Page 44 of Twisted Truths (The Sunburnt Hearts #4)

Chapter Thirty-Three

NASH

W ith Gabriel back from Sydney, I leave Hadley with him the next day while I organise a few things before we leave.

After dropping off the boxes of donated things to Mrs Krenshaw, I swing past the funeral home to collect my family’s ashes.

Grief coils deep in my chest, but I don’t have time to dwell on it.

There’ll be time for that once Franklin is safe, and we’re in Boston.

My chest tightens as I pull into a parking spot at the high school later that night.

The traffic is thinning out as parents and students trickle away from the gym.

The innocent sounds of laughter, mates shouting out to one another across the lot, and good-natured banter is at odds with how I feel about what I’m about to do.

I kill the engine and sit there for a second, my knuckles white on the steering wheel.

Gabriel’s with Hadley. She’s safe. For now.

This can’t wait.

I need to know what happened.

Pushing open the car door, I step out into the cool night, my boots crunching on gravel as I head towards the gym. I half expect the doors to be locked, but they’re not. The scoreboard lights inside are already dimmed, the echo of the game fading into silence.

The courts are empty, so I take the familiar path past the changerooms to the coach’s office. I rap my knuckles on the glass, and Levi lifts his head, eyes widening when he sees me.

He smiles and waves me in, but I don’t miss the hesitation.

“Didn’t see you at the game,” he says, trying for casual.

“I wasn’t,” I say, strolling in. The same scuffed linoleum floor stretches beneath my boots. The walls, once plastered with laminated plays and championship banners, are mostly bare now. A flat-screen television hangs on the wall where there used to be a whiteboard.

Coach Durran’s desk used to be a chaotic mess of loose papers, whistles, motivational quotes, and half-eaten muesli bars buried beneath playbooks. Now, the desk is tidy, almost obsessively so. A laptop sits front and centre, flanked by a single clipboard and a branded school notepad.

I sit in the same chair I did when Durran benched me for tying Levi to the basketball post. The cushion has been reupholstered, but the ghosts haven’t gone anywhere.

Back then, this office was a place where rules meant something. Where mistakes had consequences.

Now, it’s more of a hiding place for Levi and his transgressions.

Only, I’m about to bring them to light.

“Is everything okay?” he asks when I don’t say anything.

“You tell me,” I challenge. “How’d the game go tonight?”

He arches a brow. “We won. Sitting three games clear now.”

I nod. “That’s good. And Theo, how’d he play?”

Guilt flashes in his eyes. “Nash?—”

“Why’d you do it, Lev?”

He rubs the back of his neck. “I’m not involved with them anymore.” His voice is quiet. “It’s over.”

“You think so?” I scoff. “Because from what I’ve heard, it’s never over with men like that. They’re always searching for their next payday. What the hell were you thinking?”

“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 on kids , 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 my family? 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?”

Levi snorts. “So you could tell me what a pathetic loser I was? No, thanks.”

My chest tightens. I know I’d given him a hard time growing up, but it wasn’t because I thought I was better than him.

Truth be told, I’d envied him. He hadn’t grown up being pushed to his limits by an overbearing father.

He’d been spared Dalton’s controlling nature, his criticism and opinions. Until now, it seems.

“So you went to Paul?”

“It was Zara’s idea. She saved me from them that night.” He looks almost bitter about it.

“No, she saved you from ending up in the hospital like Crawley. Or worse.”

“I just wanted out. Dalton didn’t care. Paul was my only option. I had to keep them away from my wife. Paige had no idea. She didn’t deserve to get hurt for what I’d done.” Levi swallows, his throat bobbing with the effort. “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen.”

I sit there looking at the broken man in front of me as he folds under the weight of his own mistakes. He’s not evil or malicious. He was simply weak in all the wrong moments.

But that’s just as dangerous.

“You have to come clean, Levi. To Paige and Principal Hargrove. This is your chance to fix this once and for all. Tell him what you know and bring down this betting ring for good. It’s the right thing to do.

” He doesn’t say anything as I get to my feet.

“You owe it to Theo. He deserves better. It’s his future you’re risking.

” I hesitate in the doorway, another question lingering in my mind. “Can I ask you something?”

Levi looks up at me warily.

“Did Zara ever tell you she was pregnant when she went into the Sunfire Circle?”

The shock written over his face is answer enough for me, but Levi has enough on his plate. I don’t need to pile more on by asking him to help us save Franklin.

Gabriel and Hadley know the commune, and we need to be careful. Showing up with an army will only put Franklin in more danger. I’ll introduce Franklin to his other uncle once we get him out of there.

“Fix this, Lev. It’s the right thing to do.” I rap my knuckles on the doorframe before leaving him to figure out what he’s going to do.

I’ve got my nephew to save.