There was only emptiness in her voice. I fucking hated it. I preferred her tears. Or even her

screaming. But not this. It was like she was shutting down and shutting everyone else out. I wasn’t

leaving. She wasn’t pushing me away.

“I wanted to keep you from being hurt by the Falcos. So I had your aunt check the mail daily and

send me all the letters you sent them. I have them all if you want them. I did keep the photos, though. I

want them, if that’s okay. It was how I watched Micah grow. But the letters, you can take those to

Tabby. I have them in the car.”

She’d taken the letters because she was punishing us for my brother’s cheating. How fucked up was

that? My parents lost their son. Then they found out he had gotten Kimmy pregnant, and she’d had an

abortion the day after his funeral. It had spread through town like wildfire. A year later Kimmy moved

away with a guy and had never returned to Sea Breeze.

Not having to see her had helped. When I saw her face, all I saw was the girl who’d killed my

brother’s kid. I hated her. I couldn’t forgive her. I didn’t even want to. She disgusted me.

“Go. Both of you, go. Leave the letters on the porch. I’m not ready for this. Maybe one day I can

find a way to forgive you, Mother, but today is not that day.”

She didn’t look at either of us. Her eyes were still unfocused as she stared off at nothing. “Give me

an hour, then please bring Micah home. But I need you to go.”

She was talking to me. She wanted me gone.

Fuck no. She wasn’t pushing me away.

“I’m not leaving you,” I told her.

She sighed, then finally turned to look at me. “Did you know?”

I wanted to lie. I wanted to lie so damn bad.

“Yes.” I admitted the truth because I refused to lie to her.

“Then you need to go. I want you to go.”

“Sienna, I had my reasons. I was protecting you—”

“I don’t care. I want you to go. Leave me. Both of you.”

Then she turned and walked away, locking herself in her bedroom.

I stood there staring at her door, wanting nothing more than to pull it off his damn hinges and make

her let me hold her. Explain to her what I was doing. Why I did it.

“She needs time. Don’t do anything stupid. You never were as stupid as your brother. You were the

smart one. Don’t let her down, like we did.” Then Nina Roy turned and walked away.

I stood in that living room waiting for sobs, or something to give me an excuse to burst into her

room and hold her. There was nothing but silence. She wanted time alone. I would give her that. But

this wasn’t over. It was the beginning. She just had to see that.

Six years ago . . .

DEWAYNE

“Slow down, man. You gotta calm the hell down. You can’t kill her. You’ll do life, dude. She’s a kid.

A dumbass one, but still, she’s a kid.” Preston’s words were falling on deaf ears. I didn’t give a fuck.

If Kimmy Bart had aborted my brother’s baby, I was going to fucking murder her with my own hands.

“Get your ass to the Alpha frat house,” Preston said into the phone. “Dewayne’s going after

Kimmy, and word is she’s here. I can’t hold him back.” I knew I had about five minutes before Rock

got here. Because if someone was going to stop me, Rock was the only person I knew who had the

strength. I had a slut to find.

I’d lost my brother, and Sienna was just fucking gone. Vanished. And now this shit. I had reached

my breaking point, and I didn’t give a fuck anymore. Bring on prison. This was all my fault anyway.

Fighting with a drunk sixteen-year-old boy had been stupid. He was a kid, and I had threatened him

while he was drunk—with the one thing I knew he didn’t want to lose. Sienna.

All of this could have been avoided if I’d just walked out of that house and dealt with him when he

was sober. Maybe he had been ready to let Sienna go. If he’d been sober and made that decision, then

I’d have let him. If he didn’t know how lucky he was, then he didn’t deserve her. But he didn’t have to

die over it. That was all me. Fucking me.

“Kimmy’s slept with most of the basketball team. Hell, I’ve slept with her, I think. That could have

been anyone’s kid. We don’t know it was Dustin’s. Just because she was claiming it was his don’t

make it his,” Preston said.

I knew this. But I also knew I’d seen my brother fucking her bare. Chances were good that baby had

been his. All that was left of my brother, and she’d murdered it. She deserved to die too.

“What if she wasn’t even pregnant? Ever thought of that? She was jealous of Sienna. Dustin

wouldn’t break up with her. He loved Sienna. He just wanted to fuck Kimmy. Girls do that shit when

they’re desperate. She could have been lying. Don’t do life because of a lying teenage girl.”

I wanted to blame someone, someone other than me, because the pain and regret were too much. If

Kimmy had aborted Dustin’s baby, then I could lay all this hate and blame on her. She would deserve

it. And I needed to be free of it. I just wanted to take a deep breath again. I wanted to be able to look

my parents in the face and not feel like a bastard for being the reason sorrow filled their eyes.

So much pain.

“Where’s Kimmy?” I heard Preston ask some guy who stumbled outside.

“Don’t know,” he slurred.

“Go find her and tell her to hide her sorry ass before Dewayne finds her.”

Preston was determined to stop me any way he could. I’d find her, though. I was running out of

time before Rock showed up, but I would find her. If not tonight, another night.

“Shouldn’t have let you drink so much damn whiskey. Always makes you mean,” Preston said, still

right beside me. He wasn’t helping. All his yakking.

“Hey, Dewayne, sorry about Dustin, dude,” a guy called out. I didn’t even look at him. His drunken

words meant nothing. He didn’t know Dustin. None of them knew the real Dustin. They knew the kid

with too much pressure to be the best. The kid trying to find himself. They didn’t know his heart.

None of them did.

“Find Kimmy Bart and tell her to fucking run and hide,” Preston called out to him.

Dumbass wasn’t helping.

“I’ll find her. Keep it up. I’ll find her and she’ll pay,” I swore.

“Don’t doubt it. I just hope Rock gets here first,” Preston replied.

I put both hands on the double doors to the frat house and shoved them open, then stalked inside.

Kimmy came walking down the stairs, looking right at me. Her hair was stringy, and her clothes

were wrinkled like she’d just pulled them back on quickly. What the fuck had my brother seen in her?

“You looking for me?” she asked, then stumbled a step and giggled before grabbing the rail. She

was fucked up.

“Save yourself and go hide your stupid ass,” Preston yelled, purposely drawing attention to the

situation.

“Not scared of a Falco. You just tame ’em with pussy,” she said, then leered at me. As if I’d even

touch that nasty shit.

“Not going anywhere near your nasty snatch,” I said, disgust dripping from my voice.

She snarled at me. “What, not as good as sweet little Sienna Roy? You’re as bad as him. Can’t-dono-

wrong Sienna. Screw that. The bitch sucked at fucking. Dustin hated sex with her. He just did it

’cause she wanted it. But she was awful at it. He came to get the good stuff from me,” Kimmy spat

angrily.

“I think I just threw up in my mouth,” Preston said beside me, and several guys laughed.

“Was that baby Dustin’s?” I asked. I didn’t want to hear her talk about Sienna again. She wasn’t

worthy of saying Sienna’s name.

She threw up her arms. “He’s the only one I fucked bare, and he was the only one I had fucked in