Page 14 of Frayed Owner

“Good for you. Tell them when they’re stupid, Bevin. You’re breaking out of your training faster—shit, teach me how to break out of the Shaw programming. There, I swore. How uncouth of me.” She snorted. “And I’m eating everything that will make me gain weight and bring down my value. Being on this team is so much better. Fuck my trust. Oh, two swears.”

It was the comic relief I needed and I felt worlds better.

“This is my fault,” Kevin said with a sigh before anyone else could jump in. “I’m sorry. I didn’t—I pushed him. I told him not to wait and let grass grow under this when you were concerned about this exact thing happening and we were… I don’t want to say dismissive. We heard you and I did take the concern seriously.”

“It just seemed too far-fetched because we would all know about that kind of crazy,” Winter offered. “So you saw it as a legit warning, but really felt the odds of something this extreme happening as low. More the typical movie scene of being threatened or paid off to walk away.”

I slowly turned and looked at him. “Is that what you expected?”

“Yes. I heard you. I believed you. I fully expected an uncle or Alex to show up and warn me to walk away or I might have an accident or they’d fuck with my schooling,” he told me. “I heard your warning too, and I agree your family is nuts and extra. That is crazy.” He pointed to Kevin. “That is so fucked up I still have trouble believing it happened.”

“So do I,” Clare muttered, but then snorted. “Not that he would kill people to punish you, but be so sloppy, make such a mess. I still—we’re missing something. Something went wrong or—”

“He’s unraveling,” I sighed. “We were intentionally poking him to unravel. Once he started…” I remembered there were people in the room I didn’t even know and frowned. “Who are you?” I winced when Clare snorted.

“Ignore me. I’m drunk. You should ask,” she said firmly. “My snark was that we get to say that and have a voice in this house and it’s nice. We’re not just docile decoration. Well done.”

Oh, that was much better.

“They’re friends of mine who Taylor hired,” Kevin explained. “They quit the police too. They don’t want to be next and are tired of ignoring the dirt. They’ve done the background checks. Jasmine had them sign the NDAs. It’s all done. I was going to show them where they can harvest and get their magic up since Kelton was going to be here talking to you.”

I nodded but met his gaze when he cleared his throat.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I pushed Kelton and messed this up. I’m sorry I wasn’t smarter and took the threat more seriously and watched my back better. I’m sorry this traumatized you both and I didn’t see that Kelton had the signs and it hurt you.”

I didn’t know what to say to that, so I just hugged myself.

Kelton moved towards me and I backed away when he was close enough to touch me. I didn’t care what everyone else thought about that, but I was glad that he stopped and took the hint.

He let out a slow breath. “I’m sorry, Bev. I just wanted to tell you that I realized when I said you needed to talk to someone, I was really sayingIneeded to talk to someone. We do. We need help as the victims. But really, I do. I handled everything wrong. Before. Then. All of this. My brother could have died because of my choices.

“I’m not okay.” His voice cracking cut through me like a knife. “And I hurt you and I’m not okay with that either. You killed someone because I pushed myself into your life. Yeah, it was all your dad’s fault, but you warned me, and this was the result of my pushing. You had to kill someone to save my brother. I’m not okay.”

“Kel,” Kevin whispered.

“I didn’t come to interrupt your fun,” he continued. “I just—you hurt and it kills me. I really like you. I’m sorry for what I said and how I handled everything. I was trying to make us be okay. That moment—how you reacted and behaved was real andvalid, and it just hit me that we’re not okay. I said it all wrong. I’m really sorry. Please, I would never throw getting help—”

“I hear what you’re saying, but this—I don’t want to do it like this,” I cut in, hating all of the eyes and feeling too on display.

“I know,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean it to be like this.” He held his hand out to me and waited until I took it. He gave mine a gentle squeeze. “I don’t want to lose you, and I’m scared this will make me lose you. What happened and how badly I handled it. So now I’m compounding the mistake. I get that. I’m sorry.”

“I believe that.” Again, I didn’t know what to say.

“Can you let me know when you’re ready to talk?Ifyou want to talk to me? I guess?” he sounded so lost and confused that it hurt my heart.

“Yeah. I just need less pressure,” I mumbled.

“Totally fair.” He let out a slow breath. “I’m sorry I made things worse. I really was just trying to help.”

I absolutely believed that. I just wished he would have listened to me that I didn’t think he was the right person to when it was his brother.

Though I was pretty sure I could forgive him. We just needed a time-out and to both get our heads together. They were right and we were both the victims just as much as Kevin was.

What a fucking mess. I really, really wanted to make Charles suffer for this.

He went outside with Kevin and the others and I was glad. Not relieved like I was—it wasn’t settled, but it wasn’t as bad as it had been? I felt better that I got to say what I was feeling and he accepted it.

We ate, Clare snagging some of our food. She seemed awkward to do it, but I also thought she might be hanging around in case I wanted to talk or just so I wasn’t alone? I wasn’t sure, but she was also still drinking.

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