TROY
Oh fuck. Troy knew the moment Andrew pulled them from the security room. He fucking knew it.
Caroline Sharpton. He looked at Gabe, whose haunted eyes were staring at his hands.
“As in Jeff and Haley Sharpton?” Riley gasped and Troy began to shake.
“She was Jeff’s older sister,” he mumbled. “And we killed her.”
The look Riley had on her face broke him to pieces.
“Tell us the entire story. It’s been a long time,” Brenton snarled. “Because these fucking hunters are getting personal. This a fucking war to them and I think I now know why.”
Riley sat on the far end of her couch, and Troy noted how much distance was between them. Every inch of that physical space weighed on him.
“I should start from the beginning, then.” Troy rubbed his face. He needed a drink for this, but he knew Brenton would tear his heart out if he tried to pour one. He could only imagine what Gabe was feeling and thinking, lost in his own nightmares.
“Please do,” Riley’s voice shook. No one was sitting with her. Brenton paced around the room while Zachary and Andrew sat on the couch across from Troy and Gabe. Troy wanted so badly to hold her, but he wouldn’t blame her for wanting nothing to do with them at the end of this.
“Gabe and I had a really fucked childhood. We mentioned our parents to you,” he took a shaky breath. “They were all mean to each other. My mom was married to our dad. Gabe’s mom was his mistress. Both women got pregnant at the same time, hoping their child would be the first born and get all the money. So, when we were born, not even a full month apart, they used us against the other side of the family. He divided the fortune evenly and our mothers were furious. You know all this.”
“Yup,” Riley snapped.
“Yeah… Well, Gabe and I realized all we had was each other…” Troy looked to his brother, who was still stuck staring at his hands. “And we got really close. Really close. Freaked people out, really, but we were more like twins than half-brothers.”
“We did everything together, and when we moved to this place and met Brenton, he took us in as we were,” Gabe was hoarse. Troy winced at the sound of despair in his voice.
“He educated us and tried to protect us from more assholes, our legal guardians.” Troy mumbled. “And we didn’t make it easy. We developed a serious rebellious streak. Finally, when we were teens, we met Caroline Sharpton at a party. We were planning on leaving in like, six months, but it didn’t matter to us.”
“She was a doll,” Gabe mumbled. “Sweet, innocent, kind. She made us feel clean and good in a way no one else ever had. She didn’t care about our money or anything.”
“So, we got together with her. She was the first girl we ever shared. We treated her like a china doll, something precious, and we grew into our own with her. At least as much as teens can grow.” Troy was now holding Riley’s amber eyes in his own. Her lips were a little parted.
“You were in love with her,” Riley whispered, an odd emotion passing over her face. Troy didn’t know it, had never seen it on her before. Other, stronger scents in the room made it impossible for him to really analyze hers.
“Yeah, and when we left, we asked her to visit us,” Troy shook his head slowly. “She had never left Wild Junction, and we wanted her to see the world.”
“We were also rich party animals who could afford the good shit,” Gabe snarled viciously. Riley jumped a little at the outburst and Troy elbowed his brother. “We were always fucked up, since Brenton was a teenager himself. While he legally was in charge of us, we didn’t fucking want to listen to him most of the time.”
Riley looked to Brenton, who had no emotion on his face. Troy knew Brenton was remembering those days. It was a fucking mess, it was mayhem and bedlam. Zachary was having major anger issues in the early years, Andrew was trying to go to school, and Troy and Gabe got into trouble.
“Yeah,” Brenton snarled. “They made my life pretty hard.”
“I grew to like drinking… a lot.” Troy covered his face, putting his elbows on his knees.
“And I fucking loved coke,” Gabe growled. Troy winced at how angry Gabe sounded. “And any other illicit substance I could get my hands on. Too smart, too much money and too much time on my hands. I was even trying out acid at one point, just to give it a try.” He sounded mean, Troy noticed.
“So, you wanted Caroline to visit?” Riley’s voice was taut.
“Yup and we flew her out, bought her all sorts of nice shit. Took her to a party the night before she was supposed to go home.”
“One I had told both of them they needed to stay away from,” Brenton growled.
“Nothing happened at the party, but we needed to get home, so Caroline could get to the airport on time,” Troy wanted this to be over. “We didn’t want to call Brenton or the others because we didn’t want them to know. We had snuck out while they were busy. We were really fucked up.”
“I decided to drive because I thought I was better than Troy,” Gabe’s voice broke over that sentence. “And I wasn’t any better. Hell, Caroline was drunk too. She had let loose to enjoy her last night with us. She wanted to drive but we sure as hell weren’t going to let her behind the wheel.”
