Page 100 of Twisted Truths

“I wasn’t,” he snaps, then exhales heavily, running a hand through his hair. “I was desperate, alright? Paige was pregnant, and I wanted out of this town so damn bad. I wanted to give them something better than Barrenridge.”

I huff out a humourless laugh. “How’d that work out for you?”

Levi scowls. “It’s so easy for you to sit there and say that when you’re literally living your dream over there in the States.”

I stare at him. “My dream? Are you fucking kidding me? Right now, I’m living my worst fucking nightmare.”

Realising his mistake, he tries to backpedal. “That’s not what I meant. You got out of here, Nash. You escaped. I’m the one stuck here trying to patch holes in a life that keeps falling apart.”

I lean forward, my voice low and sharp. “You think I escaped? I came back to bury my mother, my stepdad, my sister, and my fucking twelve-year-old brother. I came back to lies, and secrets, and blood on the floor. I came back to find out the people I trusted were gambling onkids, Levi. Don’t tell me I made it out. I’m in deeper than ever.”

He’s silent for a moment, simply looking at me with tired, red-rimmed eyes, his jaw tight.

“I didn’t know it would go this far,” he says finally, his voice cracking. “I just wanted a way out for me and my family. I didn’t think anyone would get hurt.”

His words stop me in my tracks. Is he talking about myfamily? Did they die because of his mess? “Who got hurt, Levi?”

He shakes his head.

“Levi,” I growl.

“I didn’t know he was involved. I thought it was all over.”

“Levi,” I demand. “Who are you talking about? Who got hurt?”

“Crawley,” he whispers, dropping his head. “I didn’t know.”

“What didn’t you know?”

“That he was working with them. I thought something was off last week when Crawley went off at me for benching his brother after half time. We were playing the bottom team, and we were up by forty-five points. Theo was complaining of a niggling shoulder injury, so I rested him. We were going to win anyway. I didn’t even think…”

My stomach drops.

Tanner was with my sister the night they saw Levi jumped by these men. When Levi decided not to work with them, they went looking elsewhere for their money. It was riskier, since Theo’s brother can’t control the outcome of the game the same way the coach can, but they wouldn’t have cared. They only needed a scapegoat who was close to Theo and could give them inside intel.

Now we know who put Tanner Crawley in the hospital, but it doesn’t clear up whether he was also working with Seraphina and the cult.

I shake my head. “You didn’t think. And borrowing money from Mum and Paul? Why? Why didn’t you go to Dalton?”

“Your mum had no idea,” he mutters, like it makes it any better.

“He remortgaged the property to get your money, Levi.There’s no way she didn’t know. She would have had to sign off on the paperwork.”

The colour drains from his face. “No.”

“Yes,” I say with a sigh. “Christ, you really made a mess of all of this. Do those men know where you got the money? Did you bring them into my family’s life? Did my family die for your mistakes?”

“No,” he chokes out. “No, I kept Paul’s name out of it. They didn’t know he was helping me make their payments.”

“And Dalton?”

Levi’s eyes spark with fury. “I went to him first. He laughed in my face. Told me I’d made my bed and I’d have to lie in it. He refused to help me, even when I told him they’d threatened to hurt Paige and the baby.”

That tracks.

Dalton never cared about his children, and he would love any excuse to put us in our place when we stuff up. He’s not a father. He never was.

“Why didn’t you come to me?”