Page 84 of Goldilocks
Sam laughed. “Trust me, your company doesn’t do much for my ego.”
Austin frowned as if he’d been insulted, and Sam raised a hand to stop any misunderstanding.
“You’re the guy I got dumped for,” Sam pointed out. “That’s not going to be an ego boost.”
As the distrust sank from Austin’s expression, he jutted out his chin again, this time the movement less sharp. “I can make people want me,” he said.
Sam rolled his eyes. “I bet you can.”
“In anotherkind of way,” Austin said. “I’ve always had that, even if I never understood it all that well. Still don’t. I guess because I’m a – siren?” It was a question. An insecurity.
He didn’t understand himself, Sam could see. Even now.
“Connor breaking up with you…” Austin looked at his own fingers, knitting them together in a nervous gesture. “It wasn’t because there was anything wrong with you. You shouldn’t feel bad about that.”
Sam was genuinely touched that someone with such anger in them was taking the time to ease past hurts. “Thank you. I’ve moved on now, but thank you.”
Austin nodded, eyes still on his own fingers. “Do you know Gary?”
“I’m aware of him.”
“He’s dangerous.”
“Did he try to do something to you?” Sam frowned. Had Gary been hassling him?
“No. He wants to do something for me, though. I think he’s the one who did that to Fionn’s boat. And I’m sure he did that to try and frame you.”
It took Sam a minute to understand his words. “What are you talking about?”
“Because I don’t like you,” Austin continued. “And he wanted to make me happy. I mean, hethoughtIdidn’t like you. I don’t actually mind you that much.” Austin frowned. “I can’t find him. I’ve tried to get a hold of him to make him stop, but he’s not anywhere.”
Since he’d first met Gary, the guy had clearly not liked Sam, so did that mean even before they’d first met, Gary had been aware of him and targeting him? That was before he’d even tried to talk to Austin, wasn’t it?
“When I was fifteen” – Austin opened the glove box, digging through the contents until he had an old envelope and a pen in hand – “I tried to burn down your boat. I hated you so much, and I hated that Connor was going out on the water with you all alone.”
“What the hell, Austin?” Sam did the quick math in his head. “You two weren’t even dating yet.”
Austin gritted his teeth and set pen to paper, scribbling on the back of the envelope. “I had issues, alright? I could never control my emotions, and anyone being near Connor drove me nuts. I didn’t burn it in the end.”
Sam stared at Austin, half in shock, half in disbelief. “Well, I’m glad you decided not to,” he finally said, aghast. Sam didn’t even know Austin existed, and he was debating burning down hisboat?
“What? No. I tried to, but Liam caught me.” Austin handed Sam the letter. “He took the gasoline off me and dragged me back to the lab. I didn’t even tell him not to, just begged him to let me throw the match first.”
“Jesus.”
Sam needed to listen to Mary when she told him not to approach someone.
“It’s my number there. I don’t have Fionn’s info, so you tell him about Gary. Pretty sure he only approached Fionn in the first place because of you.” Austin opened the door and climbed out. He didn’t meet Sam’s eyes but stared hard at the letter he’d handed Sam. “I broke into your house that same summer. You had brought your dad to the doctor’s, so I thought your house was empty. I almost got caught by your brother. I didn’t realise he was creeping around in the attic. When I ran off, I bumped into Gary. It was just by chance on the road, and he was being…He was going to call the guards, and I didn’t want to get dragged back to the lab again. I used mythingon him to stop him except…” There was a haunted look in Austin’s eye. “With Connor, I planted a seed of interest in his head, and then I pursued him from there as myself. I thought I could just keep Gary’s attention on me long enough to slip away, but we’re so close to the sea here and it justhappened.”
Shell-shocked, Sam stared at Austin. “What happened?” He was thinking about Gary’s black, flat eyes. How they fixed on Sam anytime they crossed paths.
Austin was silent for so long that Sam thought he wouldn’t talk. But he finally did, his voice was brittle. “I don’t know. He’s obsessed. He thinks he’s helping me, but he’s not, and he’s not listening to me anymore when I tell him to stop.”
Sam couldn’t even voice the reassurance that came automatically to the tip of his tongue. The‘It’s not your responsibility’. Because he didn’t know if that was true. Unintentional or not, Austin had done something to Gary. Something that held him under sway five years later. They’d been fifteen. Austin had been a kid locked up in a lab. He had nobody.
Austin looked up to meet his eyes. He jutted out his chin, cheeks red, eyes fierce. “Can we be friends?”
What mental torture was this?Hey, I tried to burn down your livelihood, and I hate you. Let’s be friends. But Jesus was Sam was a sucker, because Austin’s lip had a tremble in it, fear and hope both in his eyes, and Sam couldn’t have crushed that hope with all the willpower in the world.