Page 27 of Twisted Truths (The Sunburnt Hearts #4)

Chapter Twenty-One

HADLEY

N ash freezes, his lips parted in shock as he stares at Gabriel.

Who’s Hayden Grimshaw? And what is Gabriel paying him for?

Before the questions can form on my lips, Nash asks his own. It’s one word, but it’s laced in so much pain I’m surprised it doesn’t bring him to his knees. “Why?”

My heart twists. He looks so broken.

Gabriel places his unfinished bowl of pasta on the ornate wooden coffee table in front of us. “Because I don’t believe she did it, and I want to know who did.”

“Why should I believe you had nothing to do with it?” Nash’s voice is hoarse, and he hasn’t moved from the doorway.

I ache to go to him, to comfort him, but I know they need to clear the air and put all their demons behind them. So, I remain glued to my seat, but my eyes are fixed on Nash, the man who makes my heart race every time he’s near.

“I know you have no reason to trust me,” Gabriel says quietly. “Especially with our history. ”

Nash clenches his jaw, but when he doesn’t say anything, Gabriel continues.

“I’m not your enemy. I grew up with my parents’ beliefs brainwashed into me, and it took me losing someone I love and having my heart ripped clean from my chest to realise there are darker things going on behind the scenes.

” He grimaces. “I wish I could say Maddy and Zara were the only casualties, but we both know it’s not true. ”

“So, you think they had something to do with Tom as well?” Nash asks.

Who’s Tom?

Gabriel sighs. “Yeah, I think they had everything to do with Tom.” He pauses. “How’s he doing?”

Guilt flickers over Nash’s face and his shoulders slump. “Last I heard from his sister, he’s still in an assisted living facility. He wasn’t doing well.”

“Who’s Tom?” I ask, unable to keep quiet anymore.

Nash and Gabriel share a loaded look.

My stomach sinks; I’m not going to like whatever I’m about to hear.

“Tom was my best friend in high school,” Nash finally says, his voice low and rough around the edges as he sinks into the armchair across from Gabriel.

“We played basketball together. Practically inseparable.” He rubs the back of his neck, looking uncomfortable.

“I thought I knew everything about him. But I didn’t. ”

I shift in my seat, unsure where the story is going.

“Tom’s dad was … not a very nice guy. He had everyone in Barrenridge fooled, though.

Stan Keeland was a well-respected man of the community.

A member of the school board, volunteer firefighter, and president of the local cricket club.

But he had a dark side that he would take out on his wife and kids.

Tom’s sister, Jess, was spared most of it, but he and his mu m weren’t so lucky.

Stan was smart. He used his belt in places he knew Tom could keep covered.

I had no idea. He’d always wait to shower last after a game or training, or he’d make excuses to do it at home.

We were none the wiser. I always thought he was just private. I never pushed.”

A low growl passes Gabriel’s lips, but Nash ignores him and keeps going. I feel like he’s been holding this in for too long, and now he simply wants to purge himself of whatever happened back then.

“When we were sixteen, not long after the Solomon’s had brought Sunfire Circle to Barrenridge, Tom and I ran into Gabriel and his brothers at the swimming hole.” He lifts his eyes, flicking to Gabriel before settling on me. “The same place you and I had our first kiss.”

My cheeks heat as the memory flickers through my mind. I press my lips together. Now is not the time to be thinking about the intensity of that kiss or the way it lit something inside me.

Nash’s next words sober me up.

“Two months later, Tom was seen climbing into the Circle truck. Three days after that, he was found wandering the back roads of Barrenridge, barefoot and wearing nothing but a pair of linen pants. He was delirious, muttering things like ‘I’m no longer burning from the inside’ and ‘he walks between the flames’.

His temples were covered in deep scratches, and there was blood underneath his fingernails, like he’d been trying to tear into his own skin.

He kept saying the shadows could no longer take him, the light had set him free. ”

Gabriel drops his head into his hands.

“When I went to visit him in the hospital, Tom didn’t even recognise me. He just stared at the ceiling, whispering like he was in prayer. Our mate, Gav, told the police he saw Tom getting into the Circle truck, but there were no other witnesses.”

Nash falls silent, his eyes distant, as if he’s reliving the events from the past.

Sensing he needs time to process what he’s just revealed, Gabriel speaks.

“Tom told me what was happening at home. He found it easier to confide in a stranger who didn’t know his dad, said he didn’t think anyone would believe him because his dad was so influential in Barrenridge.

I offered him a place to hide out whenever he needed, and he started hanging out with me and Aziah.

It wasn’t long before my parents cottoned on that something was happening. They took advantage.”

Gabriel’s jaw ticks. “I was so fucking blind to everything back then. Tom had only been coming around for a couple of weeks before Mum started dropping hints. At first it was little things like how at peace he seemed at the Circle, how the pain he carried wasn’t his fault, and how it could be purified. ”

I gasp, suddenly wondering what exactly purification means. Anyone who joins the Circle has to prove they are committed to their beliefs—with the exception of Zara, because she was pregnant—but purification was for those who strayed from the path, most were hardly seen afterwards.

He shakes his head, his eyes dark with guilt.

“Mum said the Circle would take care of him, that once he accepted his path, he wouldn’t have to carry the burden alone anymore.

Tom resisted … hard. He said he couldn’t leave his sister with that monster.

But Mum told him what he wanted to hear, that once he joined, they’d get Jess and his mother out.

They’d welcome them all with open arms. She knew how to play to his weaknesses. ”

“You let them brainwash him, and when it didn’t work, you left him to die,” Nash accuses .

“My parents told us they found Tom smoking weed on the grounds and banished him,” Gabriel says in a low, pained voice. “My brothers and I were forbidden from leaving the grounds for almost two years. We couldn’t interact with the local teenagers for fear of being corrupted.”

Nash’s body remains stiff, and he doesn’t say anything.

“They indoctrinated all of their beliefs into our everyday lives. We didn’t know any better.

” Gabriel shakes his head. “I didn’t know what happened until I started helping at the markets a few years later, when I overheard some locals talking about how sad it was the Keeland boy had a mental breakdown.

I still didn’t think it had anything to do with my parents. ”

“This isn’t on either of you,” I tell them, anger burning deep inside. “This is on Guardian Solomon and Seraphina. They’re the ones in the wrong here.”

I’m beginning to realise that while Guardian Solomon is the face of the Circle, the one we all listen to, Seraphina’s the one pulling all the strings. It’s clear the queen is the most important player on the board, and she will do whatever it takes to protect the kingdom.