“He did.”
I left his hand, LJ cringing when I faced him. LJ frowned. “We begged him not to, December.”
“We had to find out who did this to Paige.” Knight shrugged. “No other option.”
“But we are sorry, all of us and especially me.” LJ touched my shoulder. “I lied to you.”
“You all did for me.” Royal gazed around. “You did for me. You knew what we needed to do, what I needed to do.”
“We did it for Paige,” Jax said. “It wasn’t all his fault, December. Letting you go? It was all of us. We wanted to protect you.”
And I was starting to understand that now. There wasn’t much out there that would make me lie or hurt Royal or now, any of them. But my sister was one of those exceptions. I’d do anything.
“So that day we were supposed to leave,” I stated, focusing on Royal. “The guys convinced you not to go with me?”
“Surprisingly, my father was the one to make me change my mind in the end.” He frowned. “He threatened me. He threatened you to the point where… I honestly questioned how much him covering this whole thing up had to do with me.”
Eight
Royal
This was hard, admitting all this to her, but it was the fucking truth and she deserved it. I called the guys all here today for support. We were all involved in this, and we all had to be here.
I took December’s hand again, so warm. I was putting her through the fucking wringer, this beautiful and sweet girl. I kissed her hand. “He told me to stay away from you. Threatened me if I didn’t.”
I took such a beating that night, one none of them, not even Jax, LJ, and Knight knew about. I kept that one close to the cuff.
December touched my cheek, her dark hair skating across her lovely skin. I wanted to touch her too and I did, my thumb parting her lips.
“So you pushed me away,” she concluded. She nodded. “You put me on a bus.”
I put her as far away from this place and my fucking dad as I could. He had basically unlimited resources, could hurt her and her family. I couldn’t take the risk, not at that point. I nodded. “I did.”
“And the whole thing with Mira?” she stated, looking hurt. I hate that I fucking hurt her. It killed me. Still even today. She swallowed. “Being with her when I came back?”
The same. Once I knew she was back and in my life, I had to put up a brick wall.
I folded my fingers behind her neck. “I was going to do whatever I had to, to keep you away. To keep you safe.” And I had ultimately, some of the things still sickening me. I had to touch someone else to put up a divider from her. “I let her think it was because of the blackmail. She knew about the haze that night, how her dad helped cover it up. I let her think that’s what our relationship was. Easy.”
A shuddered breath shook her shoulders. “But why? Why would your dad even threaten me in the first place?”
“It definitely put my back up. All of our backs.” I gazed around the room at the guys, getting their nods. “We didn’t know if it was just about me at this point. If who attacked Paige was a drifter…”
“Or someone in house.” Knight whispered the words, working his hands like he was going to annihilate a motherfucker. I knew he would. We all would to get to the truth. “This brotherhood is tight.”
“So tight.” Jax wet his lips. “It could be anybody in the Court, so we made the decision to move into Windsor House.”
“I told my dad the move was because I wanted to get more involved with Court.” I smirked. “He leaped for fucking joy.”
“My grandpa too.” Knight lifted a brawny shoulder. He laced his fingers across his chest. “We’ve never been into the Court like they all have.”
“It was a good cover.” I frowned, my eyebrows narrowing hard. “Gave us time.”
“For?”
Beautiful, nut-brown eyes stared back at me, and I touched December’s cheek. “Remember those texts your sister sent me? The ones that said she was leaving and getting out of town?”
Those haunted me for such a long time, the presence of them causing me to deny our ultimate reality. It wasn’t until I’d seen the proof of Paige’s death, the images of what some sick fuck did to her body and what the autopsy report said that I allowed myself to actually believe something more to the story was going on. I finally admitted my friend hadn’t just skipped town and gotten in an accident, but was murdered and someone was covering it up.
“Yeah.” December squeezed my hand. “You said she sent them the next day. How was that possible?”
“It’s not,” I basically growled, knowing how false they were. “We had that redacted case folder un-redacted.”
“Cost basically all our college tuition to do it.” We all looked at Jax who shrugged. “What? It did.”
“What did it say?” December leaned in, and I took her other hand.
I called for strength. “You sister didn’t get hit a town over. She died, right there at Route 80 on the tracks, and a train later came through and dragged her away. She was ultimately found in Corrington Meadows but the murder happened there first. Those text were false. Someone sent them to me so I wouldn’t come looking, knew to send them to me of all people. That’s another reason why I thought my dad trying to protect me wasn’t just for me. Someone knew that I knew Paige. We looked everywhere for that
