Page 55 of Brazen Mistakes

His theory, according to this work-up he’s done, is that his dad wants him towantthis inheritance of blood and mistrust.

To Trips’ father, legacy is everything. Archibald Clarence Westerhouse Sr. was a dark power on his own merit, but his son took it to extremes, and he wants his own children to take the destruction national. Trips is supposed to be the brains and brawn of the family business, while his brother is expected to be the face and the legalized power. Trips’ kid sister is mostly ignored, it seems, as Trips’ dad is about as old-school sexist as it can get.

And it’s clear as day that Trips was abused. That his mom was, too.

Stepmother, brother, likely little sister, it’s all there.

Clinical.

A list of broken bones and hospital visits organized by age for Trips.

The way his mom died in her thirties from a stroke, three days after his parents had a huge fight, the same night she’d been complaining of a headache, but had been forced to host a party despite her acute discomfort and slurred speech.

How his stepmom started out kind and loving, but pulled away from him, isolated him, while hiding herself and herdaughter from everyone in the house to the best of her ability.

The fact that he was forced to watch a restrained man shot in the head at thirteen after he’d gotten into a fight with his dad and threw his first punch back.

I push my plate away the farther I read, the more blood-soaked the memories.

The alcohol Trips abused through high school, the harder drugs he’d experimented with, hoping for an escape.

The stint at rehab followed by his explosive rage directed at another high schooler, which, surprisingly, led to his first hint of freedom as the Ivy League option disappeared. For the first time, Trips got a choice.

The details on more recent years are sparse.

There’s a section about his brother’s political career, about the bribery and extensive private tutoring needed to get him to where he is today, a rising hometown star on the national political stage.

There’s an even smaller section about his sister, and here, for the first time, the clinical language disappears, and I see the same young man that was too tired to keep up his walls after a little more than twenty-four hours at home, a big brother who wants great things for his little sister, and his heavy fear he won’t be able to save her from the same fucked-up world they both were born into.

I reach the end of the document, the light in the kitchen already fading, the clock reading a little past three.

Trips must have spent hours on this. And it had to have driven fucking railway spikes into his soul to do it.

He’s not in the kitchen. I don’t know when he left.

I don’t know how long I’ve been crying.

Hurrying to the bathroom, I take a minute to collect myself. There’s no way Trips is going to react well to my tears, even if his history more than earned the ache in my chest.

Once I think I can keep my reaction to his upbringing to myself, I find him sitting in his chair in the living room, TV on, some football game humming along while he pretends to watch it. But the second I enter the room, he’s on his feet, facing me like he’s ready for a fight. “No pity. No tears. I just needed you to understand exactly how dangerous you being on my father’s radar is.”

“Understood.” I hand him the tablet, and our fingers graze, my breath already tight in my chest, a noose around my heart.

He studies me, looking for signs that I’m going to interpret this information as anything besides facts needed to do this job. And as much as I want to gather him into my arms, it would be the first thing to make him step back, to step away from me again.

Because I’m starting to get it.

How can you care about anyone when just being friends puts them in danger?

You can’t. He can’t.

Not with me. Not with the guys. Not even with his sister.

Because to his father, we’re all levers he can pull to get Trips to fall in line.

I don’t want Trips to fall in line. I want him to break free—true freedom without fear of reprisal or coercion.

But I have no idea how to win that for Trips. Especially given I’ve only had a glimpse of the lengths his dad will go tokeep him chained. So no, I’m not going to give him an ounce of sympathy. It’s the last thing Trips needs.

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