and took Dax and I to do things other guys did with their kids. He taught us to skate and eventually got us into hockey. It was the closest thing to normal we ever had.”
“Then the bottom dropped out,” Arlo nods as he slips his hand into mine and gives it a squeeze. “Why do I have a feeling this is about to take a turn for the worse?”
“Oh, it is, but not quite the turn you think.”
“That’s ominous as fuck,” Ves grunts.
I nod. “Turns out, good old Chad was beating the fuck out of our mom behind closed doors. They hid it well for a while, but when I was fifteen, I came home from school one day and found our mother passed out and bloody at the bottom of the stairs. I called 911 and got her to the hospital, and when she came to, she said she fell. Problem was, I know what it looks like when someone gets their ass kicked.”
Lennox nods, “It’s hard to cover that up.”
“Exactly. I started asking questions, my brother and I both did, and the doctors all but confirmed her injuries weren’t just from the fall.” I scrub a hand over my buzzcut and go back to staring out the window. “Stairs don’t tend to pull chunks of your hair out or leave handprints around your neck.
“My mother almost died that day, and if I hadn’t found her when I did, she most likely would have. She’d worked too hard, come too far to let some son of a bitch treat her that way.
I wasn’t going to stand for it.
“Dax and I played stupid while Mom was in the hospital, we didn’t let on to either of them that we knew what actually happened.
By this point, we were both playing hockey for our high school and Chad was an assistant coach.
Our practice schedule was intense and he’d started taking us to different lakes when they’d freeze so we could practice in the elements.
We went to Donnor Lake the weekend after all that shit went down. ”
“I think I know where this is going.” Lennox laughs a little as he shakes his head. “I’m not going to be disappointed, am I?”
I shake my head. “We found a weak spot, skated it until it was ready to break, then made sure Chad found it, too. Fucker dropped right through the ice like a bag of bricks, hung onto the edge until his hands were too cold, then went down while we watched. I didn’t think the current was very strong but he got sucked under the ice and pulled pretty far from the hole.
We skated along the path, looked into Chad’s eyes until the life left them, then called it in once we were sure he was dead.
Little did we know, he had a life insurance policy, one he probably was hoping to cash in after my mom took a spill down the stairs, but she got almost a half million dollars after his accidental death. ”
“Oh, the irony,” Ves says with a smirk. “I shouldn’t be hearing this, considering I am Mr. FBI man, but if it was ruled an accident, who am I to… Wait a second.”
I frown and turn to face my pack. “It was, we were questioned but cleared of—”
“Kincaid?” Ves asks as he sits up a little straighter and I nod. “Baron Kincaid?”
“Yes…”
“Former left wing for the Illinois Yetis?”
I nod slowly, “You a hockey fan?”
“No,” he grunts. “But I remember the headline. You killed a guy on the ice during a game.”
Lennox barks out a laugh. “Was that ruled an accident, too?”
“Manslaughter,” I shrug. “Guy fucked with my brother.”
“Who also plays professionally,” Ves says. “Xavier Kincaid, right?”
“He just got traded to Michigan.”
“I didn’t realize how dangerous hockey is,” Arlo says with an awkward giggle. “I mean, I don’t watch but I knew there were fights. I just didn’t realize they ended in death so frequently.”
I bark out a laugh and squeeze his hand. “Depends on the player, I guess.”
“I guess.”
“That’s how I got hooked up with my doc, though. Conditions of my release from prison. I started seeing a psychiatrist and after a lot of trial and error, Gabriel was able to get me on the right stuff. Murder isn’t my first choice anymore.”
Ves huffs, “Still makes the list of options, though.”
“That it does,” I grin and scoot closer to my omegas. “The meds help keep my head clear. They take the very miniscule edge off my anger, help me think things through before I act. I’m more balanced now, even if I still walk a fine line. It’s less dangerous if I take them but I’m still me.”
“I get it,” Lennox says with a sigh. “Give me his number. I’ll talk to your doc if it means it will stop this conversation from circling back to my mental health issues.”
“At least you know you’re not alone,” I say with a smirk. “A pack that’s fucked up together, stays together. Or some shit.”
I have a feeling that might only be true in our case, but I’m okay with it.