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“Is everything okay? Is Hadley okay?”
“Yeah, as far as I know everyone is good. I just need to talk to you and Ace.”
“Okay,” he says skeptically, shoving his feet into his sneakers and following me down the stairs.
“Get decent and get out here,” I call through to Ace and Remi’s bedroom.
The door opens immediately, and Ace walks through. “We’re dressed. We don’t just fuck all day long, you know?”
“Really? I ask while Conner scoffs behind me and falls down onto the beanbag chair.
Remi appears seconds later and looks between the three of us with concern pulling at her brows.
“Is… everything okay?”
“Yeah, can you all sit down. I need to talk to you about something.” My voice comes out a lot stronger than I was expecting, because my insides feel like jelly.
“Do you want me to go?” Remi asks, thinking that I might just want my brothers.
“You can stay. I have no doubt that what I’ve got to say you’ll hear second-hand anyway. You’re one of us now. I trust you.” She smiles at me and lowers herself beside Ace on the couch.
I hesitate. I don’t want to sit, but I don’t want to stand either.
“Cole, what the fuck is going on?” Ace asks, sitting forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he watches me walk back and forth.
“I need to tell you both something, something that I’ve kept to myself for years, and it’s slowly been eating away at me. It’s the reason…” I blow out a long breath, saying the words I’ve been repeating all morning over and over in my head.
My eyes catch Conner’s, and an understanding passes between us. He knows where this is going from what I said in the hospital.
“When we were younger, and you both went off to school and left me at home… I wasn’t spending the day watching TV and eating snacks.” Ace’s lips part, but no words follow. “I don’t need to tell you about the kinds of men Mom had back to the trailer so she could get what she needed. Well, some of those men didn’t want Mom as payment for—”
The noise that rips from Ace’s throat is like nothing I’ve ever heard before. He stares at me for a beat, his eyes wide and his jaw dropped. All the color drains from his face before he drops his head into his hands.
Glancing at Conner, my chest tightens as I find his eyes full of unshed tears.
“Ace, please, don’t blame yourself,” I say, surprised at the weight that feels like it’s been lifted from my shoulders. “I know you made me stay there because you thought you were doing the right thing. And under any other circumstances it was where I needed to be. I was a sickly kid, we all know that, but—”
“I left you there. I left you there to be…” he trails off as Remi rubs his back.
Walking over, I drop down on the coffee table before them. Remi takes my hand, and after a second Conner joins us, but he doesn’t take up the spare spot on the couch. Instead, he sits beside me and wraps his arm around my shoulder.
“Ace,” I say, reaching out for his shoulder. “It’s okay.”
“Bullshit. None of this is okay. I was meant to be looking after you, not leaving you to be…” He pushes to stand and pulls me into his arms.
He holds me for long seconds, his body trembling with his pent-up anger before he releases me and storms from the pool house.
“Ace,” Remi calls.
“Just give him a few minutes, Princess,” Conner whispers.
Spinning, I fall down beside Remi and pull her onto my lap. She has tears streaming down her face, and if I’m being honest, I could use her warmth right now.
She wraps her arms around my neck and snuggles into my chest as Conner joins us, gathering us both up in his arms.
“How bad, Cole?” he asks after long minutes. “Like, how far did they…”
Our eyes meet, and he sucks in a breath. The answer must be written all over my face. “Everything.”
