Page 28 of God of War

I clear my throat, push the past down and lock it away, where it belongs. “You’re like a cop, right? You solve the club’s problems?”

Ares looks horrified. He sits up fast, slamming his feet to the floor. “Not like a fucking cop. Holy shit, is that what it says online?”

“But that’s why you’re here. With me. Instead of one of the other guys. Because I’m a problem.”

He says nothing and I get nervous again. I know I’m right. I keep picking at the hole in my jeans. Wispy threads float to the floor.

“If the Wastelanders told you to kill someone, would you do it? Have you done it before?”

Ares shifts in his chair, the flimsy thing creaking. “What the fuck, Delaney.”

“It’s a simple question,” I say with a shrug.

“And the answer is none of your business.”

“What about what I asked?”

He looks at me like I’m crazy. “What, kill your daddy? That’s not fucking happening.”

“Why not? He’s a problem.”

“No, right now, the problem is you. The problem has always been you.”

His words are a gunshot. Loud and painful.

“And, yeah, if Griff told me to kill someone, I would,” Ares continues. “Want to know why? Because he’s my family. He was there for me when I got thrown in lock-up for molesting the Sheriff’s eleven-year-old daughter.”

There it is. The can is open and those wriggling worms are spilling out. I feel myself shrinking, curling in on myself, wishing I could be a worm instead of the living, breathing fuck-up that I am.

“You weren’t charged. I told Dad… I told everyone that it wasn’t like that, that you never—”

“Do you think any of those assholes care about the truth?” he replies, sharp as a knife. “Seven years, Delaney, that’s how long this town has looked at me like a child molesting piece of shit. All because your father won’t let them forget it.”

I get it. I do. I know what it’s like to have him twist his tongue around a lie so it all comes out tasting like the truth. Oh, don’t listen to Delaney, she’s always been trouble, always making things up.

What am I supposed to say? As much as I should, I can’t make the words ‘I’m sorry’ come out of my mouth. Ares doesn’t get it. Doesn’t understand how dangerous my father is. While he might not be as blind as the rest of the people in town, he still thinks I’m just a rebellious brat with daddy issues. So I take a breath and say the closest thing to an apology I can muster.

“I never meant for that to happen.”

Ares scrubs a hand over his face, his palm scraping against his stubble.

“Yeah, well…Until the heat dies down and Griff gives me the all clear, we’re stuck here. Like it or not, I’m the only thing stopping Jackson from getting his hands on you.”

It’s like he’s slamming me into the ground and knocking the air from my lungs all over again. Ares doesn’t see it, the way my shoulders fold inward, my eyes hollow out.

If only Ares had listened to me the first time, that night in his kitchen, a cup of warm cocoa between us. Would he have been able to stop those hands from making the last seven years of my life a living hell?

“Go on. Get some sleep.” He jerks his head to the back bedroom.

I start to shake my head. “You should take the—”

“The couch is closer to the door, so it’s mine. You take the bed.”

“But—”

“For fuck’s sake, Delaney. For once in your life, can you just do what you’re told?”

I grit my teeth and stand up. As I walk past, I snatch up my backpack.

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