Page 86 of Broken Chorus

“And we’ve already made you a spot,” Aaron said softly, still looking a bit shy about talking to him but it was clear that in these last few days, the times Aaron had popped over to the guest house just to hang out had helped not just him, but Dani too, as she stood close to the chair, talking around the thumb she’d shoved in her mouth.

“Watch Lady and Tramp?” she asked him, batting those pretty eyes of hers until all of Declan’s reluctance seemed to melt away before their eyes.

“Oui, mademoiselle,” he said earning a huge smile from her.

“That means yes!” she cheered, scooping up a bear almost as big as her. She hugged it and her narwhal in front of her as she danced inside to change.

Kelly nudged Aaron’s shoulder and raised an eyebrow.

“Okay, how’d you guys get her to stop being freaked out about the chair?” Kelly whispered.

“Simple,” Aaron said, flashing him a wink. “We proved to her that chairs couldn’t actually eat people by tipping that damned office chair over on Hawk and making him stay down there until she came to the conclusion that there weren’t going to be parts of him missing no matter how long we left him on the floor.”

“You didn’t.”

“Oh, they did, the bastards,” Hawk muttered, then groaned, because there went another offering to the swear jar. “Then we got Declan to show her a bunch of the cool shit he could do while in a chair, including waterskiing and she was fascinated. I swear,that one is gonna be my little daredevil, she’s already asked how she could learn to waterski too.”

“You’re gonna be gray by the time she grows up,” Kelly remarked.

“Yeah, me about it,” Hawk grumbled before hurrying after Liam, who’d managed to stumble over the bear he was carrying and now lay half dozing on the large, fluffy thing.

“It’s okay, I’ll be gray right along with him,” Aaron said as he hurried to help him and damn, now that Hawk thought about it, he was certain that it would be a damn good look on both of them.

Chapter 20

The truth hurts, but sometimes it heals too

Aaron mashed the red button on his phone and ran his fingers through his hair, snarling them in the strands he was shaking so bad. What the PI had to told him…

Swallowing hard, Aaron fought down the urge to vomit, saliva pooling in his mouth as he whirled around fled to the ensuite bathroom, falling to his knees and nearly smacking himself inthe face with the toilet bowl seat as he lifted it up. Coffee and eggs spewed from his mouth, the chunky bits hitting the water and splashing back as he heaved until his insides were raw. Even then, breathing was a struggle as tears made his eyes itch and he soon found himself sobbing and dry heaving as there was nothing left in his belly to bring up.

That was how Hawk found him when he’d come searching for Aaron, who was still clinging to the bowl, shivering and trying to make sense of everything the PI had discovered.

“What happened,” Hawk asked gently, one large hand cupping the back of Aaron’s neck and rubbing until Aaron finally settled down.

“I…” Stammering, he shook his head, struggling to put the whole mess into words. “PI called.”

“I gathered as much in the kitchen when you ducked away to take the call,” Hawk said, adding a little more pressure.

It was absolutely perfect, grounding him and helping him focus better.

“My grandfather killed Erik,” Aaron stammered. “He was my mom’s boyfriend. Pop-pop shot him climbing out of my mom’s window. Said he thought Erik was a thief. He got away with it too, mostly. One of my dad’s brothers retaliated and shot Pop-pop in the back a few weeks later, that’s how he wound up in that chair.”

“Shit.”

Sniffling, Aaron tried to force out the rest of the revelation, the part that had left him heaving into the bowl.

“Wasn’t the end of it though,” Aaron stammered. “Erik’s brothers wanted to make mom pay for not telling the truth about what happened, so they cornered her one night and took turns having their way with her. I’m pretty much the result. That’s why there is no father listed on my birth certificate. It’s no wonder they all hated me. I’d have left me behind too.”

“Hey, no, fuck that, Aaron…” Hawk said, dragging him into a hug.

“There was never a chance to make them love me.”

“Then they should have given you to someone who could,” Hawk insisted, his hold on Aaron tightening. That was probably a good thing, since a real part of him wanted to sprint out of that bathroom as fast as he could and get lost somewhere until he could make sense of it all, or blot it out, whichever came first.

His Pop-pop’s stern face welled up in his mind, scowl as deep and frightening as ever. Pressing his face to Hawk’s shoulder couldn’t banish it, the image was just there, floating, hovering over him as furious as ever.

How many times had he said that he couldn’t stand the sight of Aaron?

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