“I don’t know.”
I shouldn’t have been surprised. The truth was I’d been hoping one of them would be adult enough to leave for weeks. As everything continued to get worse and worse, I prayed one of them would walk away and put an end to this. They were my parents and I loved them both, but together they were toxic. To me, it didn’t matter which one walked. I’d miss them, but at least the fighting would be over.
“Okay.” There was nothing else to stay. Did I want her to stay? Of course. She was my mum. The only one I had. The only one I’d ever have. But I wasn’t naïve enough to believe her staying was for the best. Maybe some space could help us all.
“I’m going to miss you, sweetheart.”
I know I should have replied and returned her sentiment, but the words got stuck in my throat. Instead, I offered to carry her bags. She tried to hide the disappointment on her perfectly painted face, but I saw it. I hated that I was responsible for it, yet I couldn’t give her what she wanted. Kicking my backpack under the hall table, I grabbed the first couple of suitcases and hauled them out to the car.
Half an hour later, I stood on the veranda, a can of Coke in one hand as I leant down against the railing and watched as Mum left.
A heavy hand clamped down on my shoulder, scaring the shit out of me. Dad was at my side, swigging from the beer bottle in his hand. “She’ll be back.”
“I know.”
I waited ’til she was out of sight before heading inside and up the stairs. This very long day had left me beyond exhausted. Maybe I’d take tomorrow off and just sleep. It wasn’t like Dad would give a shit. I doubt he’d even notice, if I was being honest.
I was in bed before the sun even dipped below the horizon.
***
The week was a blur. Without the constant arguing, fighting, and bitching, the house was eerily silent. It was kinda sad how normal it had become. It was Friday night and I was home alone. I can’t remember the last time I’d had the house to myself on a Friday night to just chill. I had no idea where Dad was, and that was probably for the best. The less I knew, the less I’d have to lie later. Remaining clueless seemed like a good idea. After heating up a frozen pizza, I flopped on the lounge and hoped for some kick ass movie. More than twenty minutes of channel surfing and I still hadn’t found anything worth watching.
Grabbing my phone, I opened my social media account. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d even logged in. As soon as the app opened, my notifications started pinging like crazy. I couldn’t believe that many people cared. Flicking through, it was the same boring bullshit they bitched about every day at school, except this time, they were doing it online. No wonder I rarely paid attention.
Jumping up, I tossed the paper plate in the bin. There was no way I was washing up if I could possibly avoid it, and snagged a beer from the fridge. Although Dad didn’t allow me to drink, he didn’t really give a shit if I had a beer or two. I wasn’t going to test the theory though. I wasn’t a complete moron. Any time I’d gotten blindly drunk, I’d slept it off in the back of the ute far from the house. Thankfully, it wasn’t something I did often.
When my phone pinged again, I wandered into the lounge and scooped it up from the floor where I’d left it. Obviously I was attached to it. A private message appeared. I only had about fifty friends on this damn thing and everyone knew everyone. I’d never gotten a private message before. There was no point really.
Intrigued, I clicked on the icon and waited for it to open.
I wish I hadn’t.
I could never unsee that image.
It was burnt into the back of my brain.
As quick as I could, I closed it and tossed the phone away, like just touching it would infect me. Unable to take my eyes away, I watched as my phone bounced off the cushion before falling down the side of the lounge. I didn’t even care if the screen cracked. Actually, I think I preferred if it would have.
Lifting the brown bottle to my lips, I was surprised to find it empty. For a long time I sat there staring at the lounge, fully aware of what was on the other side taunting me. Unable to hold on a minute longer, I found my feet and grabbed the rest of the six pack from the fridge. I was going to need it. So much for my quiet, peaceful, drama-free night.
Two beers later and I couldn’t help it. It wasn’t that I wanted another look at the picture. I wanted to know which asshole had sent it to me. I wanted to know was it even real—god, I hoped not. And perhaps more importantly I wanted to know—no, I needed to know—where it had come from.
