I owed him for this, big time. He didn’t have to let me borrow his truck when I’d asked, and he certainly hadn’t needed to volunteer to come along, but here he was. The annoying pain-in-my-ass roommate I’d had last week was gone, and this Oren Tenning seemed to be a completely improved edition.
Tapping his knee, I said, “Hey. We’re here.” Home, sweet trailer park, home.
He grumbled in his sleep before finally sitting up and rubbing his eyes. After stretching, he glanced out the window at the place where I’d grown up. “Shit, man. I had no idea.”
I didn’t answer, just parked and cut the engine. A torn dingy curtain had been sucked through a piece of cardboard covering one window. It fluttered in the breeze as if waving hello to us, while the scent of the nearby sewage plant had already seeped into the interior of the truck. I sat there a second, soaking in the feelings that always came with this place. The shame and anger and frustration of being Daisy Gamble’s son.
With a soft curse under my breath, I opened my door and stepped out. Ten followed without a word. I almost wished he’d pop out with some dumbass sarcastic comment, but he said nothing.
There were no steps leading up to the front door, so I just
turned the handle and vaulted inside. My brothers were camped out in the dim front room, Colt sleeping on the couch and Brandt on the floor. Though it seemed too early in the year for them, a swarm of fruit flies danced around the dirty dishes piled in the kitchen.
I nudged Brandt’s leg with my shoe until he jerked awake and sat up.
He stared at me a moment before blinking and saying, “Noel?” When his voice cracked with emotion, I hauled him off the floor and into me for a bone-cracking hug. It took him a second, but he finally hugged me back, and when he did, he buried his face in my neck to let out one short sob. Jesus, but he’d gotten tall.
“How’s Caroline?” I asked, pulling away to see he still had a bruise on his face, a fresh reddish purple one.
He shook his head. “She’s bad. Real bad.”
I reached out to touch his discolored jaw, but stopped myself at the last second. “Shouldn’t that have healed by now?”
With a half shrug, he glanced away. “It’s a new one.”
New one. No one had told me he’d gotten beat up again. Hell, no one had told me much of anything in the last few weeks.
On the couch, Colton stirred. When he sat up, yawning and scratching his head, the holey blanket that had been covering him slipped down to reveal pale, boney arms. Shit, how much food did the kid eat? Looked like he only got fed once a week.
“Hey, kiddo,” I greeted, my throat closing over, as I reached out to ruffle his grease-matted hair.
He’d been five when I’d moved away. So when he stared up at me with leery, untrusting sunken-in eyes, I realized I was akin to a stranger, his absent big brother who’d deserted him.
“Where is she?” I asked, turning to Brandt and unable to look at Colt without begging for his forgiveness.
Brandt pointed toward a narrow hall. “The bathroom, I bet. She’s been in there all night.”
I nodded and made my way to my little sister. The bathroom was dark, but the morning sunrise coming in through the window showed a human-sized lump on the floor, draped over the toilet seat. Reaching inside, I tried to flip on the light switch, but nothing happened.
“Light’s broken,” my sister’s frail voice came from inside.
“Shit.” I crouched down and scooped her into my arms. “Caroline?”
She slumped against me, so frail and limp I stopped short from pulling her in tight, afraid I might hurt her.
“I’m so glad you’re here.” Curling in close, she shivered and cuddled her face against my collar.
I kissed her hair and tried to keep it together, but fuck, my little sister. When I spotted dark splotches splashed around the rim of the toilet, I choked. “Is that...Jesus, is that blood?”
Made me think of Eva Mercer and the way she’d bled after getting punched in the stomach.
Caroline didn’t even lift her face. “Probably.”
“Oh, hell. Did you have a miscarriage?”
She wiped her nose with the back of her hand and sniffed. Wetness soaked through my shirt, telling me she was crying. “No. I...I...Sander’s parents offered me money to get rid of it...so...I did.” The last three words were whispered and clogged with tears.
The breath whooshed from my lungs. “You...I...” I shook my head, not sure what to say. My fingers trembled as I brushed the hair out of her face and kissed her temple. “Is this what you wanted?”