“The accident left us both pretty messed up but Caroline…” Troy felt the tears fall again. They always came down when he thought about that night. “It wasn’t even our fault! We were hit by a trucker who fell asleep at the wheel but… maybe if we were sober, maybe if we never fucking went like Brenton told us to…”
“I stepped in and got her body home to her family. Tragic accident for a bunch of teenagers,” Brenton snarled viciously. “And these two spiraled out of control. Sent both of them to rehab only three years ago. Their vices became addictions since they-”
“Fuck you, Brenton,” Gabe roared. “We’ve been over this a thousand times. You don’t need to fucking scold us anymore for it. We were eighteen and fucked up, not just by the drugs and alcohol. We’ve been sober for three fucking years!”
They all stayed quiet after Gabe’s outburst and Riley stood up slowly. Her eyes were wide and filled with unshed tears. She reached out to Gabe, who flinched but she only pulled him to her and gave him a tight hug, holding his head to her shoulder. Troy wanted to die a slow painful death. Gabe was crying into her as the wounds were reopened in front of the woman they now cared for.
When she let go of Gabe, she walked to Troy and he couldn’t stand. She just stood in between his legs and wrapped her arms around his head. He leaned into her stomach and cried like a fucking baby.
“You two had such a hard life and I’m sorry,” Riley was crying now as well. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you tell me how you had to overcome this awful tragedy?”
“We thought you would leave us,” Troy’s voice broke and he wrapped his arms around her hips, his nails biting into her, holding her as tight as he felt he could. “We thought you would hate us. And you keep getting hurt and it's our fucking fault.”
“We’re fuck ups, we’ve always known that.”
“Oh boys,” she rubbed Troy’s back. “I can’t hate you. You were kids.”
“You got kidnapped because I figured out who your mother is,” Gabe growled. “Hunters are attacking us probably because of Caroline now. You should hate us.”
“Don’t say that,” Riley snapped. “My mother decided who she wanted to be. Trevor made the decision with that militia pride to kidnap me. Cameron made the decision to try and kill me. None of that was your fault.”
“Everyone sit back down.” Brenton sounded tired and Troy couldn’t blame him. “Here’s what we need to do.”
Riley sat between the brothers now. Troy couldn’t take his eyes off her. Gabe was curled away from her, scratching his arm. It wasn’t looking good for Gabe. He always took it the hardest since he was behind the wheel, even though it was Troy’s idea that they should risk it and just drive home that night.
The accident wasn’t their fault, but they should have never been on the road. If they were sober then… maybe anything else could have happened that night. Maybe an innocent girl wouldn’t be dead.
“I think the hunters in a local Chapter knew Troy and Gabe were with Caroline. Then her body comes back.” Brenton laid out on the middle couch, rubbing his face with one hand, holding his drink with the other. “They must have convinced Jeff and Haley it wasn’t safe for us to come back and to keep everyone away from us. Haley walks out of Riley’s life when Riley stays with us. Then the incident with Winter. Now they want us to go down.”
“That doesn’t explain all the information they had on us,” Zachary spoke up. He and Andrew had remained emotionless and quiet through it all. Troy knew it was because they had never known what to say about the accident. They didn’t understand the addictions and everything else. Troy couldn’t blame them for that.
“Exactly, so we need to capture one of them. I don’t care how or where. We need to find out if this is just a wild theory or if it’s the truth. We don’t know if something bigger is going on, or if other major prides have hunters after them. Everyone had been fairly quiet over the last month or so.”
“We need more information,” Gabe nodded. “Yeah, I’ll work on it.”
“Thank you. Zachary, you coordinate with Sheriff about finding and grabbing one of them. We stay on lock down outside of those tasks. We need to get a lot done with the diner now, so Andrew and I will be dealing with that. Riley, I just want you to keep practicing your self-defense and shooting skills. Be prepared.”
They all nodded. Troy would help Gabe and Riley while Zachary was off trying to get them a prisoner.
Riley left the room first, saying good night and leaving them all to their thoughts.
“She hates us,” Gabe sounded like he was dying.
“No, but I do think she’s a bit confused and hurt that no one told her earlier.” Andrew tried to reassure the black leopard.
“We haven’t talked about Caroline since rehab three fucking years ago,” Troy kicked the coffee table. “I didn’t think people here would still be thinking about her.”
“It’s a small town. One of their girls left alive and came back dead,” Zachary growled softly, taking Brenton’s drink and forcing it down his own throat. “We should have thought about it before we moved back.”
“Too late now,” Brenton sighed. “Now we have to just deal with it.”
None of them went looking for Riley when they went to bed. Troy knew she needed to think. He and Gabe were in bed when they started talking again.
“I love her too much to lose her over this,” Gabe sounded lost. “I can’t do this again.”
“I do too, brother.” Troy turned the lights off and curled onto his side. Gabe’s back touched his own and they both fell into nightmares, haunted by the past.