Page 35 of Cruel Devil
“Whoa. Slow down. Where are you going?” He grabs his keys and heads for the door, but I block him. “Aaron—”
“I have to tell my sister.Shit.How am I supposed to tell her? How do—”
Fuck. I didn’t even think about Kasey. Shit. “Okay. It’s okay. You don’t have to do that right now. We have time.”
“Yeah, I do,” he shouts, tears tracking down his face. I’ve never seen him like this before, and fuck if I know how to fix it. “She needs to know. She’d want to know. Now. Not tomorrow or in a few hours. She needs to know now. But how the fuck am I supposed to do that, Dom? She’s my baby sister and I have to tell her but—”
I nod my head and grab him in a tight embrace. He clings to me like his life depends on it, hands fisted in the back of my shirt. “I get it, man. But, you’re still processing shit right now. You can’t drive like this. Just, sit down for a few, okay. We’ll sort this out.”
His shoulders shake. “She needs to know, man.” His voice is hoarse.
“I’ll tell her. You stay here and I’ll tell her.”
He pulls back and runs his hands through his hair, tugging on the strands as he begins to pace.
“You’re cool with that? You don’t mind?” he asks, not looking at me.
“I got you. I’ll tell her. You stay here. I’ll have the guys—”
“I don’t need a babysitter,” he grinds out.
“No, you don’t. But you just lost your mom and you don’t need to be alone right now either.”
He shakes his head, about to argue.
“What about Allie?” I ask. They’ve always been close, and she lost her mom a few years back. She’ll know how to help him get through this while I … shit. I don’t know how I’m going to break this to Kasey.
“Just, Allie?” he croaks.
“Yeah, man. Just Allie.”
A nod.
“Okay. I’ll call her. Just sit down. Okay?”
Another nod.
I pull out my phone and make the call. An hour later, there’s a knock at our door and I let her inside.
“Hey, how's our boy doing?” she asks, voice low.
I peer over my shoulder at the boy in question. “He hasn’t moved since I called you. Hasn’t talked either.”
She nods as I grab my keys. “Where are you going?”
I swallow past the lump in my throat. “He asked me to tell Kasey.”
Her eyes soften and she places a hand on my arm. “Dom, that's … you shouldn’t have to—”
“I know. But he can’t, and someone needs to.”
“I can call Bibiana.”
I shake my head. “No. I’ve got this. You look after him. Don’t leave him alone or let him go anywhere by himself. If you need to call Roman to sit on him, do that, okay?”
She nods but...“I’m serious, Allie. He’s dealing with some other shit right now too. His mom dying is awful, but the timing couldn’t have been worse. Do not leave him alone. I’ll handle Kasey, but depending on how she handles things, I don’t know what time I’ll be back. If you have to leave—”
“I got it. He won’t be left alone.”
