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“Along with just being a complete asshole to all of us,” he stated brokenly. “He used to really hurt Hades. I can’t… I can’t…”
He couldn’t talk about it.
It broke him up inside to even think it.
“You don’t need to say it,” I offered softly.
Mostly because I had a feeling I already knew.
Being physically abused was one thing. Being sexually abused was another.
“Hades is the only child who wasn’t biologically his,” he croaked. “That’s something we didn’t find out until a few years ago. But it didn’t matter that she wasn’t his. Truthfully, it made her better than the rest of us. She’s still our sister, blood or not.”
The fierceness in his voice had me grinning.
God, he was the greatest.
“The love you have for your sister is beautiful,” I whispered against his throat.
He squeezed me tight.
“The rest of us just got knocked around a lot. We were forced to work from a very young age, and the only thing that kept us educated was the fact that Simi’s mom forced us to get it in whenever we could. Usually, we all hit the books between shows. We lived on the road,” he murmured. “And when Simi’s mom died, I kept it up for the rest of them. Dad was proud of himself and rewarded us all by allowing us to go to school. And all of us did. Until the day he died and forced his hand again. We only thought we’d escaped him when we went off. I was in the Marines, fucking finally happy, when I got the call. We were to all come home. We had to spend the next years working the circus together, or it would be donated to charity.”
She paused. “That’s awful controlling of him.”
“That’s my dad,” he spat.
I could tell he didn’t like the man, but that level of anger was surprising.
I’d never really seen Keene angry.
I pulled away from him, deciding that we needed a change of subject. “Let’s go. If we hurry, I can grab snacks before I watch you.”
He groaned but allowed me to tug him out of bed.
We each went opposite directions after that.
Me to his guest suite shower, and him to his.
By the time we’d met back up, we were both dressed and ready to go.
Though, he’d had a little bit more time on his hands and had made us coffee to go.
“Thank you,” I beamed at him.
“You’re welcome, Quad Shot.”
I stuck out my tongue.
So I liked espresso. Sue me.
“One day,” he said as he caught my hand and tugged me with him to the door, “you’re going to have heart issues because of that.”
“When that day comes, I’ll deal with it,” I pointed out.
He grumbled something low under his breath that sounded like a curse, but I chose not to call him on it.
He was worried about me.
