Page 2 of Twisted Truths (The Sunburnt Hearts #4)

Chapter One

NASH

T he closer I get to Barrenridge, the more my heart races.

When I left this stupid backwater town right after graduation, I swore I’d never return.

Playing college ball over in the States was my ticket out of here, and I never looked back.

At least, not until I got the phone call that changed my life forever.

I didn’t think twice about hopping on a flight the day before I was supposed to sign my first two-way deal with the Boston Shamrocks and my affiliate NBA G League team, the Maine Wolves.

The pain in my chest intensifies, my breaths coming out in short, shallow pants as I fight off the panic attack building inside me.

“You okay, man?” Levi’s voice tears through my emotional breakdown, giving me something to focus on.

Swallowing down the knot of anxiety, I give my half-brother a blank look.

“Sorry. Stupid question,” he says with a groan, turning his gaze back to the single road leading into our hometown. “Of course you’re not okay. What I meant was, is there anything I can do to, uh, you know … help?”

Emotions clog my throat as I shake my head and stare out the window at the barren landscape—it’s as empty as I feel inside. I can’t help but wonder if this is all my fault. If I hadn’t run away six years ago, would any of this have happened? Would they still be here?

“I spoke to Shane Elliot last night,” Levi says when I remain quiet.

This gets my attention. Shane’s a cop in Barrenridge.

Being five years my senior, he was already a cop by the time I joined the high school basketball team.

Unfortunately for him, being a new recruit put him in charge of dealing with our pranks when they got out of hand, which was more often than not.

I ended up spending more time with Shane than I did his sister, Morgan, who Levi and I shared classes with.

“What did he have to say?” My voice is gravelly.

He winces. “They’re treating it as a murder-suicide.”

“Murder-suicide?” I repeat slowly, my brow furrowing as I turn back to face him. “Why would they think that? Who…?”

Levi remains quiet, but the look on his face tells me everything.

My stomach drops, and my hands ball into fists on my lap. “There’s absolutely no fucking way. Mum, Paul, and Rylan? Nope. No way. Ziggy would never murder them then take her own life. How could they think that? It’s bullshit.”

“I know.”

I grit my teeth. “What’s Dalton saying?”

Levi sighs. “Nothing.”

That tracks. Dalton Stone, our sperm donor, is a cold-hearted arsehole who doesn’t give a shit about any of the children he sired. Which is why none of us want anything to do with the bastard .

Levi’s three months older than me, and our relationship has been rocky, to say the least. His mum was Dalton’s girlfriend in high school.

Katerina Rohan fell pregnant to him on their graduation night.

Two months later, he broke her heart, leaving Barrenridge for Sydney to attend university on a basketball scholarship.

That’s where he met Mum. She fell pregnant on their first date, and fortunately for her—or unfortunately, depending on who’s telling the story—they got married. A year after having me, Mum fell pregnant with Zara. She was Zara to everyone else, but to me she was Ziggy.

Dalton played two seasons in the National Basketball League for the Sydney Kings, but he tore his ACL and fractured his kneecap halfway through his third, ending his career.

I was six when we moved to Barrenridge. Basketball was my life. I lived and breathed the sport, sleeping in my Kobe Bryant LA Lakers jersey every night and wearing it every day. Mum had to bribe me to take it off so she could wash it. I was ecstatic when Dad signed me up for the local junior team.

Until I met the other players.

Despite only being kids, the rumour mill had gone into overdrive when we returned to the small mining and farming town.

When I was introduced to the captain of the basketball team, I didn’t know why he had my last name.

Were we cousins? Dad’s parents were dead, but he had an estranged brother, Kaleb. Was Levi his son?

While the answer was no, Kaleb had been more of a father to him than Dalton ever had been, and I envied their relationship, even resented it a little. Where Kaleb was encouraging and supportive towards Levi at every one of our games, Dalton rode my arse so hard, I’m surprised I could sit down .

I was never good enough for him.

