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PROLOGUE
Twenty Years Ago…
DANE
“Gah, this sucks!”
I rise up from under the hood of my latest project, nearly hitting my head as the glinting sun blinds me, to find my sister stomping across our driveway toward the front porch.
“What sucks?”
She stops and turns, tears pooling in her eyes. Fuck. Now I’m going to have to kill some eighteen-year-old boy who broke my sister’s heart. But I’ll do it. Even though she drives me up the wall, she’s still my sister. What kind of man would I be if I didn’t protect her?
Greer comes into the garage and leans her hip against the rusty car. It’ll be a beauty on the outside one day, but at least I’ve been able to get it to run like a purring kitten. My pride and joy. One of them, anyway. Anything with an engine, really.
“What happened? Who do I have to kill?” I ask as I wipe a dirty cloth over my hands to get rid of any excess oil.
“Her dad,” she muttered.
Then to my surprise, my little sister, who is girly as hell, turns around and punches the car door. She’s not strong enough to leave a mark. Not that it would have mattered anyway. The body is still a hunk of junk.
When she pulls back to swing again, I grab her arm to stop her. “Okay, if you want to hit something, find something that won’t break your hand. A pillow or a stuffed animal.”
Her eyes widen. “You want me to punch one of my stuffed animals? They have feelings, Dane. Can you imagine how sad they’d be if I hit them? They’d probably try to find new homes. Then what? I wouldn’t have any friends to sleep with at night.”
Good lord. My sister. I love her. And often, I have to remind myself of that because she can be quite dramatic. Especially about her stuffed toys. Sometimes, I wonder if she has them for reasons deeper than just liking them. Does she know about the kind of stuff me and our brother Nash are into? We’ve always been super careful about keeping that part of ourselves hidden along with any supplies we’ve bought over the years. There are times I still worry we somehow exposed Greer to our lifestyle without meaning to, though.
“Okay, Greer,” I say as I pinch the bridge of my nose. “Tell me what’s going on. Whose dad?”
Tears fill her eyes again, and I can’t stop myself from pulling her into my arms for a hug.
“Summer and I were going to go to prom together. We’ve been working so hard to make money so we could get fancy dresses. We were even going to rent a limo and go together instead of with dates since it’s our senior year.”
I try to keep up, but so far, I have no idea where this is going, so I wait for her to finish.
“We both saved five-hundred dollars. She had a special hiding spot in her bedroom to store her cash.”
My heart starts to pound. I have a feeling I know what’s coming next, and it’s going to piss me off.
“Her dad found it. He took all of it. Yelled at her for hiding it from him, then left. Five hours later, he came home drunk, screaming about how the tables were rigged against him.”
I ball up a fist and clench my jaw. Murphy Pierce. The man has been tormenting Summer and her mother’s lives for way too long. He’s the reason Summer spends more time at our house than her own. I fucking hate the man. I can’t even count the number of times Nash and I have wanted to go over there and pummel the shit out of him. But our dad always tells us the answer to violence isn’t more violence, and if we want to do something about it, call the police. Which we have. All of us. Me, Nash, Greer, and both our parents. We’ve all called the police on Murphy Pierce at one time or another.
The messed up thing is, he never gets arrested because his abuse isn’t physical. I don’t know why her mom puts up with it. Why she would keep her daughter under the same roof as him. Mrs. Pierce has always been the sweetest woman. Both she and Summer deserve better.
“So now, we can’t go to prom. We’ve been planning for this all year. It was going to be so special and fun. She’s been my best friend since we were babies. We’ve been through everything together, and we’re in our last year of school. We just wanted to celebrate.” Greer swipes at her falling tears.
Mind already made up, I squeeze my sister’s shoulders. “Don’t worry, peanut. I’ll fix it.”
She tilts her head back to look up at me with round, watery eyes. “What do you mean? You can’t fix it.”
“Yes, I can. Give me a little bit. You two will still go to prom together. Okay?”
Her bottom lip trembles. “What are you going to do?”
I roll my eyes but grin at her. “Don’t worry about it. Now, go inside and see if Mom needs help with dinner. Her back was bothering her earlier, so she shouldn’t be on her feet much.”
Greer stares at me for a long moment before she smiles back and squeezes her arms around my waist. “I love you, Dane.”
