Page 75 of Ending the Game

“Come on, little brother. Why don’t you come outside with me?” Declan shoots me hisdad look, and I feel like I’m about to walk the plank.

I look at Carys, who nods her head, encouraging me to go with him.

Declan and I walk into the backyard, the tension around us smothering me.

I move further away, not in the mood for him to act like some version of Dad with hiseverything will be alrightspeech.

“Listen, Dec—”

“No, Coop.Youneed to listen. You’re not okay. You’ve been dealt a shitty few months. And it just keeps piling on. But you’ve got to deal with it. Have you talked to anyone?” He stares at me, waiting. “Because when I asked Carys yesterday if you’d talked to her about any of it, she wouldn’t say.”

I don’t say anything either.

Mostly because I don’t know whattosay.

“After Leah attacked Belles while she was pregnant with the twins, we went to therapy together for months.” Declan sits down on one of the chairs surrounding the firepit and leans his elbows on his knees, a strangled expression etched on his face. “Want to know which one of us had the worst nightmares? Let me tell you, it wasn’t my wife. The one held at knifepoint. It was me.” He drags both hands down his face, reliving the worst day of his life. “The feeling that I failed her—that I caused it—haunted me. It still does.”

“It was my fault, Dec. I can deal with what happened on the op. I don’t like it, but I’m not responsible for it.” I picture the look on Carys’s face as she stared across her bedroom at me while Axel stood behind her. “She had a gun pressed to her head because of me.” I drop into the chair across from him and hang my head. “I don’t know how to deal with that.”

“We’re gonna deal with it together. Because that’s what family does, little brother.” I groan, and he ignores me. “Starting tomorrow. I’ll be at your house at six a.m. Be dressed and ready to work out.”

“What are we doing?” I push, wanting answers.

“Just be dressed and ready, Coop. Trust me.” Declan kicks his feet up and gets comfortable.

I eye him skeptically. “Aren’t we going back inside?”

“Nope. It’s noisy as hell in there, and the girls just broke Dad’s microwave. I’m staying right here where it’s quiet. So, since I’m staying right here. Might as well tell me what’s been going on.” The fucker smiles, thinking he’s smooth.

But I tell him anyway.

All about the op.

About the hospital and finding out everything that went down.

The next few weeks in California.

The threats. The baby. Fixing things between Carys and me.

“Do you want to stay here in Kroydon Hills?” It’s the first question he’s asked since I started talking, and I don’t have a solid answer.

“I don’t know. I’ve got to figure out what the fuck I’m doing with my life, now that the Navy is done with me. I was looking into private contracting in California, but it sounds like Carys might want to stay here. We’ll have to figure that shit out together.” Guess it’s time to start thinking about it. Probably past time. “Ialsoneed a car...”

Carys givesme a reprieve while we’re at Dad’s house. Once Declan and I move back inside, her worried eyes never leave me, but she doesn’t push to talk until we’re squeezed back into her car and she’s given me the keys so I can drive home.

“Do you want to talk about it?” She takes my hand and holds it in her lap. “Or are you talked out after Declan? You guys were out there for a while.”

Only a fucking saint would give me an out after that shit show earlier. “We were hiding from Dad.”

“What did Dec have to say?” she asks quietly, her thumb rubbing soft circles over my palm. “Come on, Cooper. Talk to me. Don’t make the mistakes I made. Don’t shut me out.”

I don’t answer her.

Just keep my eyes on the road.

Not because I don’t want to.

Because I don’t know how to put it into words.

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