Every night, Dalton would have me outside shooting free throws until I made one hundred baskets in a row.

We spent our weekends going for long early morning runs followed by two-hour sessions on the outdoor court he installed in our backyard, and I spent my school holidays at basketball camps in Sydney.

I was on a strict high-protein, low-carb diet from my tenth birthday, and when I turned thirteen, I got a full home gym—lucky me.

Is it any wonder I became an insufferable arsehole towards my half-brother and totally disowned my uncle? I was on a fast track to become a carbon copy of my father, and Zara liked to remind me daily. Sometimes I wonder if that’s the reason Mum left Dalton six months after my eleventh birthday.

I don’t know why Dalton fought for fifty-fifty custody of me and Ziggy.

He didn’t give a shit about us. I guess I was his way of reliving his glory days, and Ziggy was a final ‘fuck you’ to our mum.

My sister kept herself locked in her room when we were at Dad’s.

I wish I could have joined her instead of working my arse off.

Credit where credit’s due, though. Thanks to Dalton’s almost military-style regime towards my training, I was good.

Better than good. I was one of the best basketball stars the town had boasted in twenty years.

Much to my delight, I surpassed Levi, and by the time we reached high school, I’d taken over the captaincy.

It drew an even bigger divide between the two of us, and our coach was hard-pressed to control our sibling rivalry both on and off the court.

My buddy Tom and I tried everything to get Levi to quit the team. We phased him out of games, stole his clothes out of his locker while he was showering, put itching powder in his underwear, and when we were fifteen, we ambushed him after a game and left him tied to the basketball post overnight .

I almost got into deep shit over that, especially when Katerina and Kaleb called in the chief of police. Fortunately for me, John Cooper and Dalton went way back, and Dalton paid him off to sweep it under the rug. I was under strict instructions to lay off Levi after that.

Not that it mattered. Two months later, a mining explosion rocked our little town.

Thirty men died, including Uncle Kaleb. Driven by grief, Levi quit the team.

Funnily enough, once he was off the team and the competition between us dissipated, we actually got along better.

I wouldn’t ever call us best friends, but there was less animosity.

“The arsehole never cared about Ziggy,” I mutter under my breath. “But I can’t believe he’d let the town believe she’d be capable of…” My breath hitches, and I can’t complete the sentence.

Murder-suicide.

Parricide.

Fratricide.

There’s no fucking way. I refuse to believe it.

“Have they questioned Ignatius Solomon or Gabriel or anyone from the Sunfire Circle?” I demand, my anger building.

Levi remains quiet, giving me my answer—the bastards who brainwashed our sister are untouchable.

“They won’t get away with this.”

“We have to be careful, Nash,” Levi cautions. “We don’t know how deep their connections run.”

“This is bullshit.”

“I know,” he agrees. “But I need you to promise me you won’t do anything stupid.”

He arches his brow in response to the death glare I shoot him, and my shoulders deflate. Yeah, okay. I’m definitely the hot-headed one out of the two of us, but to be fair, Zara was my full flesh and blood, and I will not let this heinous act tarnish her good name.

I’ll never stop blaming myself for leaving her to fall into the clutches of Gabriel Solomon, the son of the Sunfire Circle cult leader.

“It took me six months to get her out of there, Nash. Six months. You can’t come back and go throwing your weight around. They’re dangerous people, and I don’t want…” He trails off.

“You don’t want what?” I challenge him. “You don’t want them hurting me? My family is dead, Levi. It’s a bit late for that, don’t you think?”

A wave of nausea rolls over me as I think about what happened to my mum, to Zara, to my stepdad, and to my twelve-year-old half-brother, Rylan. There’s not much worse anyone can do to me at this point.

“I’ve got Paige and Sawyer to think about,” Levi says quietly. “I can’t risk something happening to them.”

I expel a deep breath, my concern growing for my sister-in-law and eight-month-old niece. There’s no way I would forgive myself if something happened to them because Levi was helping me bring down the Sunfire Circle. “Where are they?”