Placing my third empty bottle on the glass coffee table, I didn’t even bother to find a coaster. Mum would have a cow if she caught me, but she wasn’t here and I had bigger problems right now. Leaning down, I wiped my damp palms on my thighs while my heart pounded in my chest.
Picking up the phone, I noticed another envelope, but this time I didn’t bite. After the last bomb that landed, I wasn’t stupid enough to throw myself in front of another one.
Opening the picture, I swallowed down the bile in my throat and washed it down with another huge slug from my beer. Seeing it for the second time didn’t make it any easier to stomach. It was disgusting. She was surrounded by three girls. All wore matching pink t-shirts with that sliver of bare skin poking out, and tight jeans. On their hands they wore bright blue surgical gloves. None of them had faces. Lucky for them, their long blonde hair curtained them from view. But I didn’t need to. It was what they were holding which was the sickening part. Two of them held one of those blue sanitary bins from the bathrooms above Holly’s head. Even though I’d never used one, I knew what they were for. I might have been just a simple country bumpkin, but I wasn’t completely naïve either.
On the ground, surrounding Holly, were used female products.
They were in her hair, on her lap, and covering her legs.
Seeing the blood on Holly’s pale skin was wrong on so many levels. Knowing that it wasn’t even her blood, knowing where it’d come from and how it’d gotten there, that was worse.
I don’t know what boiled my blood more. The fact that these assholes were doing this. The idea that Holly was being tortured like this. Or the fact that there was someone else there, taking the picture, hiding their chickenshit ass behind the camera.
Blinking away the image, I started jabbing at my phone, trying to find out more information about the fucktard who’d sent me this. If I got my hands on them, they wouldn’t need a hospital. They’d need a fucking undertaker. Clicking through all I could find was what was obviously a fake profile. Holly’s name and home town info, even a birthdate, and the profile picture was a selfie of Holly. I might not know everything about that girl, but I knew her well enough to know she hadn’t seen this. I could only hope, she didn’t even know about it.
Even though it made me want to gag, even though I knew I should just let it go and ignore it, that retaliating would only make things worse, I couldn’t sit on my hands. It wasn’t who I was. Never had been.
Suddenly very sober, I grabbed the keys to the ute and ran across the yard. As quick as I dared, I barrelled through the quiet, clear night towards Holly’s place. I wasn’t sure if she had any idea, but if she was going to find out, I was going to make sure she wasn’t alone when she did.
Skidding into the McIntyre driveway, I almost collected a kangaroo that was hopping around, seemingly in circles. I hated the bloody things. Living out here, I guess I’d been lucky to only have hit two since I’d been driving, but I’d more than my fair share of close calls. Grinding to a halt out the front, I was out of the cab before it’d even come complete to a halt.
“Hold up there, son! Who lit your ass on fire?”
Holy shit! I hadn’t even seen the old man sitting on the veranda in the dark. His words scared the absolute living shit out of me. While I fought to get my breathing back under control, and put a lid on my temper, I headed towards him.
“Mr. McIntyre.” I stretched out my hand and offered it to him. It took a
moment for him to set aside his glass and take my hand in a firm, ‘don’t-fuck-with-me’ grip.
“Don’t Mr. McIntyre me, Reynolds. I’ve known your skinny ass your whole life, and not once have I seen you come onto my property without your dad. So, gonna tell me what’s so damn important you’re tearing up my driveway on a Friday night?”
“Ummm…”
“Spit it out, son! I’m not getting any younger here.”
I couldn’t remember Adrian being such a grumpy old ass, but based on the rumours around town these days, he had a lot to be grumpy about.
“I’m…I’m looking for Holly.”
He chuckled. It didn’t take long though before his laugh turned into a painful cough. Stepping back, I waited for him to catch his breath. It took for-fucking-ever! All I wanted to do was leave him there, run inside, and make sure Holly was still in one piece. Once the coughing subsided, he took a huge gulp of whatever it was that was in his cup. From the stench rolling off him, it definitely was not water.
