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“Fuck you, Kase.” He stabs his finger toward me. “I saw him lying on the floor with a bullet hole in his forehead. Nightmares invaded my dreams for months seeing him in the shallow grave we buried him in. I. Did. That. For. You.”
My elbows dig into the wooden table as I run my hands through my hair. I violently shake my head in disbelief. What is happening here? Why aren’t our stories matching up?
“What the hell did you—”
“Stop!” The table shakes as I pound my fist on it. He narrows his eyes at me but stops talking. “I. Didn’t. Shoot. My. Dad,” I draw out each word. “When I drove home after leaving you, I was still pissed. The girl that meant everything looked at me like I was a stranger. My dad ran his mouth and I couldn’t hold my anger back.” Memories flood my mind, my heart races as I clench my hands. “I should’ve stopped when he went down. But I couldn’t. All the years of abuse, for my mom, for me, shot out of my fists. Jake pulled me off.” I look at Wayne, pain twists my face. “When he told me he was dead, I didn’t care. I had lost everything. But I was young and stupid. When he told me to leave and never come back, that he’d take care of it, I did. I didn’t want to go to jail.” Wayne’s brow furrows. “I swear I didn’t shoot him. When I left, he didn’t have a bullet in his head.”
“What are you saying, Kase?” He shrugs a shoulder, giving me a scrutinizing stare. “Someone else put a bullet in your dad after you left? If he was already dead, why?”
Realization dawns on me. I didn’t kill my dad. Jake did.
The man who loved my mom, but hated that she chose my dad over him. The man who despised that I was with his daughter because of who my father was. The man who took my life away from me.
I’m going to kill that man.
My foot bounces as anger works itself through my veins. I swallow the rest of the beer, slamming it on the table as I stand up. Wayne struggles to get out of the booth quicker than me, but he’s not on a mission.
“He’s already dead,” he calls out. I stop walking, not needing a reminder that my dad is dead, and I sure as hell don’t need a lecture about how nothing I do can change the past. I fist my hand. “Kase. Jake is dead,” he corrects. I slowly turn to face him. “He was in an accident four years ago with a drunk driver.”
I let out a bitter laugh. “Well ain’t karma a bitch?”
He nods slowly, stuffing his hands into his pockets. “That it is.” The sadness in his voice tells me there’s more to the story. “Please sit back down.”
It’s hard to look at Wayne in such turmoil. I need to hear what happened, and I’d rather hear it from him than Everly. At least I’ll be able to sort my feelings out before I talk to her.
I blow out a heavy breath and slide past him, back into the booth. He sits back down. “Tell me how you ended up with Everly,” I say after a couple beats of silence.
He cracks his neck back and forth and I can tell he’s nervous. “Jake sent Everly to a hospital in Arizona that specializes in amnesia patients. He told me she was having a hard time. He asked if I would go because we were good friends.”
“Oh yeah, you guys were the best of friends.”
His eyebrow quirks up. “We were still friends. We fought because we were vying for your time.” I shrug at the moot point. “Anyway… I felt bad for her. I tried to call you but you never answered your phone. Hell, I didn’t even know if you still had that phone knowing you were on the run.”
“I wasn’t on the run. I was in the military.” Jake knew where I was. I’m positive he made it his business to keep tabs on me.
“Either way, you weren’t coming home. Before I left is when he told me about the baby.” Wayne lowers his head. I hope this is eating him up inside. “I swear, I wanted to tell you,” he says, looking up with glossy eyes. There’s nothing to say, so I stay quiet. He didn’t tell me. “That’s when Jake laid it all out. He said if I ever told you, he’d have you arrested and then your son would still grow up without you and he'd know you were a murderer. I wasn't allowed to tell Everly either.”
Jake never liked me, but I wouldn’t have thought it ran this deep. He played us like a game of chess, controlling every move until he had us cornered.
“If that’s why you didn’t contact me, there’s a hole in your logic. He died four years ago, Wayne. That would’ve been a good time to call me.”
He takes a pull from his beer, finishing it. His gaze shifts to Karen and he motions he needs another before turning his attention back to me, he lets out a long sigh. “I fell in love with her.”
“She wasn’t yours to fall in love with. You were my best friend.” I lean back against the padded booth and cross my arms. Karen sets two beers down in front of us. The icy stare between us doesn't break while she stands there waiting for acknowledgment, but eventually she lets out a small huff and stomps away.
“I agreed with Jake that it was in the best interest of Reed that you weren’t in his life.”
My jaw sets with frustration. “That wasn’t your decision to make.”
“It was! I was there to help her find her way in life again. I fell in love with her and Reed and I promised myself that I would give them the best life I had to offer. For you!”
“You keep saying you did it for me.” I throw my arms out wide. “You were with the love of my life and my son! Yet, you think inserting yourself – in what should have been my life – was for my benefit? You’re delusional.”
“We can argue this until we’re blue in the face,” his voice lowers. “I fucked up, Kase. I didn’t mean to fall in love with her.”
“Did she know Reed wasn’t yours?”
When he looks away, I nod in understanding. The knife in my back twists, pain shooting straight to my heart. I can understand he wanted to help her. I can even understand him being there for me. But telling her that Reed was his, had nothing to do with me.
