He turned, put his back to the window, and folded his arms. “Talk.”
“About what?” A flush ran up Brian’s neck and face, showing he knew how lame that was.
“About whatever I missed that day at Marston’s. Whatever made you and Lori exchange looks like a pair of guilty teenagers.”
“We didn’t!”
“Well, she didn’t, because Lori can tell a lie with a straight face. But you can’t. So come clean.”
He’d clearly said that wrong. Brian’s chin jerked up and his lips tightened. “I’m not your stupid kid. Anyhow, I thought you didn’t want to know. Remember? So you don’t have to lie on a witness stand?”
“Anything you tell me is hearsay. Unless I remember it myself. Which obviously isn’t going to fucking happen!” He realized that half the tension that stiffened his aching neck was recognizing the huge gaps in his memory. I’m missing some big shit. Not a few seconds, or a bit of minor action. Major, important things had happened in Marston’s bunker, and he still couldn’t remember them. I fucking hate not remembering my own life!
He tried control his frustration. Brian was no doubt protecting Damon. It sucked for Brian to be caught between two people he loved, and there were things Nick maybe didn’t want to know and then have to live with. “Sorry. Look, I’m fine if you just tell me about the kid for now, okay? Not about Damon or the big stuff.”
The way Brian took a sharp breath, as his pale color edged toward green, shocked Nick.
“The kid is the easy part, right?” he asked. “Lori cheated on Marston?”
Brian shook his head, too violently to seem natural. His dyed hair flopped across his eyes and his gaze through the wisps of sandy brown was haunted.
“Fuck. Is this something big too?”
Brian hugged his arms around his middle and whispered, “Yeah. Kinda.” His knees looked shaky.
“Sit down before you fall down. Seriously. Breathe.”
Brian glanced blankly at the bed, then eased down. Nick watched as he braced his hands on the edge of the mattress and took a few ragged breaths. Nick’s skull throbbed. He was caught between wanting to go hug Brian and wanting to give him space. He decided respect meant space.
Sitting on the desk chair put him level with Brian. He pinched the bridge of his nose and stared down at the ugly carpet while Brian took another shaky breath. “You okay to talk about it?”
“Yeah. I guess I have to.”
“No, you don’t. I mean, fuck yeah, I want to know what’s going on, but—” He hated how shook up Brian was, except it made him want to know even more. Push? Don’t push? “Tell me to back off if it doesn’t concern me.”
“It might, though.”
Nick looked up. Brian had straightened, his hands locked together in his lap, his pale eyes fixed on Nick. Nick’s mouth was suddenly dry, but he’d asked. No backing down now. “Right then. Tell me.”
“Um. The baby—” Brian seemed stuck, biting his lip.
“You want me to ask questions?”
“Might help.”
“Okay.” He ordered his thoughts. “Lori said the baby’s literally a bastard. That means Marston’s not the father?”
“No. Probably not. He said not, anyway.”
“Who did? Marston?”
“Yes.”
Nick stared at Brian. “He knew? What did he do? String the father up by his toenails? I’m amazed he didn’t kill Lori.” Marston had not been a guy to cheat in any way, if you valued your life. Lori’s an idiot!
“It wasn’t like that. Lori didn’t know. And maybe he was lying.”
This makes no sense. Nick rubbed his forehead. “Can you lay it out, from the beginning?”
Brian nodded slowly. “Yeah. I guess. It’s crazy. Marston said…” He paused, then spoke in a rush, words tumbling over themselves. “He said he wanted a psychic baby and I’m the father.”
“He what? How…” The last bit of that sank in. “You? Like, you and Lori?”
“Yeah.” Brian leaned forward, blinking hard, fingers woven together tightly as he rocked his clenched hands up and down. “Me. He said… he said those sex girls that I had— you remember the girls?”
Nick nodded silently. Brian had told him how Marston had sent him a hooker now and then to give him a blow job, as a reward he didn’t want and couldn’t refuse.
“He said they took the condoms to him and he used it. That. Mine. In Lori.” Brian pressed his lips shut, and Nick saw a familiar, convulsive ripple of his body and Adam’s apple.
“You’re not gonna puke,” he said firmly. Brian’s reactions to stress were too fucking predictable. “Marston was the slime of the earth, but we can deal, okay?”
Brian nodded but didn’t unclench his lips.
Nick pushed to his feet. “What you’re saying is that Marston… Marston wanted to breed a psychic baby. Yours and… Lori’s.” It sounded crazy, and impossible, but scarily like something the magic-obsessed millionaire might have done. They’d found foul things in the mix of magic items in that bunker, some made from body parts.
“He said he actually did that.”
“Jesus. Son of a bitch. And Lori didn’t know?” How the hell could she miss something like that?
“She knew he did stuff, to get her pregnant. She thought it was his, that he wanted an heir to the barony. His baby, you know. After three years without one.”
“Oh.” That made more sense. He felt a flash of pure white rage. Damned Marston to hell! To tell a girl who thinks she’s carrying your child that you knocked her up with her brother’s spunk. And Brian. What he must’ve felt. Breeding them like animals! Forcing him on his sister! “Too fucking bad he’s dead! I’d rip his fucking head off his fucking body and spit in the bleeding stump.”
“Damon—” Brian shut his mouth fast, pressing his lips together.
“Good!” Nick had been sure Damon was in that day’s mess, somewhere, and now he could guess how. “Don’t tell me for real, but good for him. I hope Marston took a long fucking time to die.”
Brian was silent, sitting there on the bed. Nick couldn’t read the drawn expression on his face or the slump of his back. He went over and sat down slowly beside him. Brian leaned against him, not away, so Nick braced an arm behind him, letting their shoulders touch. “Are you okay? No, stupid question. Of course you’re not fucking okay.”
“I am. Mostly.” Brian stared down at his hands. “It’s not like it’s a surprise anymore. Like for you. I’ve had time to think about it.”
Nick clenched his teeth against more anger, against asking why didn’t you tell me sooner?
After a moment, Brian said, “I keep pretending it’s not true, though. It might not be true. It could’ve just been Marston, trying to have the last word.”
“You think?”
Brian’s shrug bumped Nick’s chest. “I’d like to, but… Lori knew him best and she thinks it is.”
“That must totally suck.” Ridiculously feeble words for what it must be like. He still didn’t like Lori all that much, but Jesus, he could feel for her on this. “So what does it mean? If he did? For the baby, I mean. I don’t know shit about brother-sister, um, marriages.” He substituted for the word incest at the last moment because that was one hell of an ugly way to describe this mess.