Page 59 of Let the Game Begin

“What happened?” I demanded, alarmed.

Logan was visibly uncomfortable. He hesitated for a few moments, getting up the nerve to tell me. “I think…” he started nervously, “someone hurt Chloe.” His words were deliberately vague.

I didn’t wait any longer and instead pushed him aside to rush out of my room. I headed for Chloe’s room, and Logan followed hot on my heels. The whole time, he kept telling me that I needed to stay calm, that we had to understand the situation and get Chloe to tell us the truth. He said I should control my impulses, because he knew what I was like. I lost my head easily; when I did, no one could manage me.

The short trip to my sister’s room seemed to last forever. My head was full of horrifying images, terrifying guesses and assumptions. I burst into Chloe’s room and then, I spotted her.

She was curled up on her white bed, her knees pulled up close to her chest and her face tucked down against them. Her blond hair spread over her slim thighs like threads of gold. I approached her cautiously, my heart pounding against my rib cage. I sat down on the side of the bed and gave her head a gentle stroke. She was trembling and a sob escaped her lips.

“Little Koala…” I called her by the nickname I’d given her as a child. Chloe was my Little Koala, and she always would be, no matter how grown up she got.

“Look at me,” I insisted in a soft voice, and she slowly lifted her head.

I sucked in a breath when I saw her blue eyes puffy and glassy with tears as well as a purple bruise marring her right cheekbone. I moved her chin with two fingers to get a better look. More marks dotted her neck, ending at an undetermined point underneath her T-shirt.

I had no words. I was shocked. Incredulous.

Chloe’s skin was a horrible meeting of innocence and violence. I felt like a cloud of freezing rain was hanging above me; it was too cold to move. Logan, meanwhile, was watching everything with glistening eyes and his jaw clenched miserably.

“What did they do to you? Who did this?” I murmured softly, keeping my voice calm even as I felt a violent, uncontrolled force welling up inside me. I closed one hand into a fist and the other began to tremble. I was the one who always defended my siblings—from everyone and everything. But right now, I felt like nothing but a failure.

How could I have let something like this happen?

I touched her cheek, trying to reassure her, but Chloe just looked down, afraid and deeply wounded. I knew well the feelings she was experiencing: the fear, confusion, and pain. I’d been through them all myself.

“Tell me who did it, kiddo. You need to tell me…” I tried to keep calm, though I was already imagining the reckoning I was going to bring down on the bastard—or bastards—who made the mistake of crushing her like this.No onetouched my siblings.

“Talk to us, Chloe, please…” Logan urged her, stroking her long blond hair. But our sister seemed to be in shock. Her eyes were vacant. Her legs began to shake, and her lower lip started shaking as well. I was going to make whoever was responsible for this desecration pay.

“Carter,” she said finally in an almost inaudible whisper. I stiffened at the sound of the name.

Carter Nelson, Bryan’s little brother. I ground my teeth together like an animal and inhaled noisily through my nose.

I was going to kill him.

My twisted mind could neither suggest nor accept any other solution.

All at once I stood up and started running my hands through my hair, tangling it wildly. I could feel my reason slowly slipping away from me until I was completely devoid of any rational thought. A heavy feeling slammed into my upper body, and my heart felt like it was about to be spat out of my chest.

“Neil…” Logan cautioned, realizing what was about to happen.

The madness was creeping over me slowly. I held my face in my hands and tossed my head. I was furious, enraged, completely out of control.

My brother tried to grab my arm, but I was more agile. I fled the room.

I couldn’t hear anything; I couldn’t see anything.

Anger was riding me. It mocked my weakness and enflamed every fiber of my being.

I went outside, got behind the wheel of my car, and hit the gas, blowing past all the speed limits. I darted around every vehicle in my way, and I wouldn’t have been surprised if I’d gotten a ticket.

There was only one thing that mattered to me in that moment: watching that fucker’s blood drip down my knuckles.

“Fuck!” I pounded the steering wheel and ran my hand through my hair again. Had that son of a bitch only tried to assault her or had he actually succeeded? Chloe was a virgin, and the idea that he had managed to violate her and take that from her was killing me.

I had no way of knowing how far he’d gone, because I hadn’t asked enough questions.

Just hearing his name had been enough to make me completely lose my mind.