“Your brother?”
“Stepbrother. Except he was more like a tyrant than any kind of sibling—step or otherwise. He bullied me viciously and relentlessly, and just like his father with my mother, it was his way or the highway. Living in that house with them both was hell on earth.”
“And your response was to come to school and make other people’s lives hell to match your own? How does that make you any less of a tyrant than him?”
“It doesn’t. The saying that hurt people hurt people is totally true, but this wasn’t even quite that. He literally forced me to be that person, in order to be part of his clique, which, to be clear, I never wanted. To this day I don’t know if it was just to have additional bodies in his posse, so he felt like more of a man, to legitimize his heinous behavior. Or if it was simply about power and control.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
“It wasn’t just me, either; all of his ‘friends’ and ‘crew’ were there under duress in some way or other. We were all too scared of his threats and incurring his wrath, to do anything other than whatever the hell he told us to. But at least the others got to escape his bullshit once school was out, whereas for me, at home was when the real torture began. There was no let-up, no respite, and no escape.”
“So you’re saying that you were forced to do all that shit, because he’d what... hit you if you didn’t?”
She looked back down at the floor for an extended pause, and when she looked up, her face was again flooded with tears.
She nodded. “Hit, punch, scratch, bite, pinch, kick: you name it and he did it. The terrible things he did at school was nothing compared to the way he treated me at home. Not only that, but there were other threats, too. He’d tell everyone we’d slept together. He’d leak nude photos he’d taken of me by hiding in my closet one night. He’d drown my dog in the pool. There was other stuff, but you get the idea. I wished I’d been strong enough to stand up to him and stop the shit that was going on at school, but I just wasn’t. There’s not a day goes by that I don’t regret that.”
“Where the fuck were your parents when all of this was going on?” Rage built up inside me as I thought about what young Rose suffered through. “Why didn’t they do something? Protect you? Stop him?”
“It’s complicated.” The hell it was. It was a parent’s job to protect their child, it was as simple as that. Her parents allowed her to suffer at the hands of a tyrant instead of doing their job.
“My dad, my real dad died when I was ten, and my mom was going through her own shit with Charlie’s father. They say the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and it’s definitely true in this case. Mark was everything his son was, and worse besides. He’s a narcissist, and my mom was under some kind of spell with him, almost like being in a cult or something. I think she was in total denial about what was going on, and as scared and powerless to stop it as I was, even if she did acknowledge it.”
“That’s fucked up.” It really was.
Chapter 26
Fox
I gave a slow, sarcastic round of applause. “Bravo! Bravo! An Oscar-winning performance if ever there was one, but excuse me if I don’t swallow any of the bullshit you’re peddling.”
Kane turned to me sharply, his body bristling with anger. “Are you for fucking real right now? Are you telling me you think she just made that shit up? That it’s all an act, tears and all?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying. She’s a liar and a master manipulator, and let’s face it, we’d all lie and say whatever we could to save our necks if someone was threatening to have us blow our own head off with a fucking shotgun.”
“Dude, I know you’re hurting, and you’re angry. You have every right to be. Anyone in your situation would be, but do you even hear yourself right now? You sound paranoid and... insane.”
“Shut the fuck up Kane. You know how you sound? Whipped. Blinded by pussy and a mouth full of feeble lies. But no matter how hot she is, and no matter how much of a great fuck, that doesn’t alter the fact that she’s pure poison. Nothing she just said, or can ever say, changes my plan for how this is all going to go down—and Kane?”
“Hmm...?” He answered me, but didn’t take his eyes off Tabitha. I waited until he finally looked at me. “I love you man, you know that, but if you stand in my way on this, I can’t make any promises.”
“What exactly are you saying, just so I’m one-hundred-percent crystal clear?” He stared me down, his rich-brown eyes stony and unforgiving.
“I’m saying don’t get in my way.”
“Or what? You’ll shoot me?”
“Just don’t fight me on this, that’s all.” I stared back at him, equally unyielding.
“So after all these years of friendship, loyalty and brotherhood, where I’d gladly have given you the clothes off my back, and my last living breath, you’re prepared to end me to avenge Jules’s death? It’s not going to change the past. Nothing is. More to the point, from what you’ve told me, he wouldn’t have wanted this. He wouldn’t want you rotting in jail, and, or wracked with guilt for doing something that ultimately won’t make any difference, one way or the other.”
“How the fuck do you know what Jules would or wouldn’t have wanted? You have no fucking idea. You didn’t know him.”
“That’s true, I didn’t, but I know you.”
“Shut up. Enough talking. This crap is getting out of hand as it is. I should have shut it down ages ago, instead of letting you both run your mouths and get inside my head with your bullshit. Well, I’ve come to my senses now. It’s done.” I stepped forward, causing Tabitha to cower, shrinking back like a kicked puppy. Kane raised his hands higher, but the rest of his stance suggested anything other than surrender. He was ready for a fight, and I was ready to give him one.
“Undo her hands.”
“What?” The look of incredulity on his face was priceless.
“I’m pretty sure you heard me.” I pointed the rifle directly at his head. “Maybe this will sharpen your hearing. Undo her fucking hands.”
“Seriously? I honestly can’t believe it’s come to this.” His reluctance to do what I’d asked him permeated every move of his body, but he did it. Painfully slowly, but it was done.
When she was free, Tabitha shook her arms looking relieved, though that was short-lived as I approached her and handed her the gun.
“Fox, are you out of your goddammed mind? What the fuck are you doing? Why are you giving her that? She could fill us both full of lead right now, and it would be self-defense.”
“She’s not going to kill you.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because she feels the same way about you, as you feel about her.”
“There’s no wa—”
“Shut up, you moron, she’s crazy about you.” He pulled his focus from the barrel of the gun to her face, staring at her with questioning intensity. She shrugged, and looked at the floor. Kane’s lips formed a silent “O”, but he said nothing.