“At my father-in-law’s.”

“Good,” I say with a nod. Martin Shaw’s family has worked the land in Barrenridge as cattle farmers for three generations. He wouldn’t hesitate to use his shotgun on anyone who stepped onto his property unwelcome.

Levi clears his throat. “Have you spoken to Dalton?”

I shake my head. “He called once a week while I was attending Duke, but I got sick of listening to him dissect every element of my game. I stopped answering his calls after I signed with the G League on the advice of my agent and team manager. The pressure was too much. It was affecting my game.”

“You haven’t spoken to him in almost four years?” Levi fails to hide the surprise in his tone.

“Nope.”

“So, he doesn’t know you’re back in town?”

“You didn’t tell him?” I arch a brow.

“We haven’t spoken since my wedding day.” His hands tighten on the steering wheel. “He moved to Rafters Falls not long after.”

“What happened?” I’d been at training camp when he’d married Paige. Ziggy never told me of any dramas at the wedding.

Levi shrugs. “The usual Dalton bullshit.”

I wait for him to expand, but he doesn’t, and I don’t push. Dalton will never win Father of the Year; he’s pretty much fucked up the lives of all of his kids in one way or another.

The outer limits of the town come into view, and my chest tightens once again. I should have been here for Zara when she needed me. Instead, I was selfish, allowing Levi to save her from herself while I stayed in the States and chased my dreams.

On our way out to his father-in-law’s property, we pass the petrol station I worked at when I was sixteen, the police station, Doctor Cole’s Family Practice, the Whitmore General Store, then Town Hall before turning down the road that leads to Barrenridge High School.

It’s four on a Tuesday afternoon, and as we pass our old high school, I spot the footy team practising out on the pitch. There’s a heap of cars still parked near the gym, prompting me to ask, “Who’s taking practice?”

Levi took over when our old basketball coach retired two years ago. Last year they won their first State Title since I graduated .

“Grant.”

My eyes widen. “Petty?”

His jaw tightens as he nods. “Principal Hargrove hired him as assistant coach this season.”

Grant Petty was our point guard … before we all hit puberty.

While we were all growing taller and filling out, he remained short and stout.

Petty by name, petty by nature, his jealousy consumed him, and it became his life mission to try and bring us all down.

I don’t know what he thought he’d achieve by getting us kicked off the team, but he was always lurking, always reporting us for anything and everything.

I’m still convinced he’s the one who ratted us out for tying Levi to the basketball post, because I know for a fact Levi wouldn’t have said a word. While he may not have appreciated all the hell I’d given him back then, he wasn’t a nark, and he knew how to hold his own.

“I can’t believe Hargrove would do that.”

“No idea. Petty’s youngest brother is on the team. I think he thought if he was the assistant coach then his brother would get more court time.”

I shake my head. “Is his brother any good?”

Levi shrugs. “He’s not bad. He’s quick and agile, but like his brother, he won’t get much taller.”

Our conversation ends when Levi pulls up to the front gate of his father-in-law’s cattle farm, and I climb out to stretch my legs and unlatch the gate.

Once Levi drives through, I close it again and walk back to the car.

We’re quiet for the five-minute drive up to the homestead, both lost in our own thoughts.

The front door flies open when Levi pulls up. I’ve barely stepped out of the car when a petite blonde flies into my arms, burying her head in my neck as sobs wrack her small body.

“I’m so sorry, Nash,” Paige cries. “It’s horrible. ”

I pat her back awkwardly and clear my throat, desperately holding back my own emotions. “Thanks, Paige.”

“I can’t believe it. It’s not fair.”

My eyes sting with unshed tears, but I blink them away. I broke down when Levi called me with the news, but while the pain and guilt are still churning away inside me, I’m now fuelled by my anger and a fierce determination to seek the truth.

I will find justice for my family.

Ziggy didn’t do this.