Grimm wasn’t even looking when he killed his own father. His eyes were locked with mine and his grip on my shirt finally loosened when he bolted from the room.
Rothschild was lying on the tiled floors, head leaking blood too quickly to consider being saved when I squatted down next to him, whispering, “That’s for Braeden, you piece of shit.”
I always thought the priest who admired how much I looked like Braeden was responsible for what happened to him here. After all my digging, it was clear Rothschild was the man responsible. Every summer Rothschild molested my twin brother further into pushing his family away, further down a bottle, further into death until he jumped right into Heaven.
Standing up, Vic's eyes were giving me a sympathetic look. I avoided noticing too obviously. Khaos’s hands reached for me when I pushed them away. “Make sure everyone is safe before we burn it down. I need to give Grimm something before we leave.”
I left the room knowing exactly where he would be, on the cliffs where Braeden jumped. Slowly I approached him trying to give him space and time for my damn neck to heal.
“I didn’t know. He never told me. He knew I would have fought, protected him, tried every way I could,” his voice was broken, and I could hear it being choked out. “This was the last place I saw him. He told me he loved me and wanted to run away, leave our fucked up lives before Patmos. I refused to admit I loved him back. I rejected him.”
“I’m sure he knew you were just scared,” I tried to be supportive when the tips of my shoes reached the edge of the cliff right next to him.
“I didn’t think he would jump. I saw him jump. I was going to jump too, but I got yanked back by armed guards, they stopped me. I never told him I was a lying sack of shit. Of course I loved him.” Big, thick tears poured down his face, but I left the space between us empty.
Digging in my pockets, I pulled out the note he left behind, committed to memory I’ve read it so many times now. Pushing it towards him, he analyzed it carefully.
“That is for you.”
Handing it back he said, “It’s for you, not me.”
“Turn it over, Grimm.” I watched him out of the corner of my eye flip it over, and in Braeden’s handwriting it read: PS. Tell Jason I love him. Even in death.
He held the note in his shaking hands and a flood gate broke. No long thick tears but a full on attack of feelings.
“You understand why I hated you so much, don’t you?” he asked without looking at me.
As far as Grimm apologies goes, it wasn’t awful.
“I hate myself for the same reason. All I see is him.” Patting his back once, I left him there to say goodbye. “We gotta go, Grimm, make it quick.”
“Don’t you want to say goodbye?”
Looking over his shoulder at me, I didn’t stop walking backwards when I replied, “How? I’m wearing his face and carrying parts of his soul. It’s never goodbye for me. Not like it is for you.”
Heading back to the cart, I waited for Grimm knowing this island burning was cathartic for us both. The plan was simple: get in, grab the truth, light it up where I had Donte strategically place accelerants.
There was no one to save considering Rothschild only came here under the guise of never being seen here. The island gets emptied out before he even arrives.
Sitting down next to me, he pulled out a joint and pushed a lighter to the end. “I still hate you for all this.”
“You’re welcome for not having a tumor or needing meds. I’m basically Jesus for healing you.” I pushed down on the gas and reached for the matches I had ready to be sparked.
Grimm had been living a lie his whole life, forgetting the parts that mattered. I had been refusing to live because Braeden couldn’t and drowned myself in pain just to make sure I kept feeling instead of becoming a shell of a person.
We were both healed in ways neither of us expected as I scratched the match alive and tossed it past Grimm, watching the flames shoot up enough to fan us with instant heat. I didn’t stop for anything when I looked in the rearview mirror watching the trees catch fire, spreading, ready to eat the island whole the way it did our sanity.
There’s no better way to get rid of your demons than sending them back to hell.
BOWEN
Six Months Later…
Being fresh out of rehab wasn’t really in my plans but I knew in order to kick my bad habits, I needed help to make it permanent.
Every other rehab stay was a waste of time when you don’t plan to actually get sober.
This time was different, Eve was pregnant and I was missing those moments so I could be the man she deserved forever.
Carrying the box of letters, visitor passes, and trinkets like her panties from rehab, I felt my lips tug at the edges for no reason. I was always playing catch up to my facial expressions now.
The guys took time off from the Clave until I was clean and back to figure out what we were going to do now that we burned away one of the ways they make money. We waited a few weeks after burning the island for our retribution, but it never came.
We expected Zeus or our dads to have to resort to some kind of punishment yet nothing happened.
