Page 13 of Hot for the Hockey Player (The Single Moms of San Camanez: The Vino Vixens #2)

“He said it’s on the news. Because after what happened to Aunt Raina and Marco. When her husband’s brother and her brothers kidnapped Marco. Apparently, it was to take him back to their cult. A cult that we were part of. Is that true? Were we in some fucked up cult?”

“Language,” I warned quietly.

“Well, were we? You never talk about Dad. And I know he’s not dead.”

“How do you know?”

“I just …”

“How. Do. You. Know, Damon?”

“I Googled him, okay? He’s in prison for like …

child porn or something.” He brought his voice down a fair bit for that last part so Laurel couldn’t hear.

“Is that true? Because if the kids at school find out about that …” He shook his head, a look of betrayal in his blue-gray eyes—his father’s eyes—gutted me. “I want the truth, Mom. All of it.”

“I want it too,” Laurel piped up from the kitchen. “Just because I’m eleven doesn’t mean I don’t have the right to know.”

“Show me the article.” I tried so hard to keep my tone even and my true emotions from showing on my face.

If they knew how I really felt right now, that I was in emotional turmoil and desperately needing to scream, things would only go from bad to worse.

It was all I could do to keep my hands from shaking as I handed Damon back his phone and he brought up the article from eleven years ago.

I tucked my hands under my thighs and pulled in deep, fortifying breaths through my nose.

“That’s Dad, right? Cyrus Wells?”

My stomach wrapped around my heart, squeezed, and somehow got lodged in my throat as I stared at the mugshot of my former husband.

A pedophile, a rapist, and an abuser. For too long, this man’s face haunted my dreams—day and night.

And now, I’d have to take a bunch of melatonin again tonight just to sleep.

“Did he do the things the article says he did?” Damon asked in panic. “Is that man our father?” He glanced into the kitchen where Laurel stood, flipping the grilled cheese, but eager to join us.

Swallowing past the spiky lump at the back of my tongue, I nodded. “Yes. He did those things.”

“And we were part of a cult that … that allowed this to happen?” he probed.

My bottom lip trembled. “We were. An extreme, extreme faction of Christian Fundamentalists.” I turned to him and took his hand.

“I never knew this kind of thing was happening though. You have to believe me. And as soon as I found out—as soon as Danica found out—we ran. We took you and we left.” I looked over at Laurel.

“You weren’t even born yet. I was seven months pregnant with you.

Danica didn’t even know she was pregnant with Sam, but we …

we couldn’t—” A sob caught in my throat.

“I was already planning my way out, but this just galvanized it. Expedited it. Aunt Dolores had a plan in place for all of us to get out when we were ready. So I contacted her, and … then I turned in your father, his brother, and Danica’s husband to the police. Then we ran.”

“Is that why we have a different last name from him?” Damon asked, his voice a choked whisper.

I nodded. “Yes. To protect you. To protect all of us. Danica did the same.”

Laurel turned off the griddle and came over to sit with us, her thigh brushing the side of mine as she squeezed in tight beside me on the couch. “What did he do, Mom?”

Running the back of my hand over her hair, my fingers still trembling, I rested my head against hers.

She was too young to know the horrors of our family.

Too young to know what kind of predators were out there and how they treated children.

While I wanted to arm my children with knowledge and tools to keep them safe, I also wanted to keep them in the dark and blissfully ignorant for as long as possible.

Because once you learned the dark and despicable side of people existed, there was no going back to being beautifully oblivious.

“They hurt …” I sucked in another deep breath through my nose, pulling in her sweet, child-like scent and held it in my lungs for a moment. “They hurt kids. They touched kids who couldn’t speak up and say no.”

“Like babies?” she asked.

“Your father’s brother—Wilson Wells—had three little girls. And he, your dad, and Danica’s husband—Rufus—all hurt those little girls. They were six, four, and two.”

Damon shifted awkwardly next to me, and I glanced at him. Pain, so real, so raw, stared back at me as tears welled up in his eyes. “Do you think … do you think I’m like Dad?”

“Oh, honey, no.” I rubbed the side of his arm, but then quickly realized he needed more and wrapped my arms around both of them and pulled them in toward me.

“Neither of you are anything like your father. He was a bad, bad man. My father forced me to marry him. I didn’t have a choice.

Cyrus was a lot older than me, and he was angry, mean, and so full of hate.

None of you children are like your fathers.

We got you out of that horrible place, and away from those terrible people.

You weren’t raised around that. So you could choose whatever life you wanted, not the one forced upon you.

You are both amazing people. All of you kids are.

You are kind, thoughtful, loving, and while I know you’re angry with me right now,” I glanced at Damon, “there’s no true anger in your heart the way it took up every corner of your father’s.

” I pressed a kiss to the side of my son’s head, then one to Laurel’s.

