Page 2 of Only Everything
“You must be Tauren’s brother. I’m Emmett. I’m herboyfriend.”
Emmett’s tone was just as standoffish as Reid appeared as his gaze cut down to me.
Reid’s head gave the smallest shake back and forth.“Boyfriend... Is that right? We sure move on fast.”
“I’m sorry?”Emmett’s voice only deepened as Reid kept silent, training his angry stare on me. “I was there just after it happened. I was one of the first officers on the scene. My condolences.”
Only then did Reid’s head lift to look at Emmett.
“Condolences for my mother,”he corrected.“Frank can burn in hell. He was no father of mine. He’s lucky he pulled the trigger on himself and I wasn’t home to do it for him. Tauren, we need to talk.”
“There’s nothing left to say.”I lifted the box of ashes for emphasis. “I think this says it all.”
“Bullshit.”
“Don’t bullshit me. Do you see what I’m holding? Nothing has changed. If anything, this only proves my point.”I tugged against Emmett’s arm. “Let’s get this over with. I want to leave.”I glanced at Reid.“You’re not my brother anymore. I never want to see you again after this.”
In that moment, I had meant those cruel words. Blame was drowning me, and it waskilling Reid. I could see in the rounding of his pained expression as his eyes filled with tears. He deserved better.The best.That wasn’t me.
I was cursed.
I was a disease.
I was the worst thing that could happen to anyone, and I wasn’t going to make him suffer a moment longer.
Fate wasn’t fair.
Karma wasn’t kind.
I used to think life was about a series of choices, but it was nothing more than a series of falls. I was on the edge. I was within a whisper of death, and I was about to have to fight my way back up…or just let go and fall.
CHAPTER 1
REID
Four years later…
The Appalachian Mountainshad always felt like home. The state varied. With me and my mom always moving around, not even the town mattered. I used to think that as long as I could see those mountains in the distance, I was where I needed to be. The silence among the trees used to call to me. Lure me in as if I could get lost and disappear underneath the canopy of limbs forever. Solitude had promised to be my savior. It was all a lie. Silence had become my prison.
My foot kept a steady push as the rocking chair I sat in on my porch slowly swayed. The view or beauty I was surrounded by didn’t help. It couldn’t when my past continuously stole me away. And I lived in the flashbacks. In a truth that was just as unbearable as it was maddening.
Frank was supposed to be a new startfor me and my mom. She’d thought so.I knew better.From the moment I met that son of a bitch, I could tell he was no better than my abusive father. And while it took over a year for him to show his true colors, I’d been right. That didn’t stop my mom from marrying the bastard. I tried to stop her. I even begged her one night in a fit of desperate tears to leave him. She wouldn’t. She loved him.
I hadn’t understood it then. I’d never loved anyone but her. That is, until Tauren came to live with us. Where I expected the fights between them to get worse, oddly, they didn’t. Tauren brought light into our dark home. With her being thirteen years old and me almost fifteen, she became my best friend. My confidant. She felt like my other half.
I could still see it so clearly as I once again disappeared from my cabin’s small porch. We laughed. We finished each other’s sentences. Our new little family started having game nights. Movie nights. Everyone was finally happy. But even that didn’t last. The older we got, the worse it started to become.
“Taur, what are you doing out here in the shed? It’s dark. Mom says dinner’s ready. She told me to come find you.”
Her silhouette moved more into the shadows, and her sob brought me forward.
“Taur, talk to me. Why are you crying?”
“I miss my mom. I want to go home.”
The pain in her plea went beyond grief, but I knew from the odd edge in her tone that it had to do with something other than her mother’s passing.
“I can sneak in and read to you again tonight if that’ll make you feel better. We were at a good part. Don’t you want to see ifthe raiders outrun the lechers? There’s such a back and forth. It’s getting chaotic. You liked that.”
