Page 41 of Ruin (Hell’s Mayhem MC: Maine Chapter #2)

Chapter Forty

Kolton

I reach Kaison’s house just as the last bit of sunlight leaves the sky. I say it’s his house because he’s the one who stayed here all these years, but technically, it’s both of ours. I just want nothing to do with it. He doesn’t either, I guess, since he and his girlfriend are building a new house.

They’ve cleared out a patch of woods a short distance away, still on the same property, only completely separate from this clearing.

They’re building a separate driveway, and it’ll be more hidden the way mine is.

It’s not difficult to get privacy around here considering the amount of woods everywhere.

I hadn’t considered what Kaison would do with this house after they moved.

Rent it out maybe. Sell it. I don’t know, and I don’t care.

I moved out of the house shortly after our father died, when I knew I no longer had to stay.

Why I let him control me for so long is beyond me.

I like to think if he were here now, I’d knock him the fuck out, but I know that probably isn’t true.

There was a fear there. Something more than fear, too.

I’m not really sure how to explain it. Disgust maybe?

This toxic mix of anger, resentment, disgust, and hatred.

Maybe that’s what it is. Maybe it wasn’t just fear, but hatred. So much that I couldn’t even be next to him. I don’t know, and it doesn’t matter. He’s dead and gone.

“Why am I here?” I ask when I throw my leg off my bike. The porch light is on, the only light to see by. It’s cloudy and so the light of the moon is no help.

“Let’s call it brotherly bonding,” he says with a smirk.

“I’m not making out with you under a tree,” I say.

He barks out a laugh. “You made a joke.”

I frown. Fuck. He’s right.

“This is better than making out,” he says as he walks to his truck.

I don’t know what’s gotten into me, but I want to say, That’s because you’ve never made out with Lucian.

I’m not sure anything is better than that. The sex, I guess. But it isn’t my thoughts that are alarming, it’s the need to speak to my brother. Normally, I want nothing to do with him or anyone else. Lucian has me in a good mood lately, and that’s scary for a whole other reason.

Kaison walks toward me with two red cans in his hands. Gas cans.

I raise a brow as my gaze goes to his.

“We’re burning the place down.”

“What?” I blurt .

“You heard me. Now move your bike further back, so I can get the rest of the cans from the truck.”

I stare at him, blinking as he puts down the cans he has and goes back to his truck.

“You’re serious?” I call out.

He grabs two more cans from the bed.

“As a fucking heart attack, brother.”

I smirk as I go to my bike to move it as far as I can. When I get back, Kaison has ten five-gallon cans lined up.

“Have at it,” he says with a smirk.

“You’re not helping?”

“Thought you’d wanna do this.”

I pick up two cans. “I thought we were bonding?” I say over my shoulder as I head toward the house.

His chuckle echoes through the empty space. The front door is slightly open, so I kick it to open it the rest of the way. I walk deeper in, noting there are still some things in here.

“There’s nothing in here you want?” I ask.

“We took everything we needed,” Kaison says, putting two cans down in the foyer.

“Where will you stay?”

“At the new house.”

“It’s done already?” I ask.

“Enough that we’ll manage. Besides, it’ll look suspicious if it burns down when my house is finished.”

“Good point. ”

I go right upstairs and stop outside my old bedroom.

It wasn’t too long ago that I was here, remembering.

Stuck in the past. Kaison had been shot, and I was here for a short time to make sure he didn’t die.

Before that, I’d stopped by now and then when necessary, but never spent time here.

I couldn’t. It was too fucking much—too many awful memories.

Not only of my father, but the ones with Lucian that made me angry in a different way.

This house is full of disappointment and hurt.

With a heavy sigh, I put one can down by the wall and head into the room. There are still some things here, but nothing I care about. I took everything I wanted when I left. If I haven’t missed them yet, I don’t need them.

I go right for the bed, dumping the entire contents of the can all over it. So many things happened on this bed. Disgusting things. Lucian never made up for it by making them disappear with good ones. We made out on it a couple of times, but it was too dangerous to have him in my room.

But this isn’t about him. This is about the shit with my father. This is about ending all of that, letting go of it, and moving on. Maybe my problem hasn’t been Lucian. Maybe it’s been the shit with my dad, and once I let that go, I can focus on Lucian and me and the future.

“Fuck you, Dad,” I spit out before I walk out of the room, pick up the other can, and spill it as I walk.

When the cans are empty, and I’m so lightheaded I feel like I’m going to pass out, I head outside and suck in the fresh air.

The cans go to the back of Kaison’s truck.

If this were a normal town, I’d be worried he’d get in trouble, but having this sort of thing in your truck around here isn’t surprising.

If the Sheriff were to see him, he may question him because of who he is, but that old fuck is in his bed at this time.

“You got a lighter or something?” I ask.

Kaison smirks again. “Better.”

He goes to his truck and comes back with a bottle. There’s liquid inside and a rag hanging out of it.

“You’re fucking kidding,” I say with a laugh.

“How’s your aim?”

He holds it out to me, then pulls a lighter from his pocket. I take them from him.

“Good, I hope.”

I walk up the porch, standing a few feet from the door. I look over my shoulder.

“You sure about this?” I ask one more time.

“Little late for that, Kolt. The house is doused in gas.”

I shrug, light the rag, and whip it into the house. The glass shatters, and I run down the steps and across the lawn, Kaison following behind me.

By the time I turn around, there’s an orange glow from within the house. It gets brighter, flickers more, and in less than a minute, it’s spreading upstairs.

“I wish I could see it burn from the inside,” I say.

“Me too.” Kaison shoves his hands into his pockets, bumping me with his shoulder .

We stand there and watch the house we grew up in, the house I was sexually assaulted in by my father, go up in flames. Nothing has ever made me more happy than watching it burn to the ground.