“Of course you are. My daughter’s been home a couple of weeks and already the riff raff are coming sniffing.” His comments got my back up. I wasn’t riff raff. I wasn’t trying to hurt her. I might be the only one who wasn’t. “Well, she ain’t here.” Swallowing my pride and my anger, through gritted teeth I asked him where she was. “She’s in town. Staying with Payton and Carly. Some kind of girls’ night thing. Fucked if I know.”
That was all he offered.
It was like as soon as he’d said his piece, I was invisible to him. Instead he dug in the top pocket of his stained shirt, which was open almost to his belly button, and pulled out a crushed packet of cigarettes. He didn’t even look at me as he lit up and started puffing away. Figuring that was all I was getting, and at least now I knew that even if Holly had seen it, she wasn’t alone, I’d head home. All of a sudden I was too damn tired for this shit. Maybe it was the beer.
Digging my hands into my pocket, I stumbled down the steps to my ute. Yanking open the door, I had one leg in when a deep voice called out to me.
“Reynolds? What the hell are you doing here?”
Stepping back out, I put my hand over my eyes to block the bright white light that was trying to blind me, until I spotted Ryan coming towards me. Ryan was a couple of years older than me. Even though I knew who he was, I’d never really had much to do with him.
“Just looking for your sister.”
“Interested, are ya?” Ryan was beside me now with a cocky smirk on his face. He was enjoying watching me squirm a little too much for my liking.
“Nah. We’re just friends. I was bored. Thought she’d like to go raise some hell. Not a lot happens around here on a Friday night.” Even I was impressed with how I dodged that bullet.
“You’re probably right. Night life’s nothing like she was used to, that’s for sure. I never got to go to boarding school, but I imagine it was all pillow fights and pyjama parties.”
“In your dreams, man.”
In my pocket my fists were clenched together so tightly it was hurting my teeth. Ryan didn’t have a fucking clue what boarding school had been like for Holly. Fuck, I barely knew what it’d been like for her. All I was sure of was it wasn’t all slumber parties and pillow fights.
“She’s in town with the girls. Something about hair and nails.”
“Cool.”
“Yeah.” He didn’t look convinced by my deliberate nonchalance. Honestly, neither was I, but it was all I had.
“So, what you going to do now?”
“Head home, I guess.”
“You in a hurry?”
“Nah.”
“Come on then.”
How could I say no? I thought about it. I had no idea where I was headed and no one knew where I was. For a few minutes we walked along what I assumed was some kind of path. The further we got from the house, the darker it became. The moon was giving off the only light, and since it was barely a sliver tonight, that wasn’t saying much. Ryan though, he strutted with a confidence I didn’t understand. Rounding a corner, a blazing bonfire came into sight and I could taste the thick smoke on the air.
“What’s this?”
“We had some shit to get rid of. Why not burn it?”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
As we approached I noticed the others slunk back in canvas chairs, their feet propped up on eskies and beer bottles in their hands. This, right here, this was country living at its finest.
“Well, well, well. Where’d you find this one?” Connor asked as he ran his hand through his long hair and dropped his feet from the scuffed up blue esky.
“Hanging out with the old man.”
“Shit, Reynolds…what did you do wrong?”
Ryan pushed an esky in my direction and I plonked my ass down. Everyone around me had a beer cracked in their hand and I was dying to ask for one, but kept quiet. Drinking around these guys wasn’t the smartest option for me right now. I could still see that damn photo in my head, and it was taking everything I had to not tell them about it. If I did, it’d be their problem to deal with, not mine. Surely they could protect Holly from this better than I could. There was more of them, for a start, and it didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that with these four, Holly was up on a pedestal.
“Chill, Gage!” Ryan deflected as he twisted the cap off his bottle and tossed it towards the fire. “He was here looking for Holly.”
Asshole!
I think I’d have rather them believe I was just in shit with their old man than interested in their sister. The matching menacing glares that crossed Connor and Beau’s faces were as intimidating as hell. God help her if Holly ever did decide to bring a boyfriend home. This lot would scare anyone off. Hell, I was one word from bolting back to my truck.
