Chapter Thirty-Five
Dominic
Dom looked over at the broken kid lying on his couch, for the second time in as many days, trying to heal himself. He couldn’t believe how fast it had happened, and how strong Franklin was. It took all four of them to get him off Jasper and out of the house. Dom shook his head. He was so glad Corey had left. She would have grabbed her shotgun and attempted to kill that monster. He’d wanted to kill him too. But he was Jasper’s father. Punishment for a fight between his sons was his decision.
They should have never called him; they should have kept this quiet. Dom would regret today for the rest of his life. He heard the front door open and steeled himself for Corey’s reaction to the sight of Jasper broken and bleeding again.
“Oh my god, Jasper. What the fuck, Dom? Please tell me that prick is being buried in our backyard right now.” Corey was kneeling at the boy’s side, smoothing his hair back and blotting him with the damp rag Baze left on the table.
“Riley, go to your room.”
“What? Coach Hardy, I don’t have a room. I don’t live here.” Riley looked from Dom to Corey, eyes wide.
“Uh, right, go to the back porch. Baze and Keller are out there.” Dom sat on the coffee table next to Corey, and waited for Riley to leave before he spoke. “His father did all this in the mere seconds it took us to pull him off him.” Corey put her head in her free hand; the other was still stroking Jasper’s hair. And for once Dom wasn’t jealous.
“How could y’all let this happen? How could you let him lay a hand on Jasper?” Her voice sounded shaky, like she was close to tears.
“Baby, please, I feel bad enough. Don’t make it worse. You know we stopped it as soon as we realized what was happening. He didn’t ask for permission or give us heads-up that he was about to pummel his kid.”
“Riley told me some stuff on the way home, Dom. I was wrong about Jace. So wrong. He isn’t a sociopath, he is a kid who has been abused his whole life.”
“What do you mean?”
She stood up. “Let’s go outside, y’all need to hear this.”
Once they were out back and everyone was seated or standing close enough to hear her, she started sharing what she’d learned. “Jace and Jasper didn’t grow up as brothers. They have been separated since birth. Their parents got divorced and each one took a kid, which is terrible and actually super unhealthy. Apparently, Jasper was raised by his mom and his wonderfully loving stepdad while Jace was raised by his dickhead of a father. And after meeting Mr. Franklin and seeing what he did to Jasper, it wouldn’t surprise me if Jace has been abused his whole life. Emotionally, mentally, and physically. That kid isn’t allowed to show weakness. If he shows weakness or emotion or any kind, he probably gets a beating. When he attacked Jasper—”
“He wasn’t punishing him. He was trying to spare him punishment from someone worse.” Baze cursed under his breath. “If Mr. Franklin found out that Jasper lost control and shifted, causing problems and exposing us to those kids, he would have come down here and, well, do what he did.”
“Jace was trying to protect his brother from their father in the only way he knew how. He thought he could beat him up, punish him, and keep him from losing control. Then Mr. Franklin wouldn’t ever find out what almost happened.” Corey shook her head, despair written all over her pretty face.
“It’s my fault.” Riley kicked a potted plant, sending it sailing across the yard as if it weighed nothing. “I shouldn’t have brought you all into this. I should have taken Jasper back to the dorm and let him sleep it off. Now he is right back where he was last night, hurting and bleeding because of his fucking family.”
Corey got up and headed toward Riley. Dom reached out and grabbed her hand, jerking her back to him. She narrowed her eyes. “Let go, Dom.”
“Did you see what his anger did? That was a massive ceramic pot filled with soil and plants. He punted it like it was a football. Last night? Jace beat Jasper like he was a rag doll. This is what I’ve been trying to explain to you. At this age shifters are too strong and have too little control.” Even though he knew the kids needed comfort, the bonded shifter in him was screaming to keep his mate at his side.
Corey jerked her hand free and glared at him. Daring him to try to stop her once again. Dom wasn’t the only one worried; his three friends all took a step toward his mate as she walked over to Riley. They watched as she put her hand on his shoulder and turned him around to face her.
“Kiddo, this is absolutely not your fault. You did the right thing, the perfect responsible thing.” Dom gritted his teeth when she was almost knocked over backward as Riley tackled her in a hug. He was crying quietly on her shoulder. He looked like a scared little boy. “Aw, buddy, shhhhhh, it’s okay. Everything is okay now. We’ll fix this. We’ll fix it. Why don’t you take my car and go pack up some things for you and Jasper? You two can stay here again tonight.”
Riley straightened and wiped the tears from his face, heading inside without meeting the eyes of any of his coaches, clearly embarrassed. Corey turned to them with her hands on her hips. “If any of you give him a hard time for what happened, I’ll junk punch you.”
Dom let out the breath he’d been holding the whole time Corey was with Riley. Then he looked down at the phone in his hand as it started to ring. What now? “This is Dominic.”
“Hey, man, it’s Fuller. I have some news for you.”
Dom walked farther into the yard. “Did you find Henderson?”
“Yeah, man, we found him.”
Well, that was the first piece of good news they’d had in fucking days. “Great. Where is he? Can we meet with him? We have tons of shit to—”
“He’s dead.”
Dom hung his head in defeat. Of course he was fucking dead. “Any idea what happened?”
“He was found murdered in a cheap motel room in Boulder. Someone beat the crap out of him and then broke his neck. The place was ransacked. Furniture turned over, mattress shredded. Whoever did this was looking for something. I wish I had more to tell you.”
“No, that’s okay. Thanks for calling, man. Good of you to look into this.”
“I’ll keep you informed, Dom.”
He nodded, even though his friend couldn’t see him. “I’d appreciate it.”
They hung up and Dom stayed in the yard for another few moments. He didn’t want to turn around and give them the bad news. He sighed, making his way back to the porch. “That was my detective friend. They found Henderson.”
“And?” Keller prompted.
“He’s dead.”