“I’m not angry at you, Mom,” Damon murmured. “I’m just …”

“You’re a teenager. It’s expected. You’re figuring out your place in this world, pushing boundaries, testing limits, and it’s my job as your mother to keep those boundaries in place and push back.

Stand firm. Keep you on the right track and guide you into adulthood the best way I can.

We’re not always going to get along.” I lobbed a half-hearted chuckle.

“We don’t have children to have friends.

We have children, and hope that if we raise them right, they will grow into adults who we not only want to be friends with, but who want to be friends with us.

A friendship based on mutual respect, love, and an actual desire to spend time with each other.

But right now, I hate to break it to you, but I ain’t your friend.

You sass me and there will be consequences.

” I squeezed them both tight again, then released them and sat back, the pressure in my chest finally easing.

“But know that everything I do, everything I’ve ever done, has been with you both at the very epicenter of my heart.

My love for you will never waver, never decrease, and never be conditional.

If you choose to run off and join the circus, I will still love you. ”

Laurel snickered.

“You just need to trust me when I say this conversation needs to end. Talking about it more will only cause additional pain for everybody. We’re all trying to put it behind us. It was a dark time, and nobody wants to go back there. Okay?”

Laurel nodded, but the curiosity and burning questions streaked across Damon’s face. I lifted a brow at him, and he finally nodded.

“I’m not saying Maverick can’t come over and play video games, but we have rules in this house. Homework and chores before hobbies. It’s a pretty easy one, and I expect you to respect it.”

Damon nodded again. “I know. I’m sorry.”

“I finished my homework at school so I don’t have any today,” my daughter boasted, earning a glare, then an irritated eye roll from her older brother. “I’ll read before bed though.”

“Do you have homework?” I asked Damon.

He nodded, flicking his head so his floppy hair got tossed off his forehead. “Not a lot. I have to finish my essay on the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, then work on like ten math questions.”

“You weren’t doing that in your room?” Laurel asked.

“Enough,” I said softly to her. “Can you go set the table, please?”

Grumbling, she got up from the couch and went to do as I had asked.

I faced my oldest child. “You’re worried the kids at school will be able to find Cyrus?”

His head bobbed stiffly.

“Let me see what I can do, okay? There has to be a way to—”

“The internet is forever, Mom. Once it’s out there, it’s out there forever. There’s nothing you can do. If people find out Cyrus Wells is my dad—because I was able to find him, so why can’t others—it’s going to make my life at school and on the island a living hell.”

Exhaling through my nose, my shoulders slumped.

“Just let me make some calls, okay?” Yes, all of it would be a matter of public record, but were high school boys really that smart?

Would they know where to go looking? They didn’t know our former last name so they would have to dig pretty damn deep to link us to Cyrus.

I’d shoot off some emails tonight to a few contacts and see if we couldn’t bury things a little deeper.

I could tell he was resisting the urge not to roll his eyes. “I’m sorry for my attitude. I know it’s not your fault.”

“Thank you.”

“I guess it’ll be too late for Maverick to come over tonight, huh?”

“Probably. But if you finish your chores and homework right after school tomorrow, I’m sure he’ll have time to pop over for a bit.” And fluster the crap out of me again.

Resigned to his fate, he finally let his face relax out of its crumpled frown of discontent. “I’ll go grab the laundry and fold it.” He stood up, then turned back around, his eyes falling to my thighs. “I’m really sorry about your legs. That looks like it hurts.”

“I’d get burned from head to toe if it meant easing the pain that’s wrapped around your heart, kiddo.” Unshed tears burned the backs of my eyes. “Don’t let it eat you up inside, okay? We’ll figure this out. I promise.”

His half-smile was forced and entirely unreal before he spun around and headed to the laundry room.

Shutting my eyes, I inhaled and held it in my lungs for a count of six, before slowly letting it out past thinly parted lips.

I did this three more times, until my hands no longer shook, and I wasn’t seeing spots in my vision.

Then I grabbed my phone from the pocket of the shorts Raina had loaned me, and sent off a group text to my cousins.

Mayday! Mayday! Damon found Cyrus online and had questions.

Raina was the first to text back.

Wine tonight after the kids are in bed.

Then Danica.

Well, shit. I thought we had more time.

And finally, Naomi.

What prompted him to go looking?

(Me)

Shit that happened with Marco getting kidnapped. News has mentioned the cult.

(Raina)

We need to get ahead of this thing.

We do .

Was all I could type before I stuffed my phone into my pocket again and stood up to go help Laurel with the rest of dinner.

I needed to focus on my kids right now. My cousins and I would tackle our past later.

I thought I’d done a decent enough job burying everything, changing our last name, and getting away from that entire horrible part of our lives.

But like Damon said, the internet and everything on it is evergreen.

So the only thing to do was burn the fucker down, because chopping off its limbs clearly didn’t work.