Page 127 of Veil of Lies

My thoughts turned to Stella once again. Not that they ever really left her. I knew she was in the other room, with Quinn and Harley. They’d made it clear I could join them, but I wasn’t ready for that. As much as I wanted her, there was still something holding me back.

Part of me was afraid. Afraid of losing her. I’d already lost Dad. I couldn’t bear the thought of having her ripped away from me too. If I refused to let her get too close to me, then it would hurt less if she left me. Or so I reasoned.

Nothing made much sense at 3 AM.

I rolled over and closed my eyes.

???

The house was silent. No TV, no music drifting down from the girls’ bedrooms. Nothing. It was eerie as fuck. I walked across the hall, my sneakers squeaking on the polished marble. There was a large vase filled with roses on the central table. It caught my eye and I frowned. Every single rose was dead. Some merely wilted; others so heavily decayed they crumbled to powder when I touched them.

Something had happened. I felt the wrongness permeate the cloying air. Where was everyone? Normally, Marian, our housekeeper greeted me when I got home, but she was nowhere to be seen. Had Mom given her the day off?

“Mom? Dad?”

Silence.

I walked through the house, heading for Dad’s study. The door was open, with paperwork spilled all over his desk, cascading onto the polished wood floor. I frowned. This wasn’t like Dad. He was always so organized. Nothing out of place. He also never left his study unlocked. Nobody was allowed in there, not even Mom.

Every single room I passed through was empty. A half-drunk glass of liquor stood discarded on the counter in the kitchen. An empty brandy bottle lay smashed on the floor, broken glass crunched as I stepped over it.

The door into the garage was open. A sense of foreboding swept over me. Sweat trickled down my back. Whatever was in here, I needed to see, yet my body didn’t want to go there. I forced myself to cross the threshold, everything in me screamed NO!

Dad’s body swung in lazy circles, twisting in the faint breeze blowing through the vent in the wall. His face was purple, swollen and grotesque, eyes bulging from the constriction of the noose.

Someone screamed; it may have been me. I frantically hunted for a knife, anything to cut the rope, even while knowing it was too late. I had to try and save him. Surely he wasn’t dead.

It took forever to cut through the tough nylon cord. Eventually, his body fell, taking me with him. He lay on the concrete floor, staring up sightlessly, and I cried. Cried for the father who left me. The father who didn’t love us enough to fight.

Oh, Dad.

The nightmare faded. Someone was shaking me. “Brax, it’s OK,” Stella whispered in my ear, her soft voice calming my fractured emotions.

“What’s wrong?” I shot up as my heart rate spiked. Was there a fire?

“Calm down, you woke me up. I could hear you. I think you were having a nightmare.”

I frowned, rubbing the stubble on my jaw. The residual traces of the dream faded, leaving only a sense of fear and despair. Whatever the nightmare had been about, it was gone now.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to wake everyone.”

“It’s fine. The other two are asleep. I was half awake anyway.” She sat back and I belatedly realized she was wearing nothing but the tee she’d had on earlier. It didn’t cover much of anything. Which was a bit of a problem seeing as how I was naked under the thin cover and my cock had just joined the party.

Chapter 96

Stella

The faint noises coming from the other bedroom hadn’t disturbed me. Despite the emotionally exhausting evening, my mind had refused to settle and even though I’d fallen asleep easily enough, my brain woke me up a few hours later.

I realized pretty quickly Brax was having a nightmare. It wasn’t the first time I’d heard him cry out in his sleep. It seemed to happen at least once a week, sometimes more. He never talked about it and nor did the guys, but I guessed it had to do with him being the one to discover his father’s body. That kind of thing would fuck anyone up.

When I crept into the adjoining bedroom, Brax was thrashing around under the covers, clearly in distress. I crawled over the bed, unsure what to do. Was it a bad idea to wake someone in the throes of a nightmare? On the other hand, I couldn’t bear to see him like this, so obviously suffering.

It had taken a while to bring him out of whatever horror he was immersed in, but now he was most definitely awake, and I became aware of how little clothing I wore. My tee was old and well-worn. It was sleeveless, gaping around my shoulders. Earlier, I’d worn a bra and a jacket, so this wasn’t an issue, but right now, there was a lot of side boob on display, not to mention thigh.

Perhaps this wasn’t such a good idea. “Now you’re awake, I should probably go,” I said, after reassuring him he hadn’t woken me up. I tried to shift back, doing my best not to flash him in the process but he grabbed my wrist.

“Stella…” His voice trailed off.

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