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“And you beat him to within an inch of his life.”
I sighed wistfully. “I wish. More like I happened across him, then ran into him on the highway. I mean literally ran into him, as in rammed his fancy little sports car over and over again with my cruiser.”
“Uh oh.”
“Yeah.”
“The Concord police didn’t like that very much, did they?”
“No they did not,” I laughed, still trying to hold it together. The laugh was needed. A tiny bit of merriment in a horrific story.
“So did your brother eventually recover?”
“Yes,” I said sadly. “And he went right back to drugs. And I took off south, after just narrowly escaping vehicular manslaughter charges. They were never so eager to get someone out of town, believe me.”
“Who?”
“Everyone,” I shrugged. “My brother, my parents, that scumbag drug dealer. But especially the CPD, who nearly got sued into oblivion by my ‘reckless actions.’ I left with nothing. No family, no job. No direction. No friends…”
The pain reached the point where it was too much to continue. Camden knew it right away.
“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” he said softly. His embrace tightened, his arms and legs sliding that much further around me. “But now you’ve got us.”
I sniffled, trying to keep myself from crying. But the tears were hellbent on coming anyway.
“Maybe one day your brother will get clean,” he said. “He’ll forgive you — maybe even admire you for trying to—”
“No he won’t. He’s dead.”
Camden’s head lolled slowly forward, until it rested against mine. I felt his body go limp with disappointment.
“He overdosed a few months after I left,” I said. “I didn’t find out until after the funeral. I would’ve gone back. I would’ve… I would’ve tried to—”
I broke down mid-sentence, sobbing into his chest. Camden pulled me in and held me there. He let me go on crying, not saying anything. Not moving a single muscle except to hold and envelop me, and make me feel safe.
Reese…
No matter how many times I went over the story, it always ended the same. I’d failed my brother. I’d failed my parents. And instead of staying to help, I’d allowed myself to be driven off.
I cried and cried, until my eyes were empty. After a long time of extended silence, I finally regained control.
“Okay,” I said, still curled into Camden’s loving embrace. Gradually, I tilted my chin and looked up at him.
“Now you.”
Forty-One
CAMDEN
We lay wrapped naked together beneath the blankets. Stretched out in the quiet world of the parlor-turned-living room, speaking truths and unveiling secrets in the ancient silence. There was no one to interrupt. No flurry of life’s activities to get in the way. It was just the two of us and no one else, speaking softly of our feelings, our emotions, our stories.
I held her in my arms and I told her everything.
In the unbroken silence Karissa learned my story — every bit of it — in full, unabridged detail. She learned of my life and youth, and the bond I formed with Bryce and Roderick in lieu of an actual family. I told her of my time away, on the other side of the world. Of the things I did and saw there, and of how they ultimately drove me home.
I told this woman my every thought and dream, even things I hadn’t told anyone before. Not the guys. Not Madison. Not even myself.
And God it felt so fucking good.
