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Great advice there, big brother.
“Mase, stop.” Logan gripped my shoulders, stopping me before I could leave. “There’s a reason we never told you.” He dropped his forehead on mine. “Ryker Hudson is my cross to bear. You don’t want any part of his legacy.”
Genetics didn’t give a shit about want. Monster’s bred monsters. Harper was just the match that lit the fire.
“Oh fuck you, Logan.” I shoved him off and took a step back. “You think you’re the only one that was subjected to Daddy’s special games?”
Both their faces dropped.
“What?” Micha grumbled.
I’d never heard him sound so shocked. It was kind of funny when I thought about it. Big bad Micha Kessler. Thought he had everything figured out, but he didn’t know shit about his little brother.
“No.” He shook his head. “You were never left alone with him. I made sure every time he was around that someone was with you.”
“Not at Harper’s house.” And Ryker was there a lot.
I watched the denial in their faces morph into the realization that all their careful planning had failed. Their excuse was protection. I got it. I fell for the same line of bullshit. Take the pain for her and she’ll be okay. Look how that turned out. A secret was a lie that no one heard. And lie was a fantasy that people wanted someone to believe because it made them feel better.
We stood there for a few minutes in silence before Logan whispered, “Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Why didn’t you?” I shot back.
“We were trying to protect you,” Micha argued.
That made me laugh. “Protect me? You know what your protection did. It left me alone. You all had each other to talk to. I had no one.”
For years I thought I was the only one. Why did Ryker hate me so much? Was I a bad kid? And all that time it was happening to them. They all knew about it, of course, but no one told me shit. While they comforted each other and whispered about the horrific things they experienced, I was in the background wondering what was wrong with me.
Logan furrowed his brows. “What about Harper?”
“What about her?”
“Did my old man get her too?”
“No.” I shook my head and pushed down the urge to bring the bottle to my lips. “She got out clean.”
Micha stepped forward and gave my shoulder a squeeze. “You can’t know that.”
Yes I could.
“Ryker was a sly motherfucker. He could’ve gotten her alone…”
“I took it for her,” I growled.
They both stood with their mouths open while I sighed and looked out the door to the hall.
“The first time he took me in that room, I knew something was wrong. I could just feel it. Like the air around me had changed. After awhile I became numb, and eventually I wasn’t even scared anymore. It all just kind of blurred into one big nightmare. Like I was there, but wasn’t. But you know what I remember the most?”
Micha and Logan remained quiet and let me continue.
“It was what he said when I told him to leave Harper alone. That son of a bitch leaned in and whispered, ‘are you sure she’d show you the same loyalty’?”
I’d heard those words everyday for seven years.
Micha let out a breath. “Mase…”
“Guess he was right. The first chance she got, she threw me to the wolves.”
