Page 60 of Forsaken

Caleb used his free hand to wipe at his puffy eyes. “That was when I knew the truth,” he said quietly.

“What truth?” I asked.

“I think my dad injected heroin into Nick while I was calling 911.”

Terror swamped me at that. Being a kiddie rapist was one thing, but a murderer too?

“Why do you think that?” Mav asked. “Your brother had a drug problem, didn’t he?”

Caleb nodded. “He did, but he was getting help. Part of the treatment program was daily drug screens. He’d had one that morning. I found the test results on his desk in his room when I was looking for pictures to have enlarged for the service. If he’d shot up between then and when he got home, I would have been able to tell that he was high.”

“Where would your father have gotten the drugs?” Mav asked.

“Nick wasn’t the only one with a problem,” was all Caleb said.

“Tell them the rest,” Jace urged.

Caleb nodded.

“The day I called Eli, a friend of Nick’s stopped by to bring me an envelope. Nick had asked him to give it to me if anything ever happened to him.”

“What was in it?” I asked.

“A piece of paper with a location on it. Fisherville Quarry. Nick and I used to freshwater dive there all the time and after we were done, we’d explore these caverns.”

“You think Nick hid whatever proof he was talking about there?” Mav asked.

“He did,” Jace said as he pulled a flash drive from his pocket and held it up. He handed it to Mav.

“Did you check it yet?”

Jace nodded. His eyes shifted to me briefly before he said, “It’s full of videos.”

My chest constricted painfully and I actually reached up my hand as if I could stem the pain that way. “Of all of us?” I asked, unable to lift my eyes from where they were staring at the ugly brown carpet beneath our feet.

Jace was silent for a moment. “Yes.”

I couldn’t stop the tears that fell because I knew what would happen next. I turned to look at Mav and whispered, “Please don’t watch it.”

“Eli,” Jace said gently and I looked up at him. “Caleb told me that Nick saw you and your stepfather the night you got your driver’s license. Apparently Nick asked his mom to bring him over that night to spend the night and your stepdad either forgot or never got the message. When he saw what you and your stepfather were doing, he left and caught up to his mom before she left. He told her he’d changed his mind and didn’t want to spend the night anymore. He told Caleb you were into what was happening to you.”

Humiliation tore through me at that and I gladly leaned into Mav when he pulled me against his chest.

“Eli, listen to me,” Jace implored and then he was leaning across the distance between the two beds so that he could put his hand on my knee. “I found the video of that night and I watched it…all of it.”

Fuck, would this never end? “Mav, please, I can’t do this,” I bit out as the shame sent heat flooding through my entire system. Mav’s arms tightened around me.

“I’ve got you, Eli,” he murmured against my ear. “I’ve got you.”

I wished Jace would stop talking, but he continued. “Eli, he drugged you.”

It took me several long seconds to process what Jace had said. I turned my head on Mav’s chest so I could see the other man. “What?”

“There was a small bar in the den. It had a refrigerator in it, do you remember?” Jace asked.

I nodded. “That’s where he got the beers from.”

“The security camera captured him putting something in one of the bottles after he opened it and before he handed it to you. He did it to the second beer too.”

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