“Holly, hey?”
“What’s the go with you two? You like my sister?” Beau asked. I noticed he set his bottle at his feet and sat up straight. I felt like the wrong answer right now would get my ass kicked and I was seriously not in the mood to go there tonight.
“Chill! We’re just friends.”
“Friends. Sure.”
“Seriously, just friends. She seemed like she could use one.”
“And you just happened to step up?”
Were these guys for real? Everyone except Ryan seemed to have a bug up their ass about me hanging out with Holly. Maybe if they paid more attention to what she needed instead of just throwing their weight around, pretending to be her saviours, she wouldn’t be so damn vulnerable and sad. The thought alone had me balling up my fists. It didn’t surprise me that I’d have to fight to defend Holly, from the moment I saw her I kinda knew that. I just never thought I’d be defending her from her brothers.
“Fuck off!” Yep, I went there. Probably should have taken a breath or two before reacting but I couldn’t help it. These guys were seriously pissing me off. “Do you have any fucking idea what Holly’s been through? What she goes through every damn day?”
Blank faces stared back at me. I guess I’d just thrown out a twist they didn’t see coming.
Ryan caught my eye and shook his head sadly. I think he was trying to beg me to shut up and just let it be, but I couldn’t. They wanted to judge me, they wanted to pretend I was the big bad wolf in Holly’s fairy tale, then they had a lot to learn. A hell of a lot.
“W-what are you talking about?” Gage mumbled, seeming less stuck up and more concerned.
“Have any of you actually talked to Holly? Do you really know what’s been going on in her life?”
“I know exactly what’s going on in her life, Jack. She’s my sister. My sister who tried to kill herself. My sister who thought swallowing a handful of pills and washing it down with Dad’s scotch was a good idea. That’s what’s going on in her life, so don’t you fucking dare lecture me. I know all right.”
Wow! I’d struck a nerve there. Beau was vibrating. Like obviously vibrating. His whole body, his whole demeanour had changed, and now he w
as wound as tight as a snake.
“Calm down, Beau,” Ryan attempted. He was nothing like the others. The other three, Beau, Connor and Gage were scary as hell right now. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what was running through their minds as the silence settled over us. All I could hear was the crackling of the fire and my own breathing. “Jack’s not the enemy here.”
“He sure as shit sounds like it. Thinking he fucking knows everything. We’re her brothers, for god’s sake. Don’t you think we care?”
“I have no doubt you do,” and it was the honest to god truth. They cared. Undoubtedly they cared. I was an only child, so I didn’t really understand the brother sister bond but just looking around at these guys made me wish I had a brother. Someone who had my back. Someone who’d jump to my defence without thinking or even knowing the score. Jealousy was an ugly emotion. “But have you actually talked to her? Figured out why?”
That shut them up.
For a long time no one said anything. Ryan stood up, pulled a six pack from the esky he’d been sitting on, and handed them out. Even I got one.
“She tell you?” Connor asked gruffly as he tossed his empty towards the tower of flames.
“Not all of it.” Holly had told me a lot. A lot more I’d figured out. Then with the addition of tonight’s photo, it was all adding up to be a pretty horrific story. “She told me some.”
“What about you, Ryan? You two always talk.” I detected a hint of jealousy in Beau’s question but Ryan simply shrugged it off.
“We’ve talked some. I don’t think anyone has the full picture.”
“Yeah, I agree. Something happened the other night and she was upset.”
“About what?” Connor was an idiot. Not on purpose, but he was just clumsy. He was kinda like that loveable oaf.
“No idea. She wouldn’t say.”
“You didn’t leave her on her own, did you?” Beau asked. He stood up, looking incredibly stressed. “You know we can’t leave her on her own. We promised. After what happened…”
“I know.”
“We all know, Beau.”
“She wasn’t on her own though. Carly was there. They were in the bathroom for ages, and when they came out, I knew they’d both been crying, but they weren’t saying why. She seemed better though.”
Meet The McIntyres - The Complete Series Page 53