Page 31 of You for Her (The Edge of Retaliation 2)
“What the fuck are you talkin’ about?” Tanner growls.
“Your friend here helped Chase disappear. Why, you’re wondering? Well, it’s simple. He knows what his little brother did to your sister, and he knew you’d have his head for it, so he made him disappear and he let me take the blame. Haven’t you ever stopped to wonder why Chase hasn’t ever come back? Why he isn’t on Facebook? Why any trace of him has disappeared?”
Tanner’s eyes narrow as he takes it in, his mind clearly spinning a hundred miles an hour. He’s no doubt going over the last six years in his head, reliving all the moments where Chase hasn’t been around, and all the lies he’s been fed, all the stories as to why he hasn’t come home.
“I called Chase,” I go on. “I told him I knew what he did to Celia, and he confessed everything. But, when I told him he needed to go the police and tell the truth and he found out who I was, he hung up on me. He claimed he didn’t mean it to happen, and that it wasn’t his fault.”
Tanner looks confused, and he shakes his head a little, before looking to Tatum. “Is this true?”
My heart is racing. I’m so scared, so scared Tatum will call me out and ask what exactly it is Chase told me, and I’ll not have an answer for that, he’ll realize I only know half of it, and turn it around on me. It’s a likely scenario, I can only hope I’ve been convincing enough for him to confess.
I stare, my whole body on high alert, as Tatum looks at his best friend, and the two of them lock gazes, so much passing between them. Years of lies slowly unravelling before Tanner’s very eyes.
“Is it fuckin’ true, Tatum?” Tanner roars, slamming his fist down on the table so hard I jerk, skittering backward. Jo jumps behind me. Tatum flinches, and his eyes swing to me, feral and angry.
“Don’t you look at me like that,” I say, my voice low and angry. “You had no problem dragging me through hell to cover your tracks. You have no right to be angry at me for turning the tables back on you. No right at all. Revenge is sweet, isn’t it, Tatum?”
His jaw ticks, and he looks back to Tanner. “She doesn’t know the whole story and—”
“What happened to my sister?” Tanner whisper hisses, so low and angry even I scoot back a little.
“Tanner, let me explain and—”
“What the fuck happened to Celia?” Tanner bellows, launching over the table so quickly I can do nothing but shove my chair backward so hard I slam into Jo.
Tanner grabs Tatum and the two of them fall onto the floor, knocking chairs over, causing things to fly off the table and smash on the ground. Fists start flying and I don’t know what to do. I stare at the two of them, rolling around on the ground, punching each other so hard they’re going to leave marks. Garrett rushes over and tries to pull Tanner off, but his attempts are futile, he’s too angry.
“Stop!” Jo screams, but I grab her shoulder and pull her back when she goes to take a step forward.
“No,” I say, my voice scarily calm. “No, leave them be.”
The two of them fight until they’re panting, until blood is dripping, until the rage is only slightly satiated. Only then does Tanner get to his feet, staring down at his best friend with a look of betrayal. I won’t lie, my heart, deep down inside, feels a little achy watching the hurt in his eyes. I shake my head and shake the feelings away with it. Tanner Yates deserves this. So does Tatum.
They all do.
“I will ask you again, what happened to Celia?” Tanner pants, his fists clenched.
Tatum looks up at him, blood running down his cheek from a split under his eye.
“I don’t know the full story,” he rasps, his voice husky and low. “All I know is that Chase got himself into some trouble, some big trouble. Drugs. I tried to help him out of it, but he had already sunk himself too deep. Wasn’t takin’ them, but he was sellin’ them. He owed a lot of money. People wanted to make him suffer. They took him and Celia, wanted to teach him a lesson. They drugged him, and …”
“And what?” Tanner growls, his voice low and throaty.
“They raped her. Eight of them. One after another. In front of Chase. He didn’t do anything, he couldn’t, he was drugged. Couldn’t move. He loved her, Tanner …”
I feel sick.
My whole body feels like it’s going to crash onto the ground.
So many thoughts swirl through my mind.
My skin prickles.
My stomach turns.
But my heart, oh, god, my heart, it breaks. It shatters into a thousand tiny pieces.
