Page 36 of Black Waters

I glared at Crash and fought emotions that choked me. “I do. I swear I do.” I’m about to give all for her, for you.

The way Crash reacted, tightening his grip on the steering wheel, I assumed he understood what I was about to do. He looked pissed, but I wasn’t going to back down. My mind had been made up. Not until Crash said, “I need you to love her then … enough… for the both of us,” did I realize my plan was going awry. Something was going down, and I was being left out of the loop.

My heart pounded hard as I tried to figure out his words, his actions, his hidden message. Back at Whit’s house, Crash said something to me about taking care of Whit. I gaped at him in a stunned silence, thinking, I am taking care of her.

My brother pulled Whit from his backseat and cradled her as if he was never going to get to hold her again. His cheek brushed her hair. His eyes closed; his face contorted in agony. I could almost hear his tortured inner moans.

Crash said something else that I didn’t think I comprehended. I found myself numbly unloading Whit’s crutches from his trunk. That’s when I saw the black car coming. Our father was retrieving him. I didn’t understand what that meant. Is he leaving Whit and me to protect ourselves? It didn’t hurt my feelings that Harold Sr. chose to save Crash over me. Crash was the son he’d raised, but it shocked me that Crash was abandoning us.

Still in his arms, Whit cried painfully. Crash kissed the top of her head. “I can’t stay. I must keep you safe. That’s all that matters to me.”

That’s when my mind finally began to clear—to grasp what the hell Crash was up to. “Crash, I don’t know what’s going on, but there must be another way—”

Crash’s face twisted grotesquely, as if his decision to leave her was eating him alive. “TAKE HER! FUCKING TAKE HER FROM ME!” He sounded as he had the night he’d told me to do the same with our mother. It had been one of the few times he sounded older than me, the night I learned who my true father was. I had done what my brother told me to do. And I did it again. I took our girl. I took the other female we both adored… from him.

I was back in hell, burning from the inside out.

I clutched a hysterical Whit to my chest as one of my biological father’s guards took my brother from me. I wanted to fight, to scream that this world sucked! But I had to hold the precious young woman in my arms, like I had with our mom.

All the while, Crash yelled out to Whit, “I love you! I love you so goddamn much. I’m willing to let you go! Do you understand how much that is? Franky! Tell me you know how deep our love goes!”

Crash’s door was slammed shut by a guard.

Whit buried her face in my neck to hide from unbearable heartache. Crash hit his chest over his heart with his fist then pointed to me. His hand went into a fist again and once again slammed over his heart. My hands—my arms—were full of a crying girl, so all I could do was nod that I loved him too.

Then my brother was driven away… from me.