Page 21 of Beyond Repair: Part One

Will and Meg asked us to leave shortly after we heard Nina lock her bedroom door upstairs. It may as well have been a fucking gunshot going off for how much it killed me to be shut out from my girl. And sheismy girl. I know she's convinced we'll run once we know more about what she suffered, but it did the complete opposite.

My instincts are driving me to run to her and never leave her side. I have to remind Nina who we are and the bond we used to share as children.The guys will agree with me that?—

"Sit the fuck down, dude."

Irritation flares, making my back itch with prickling sweat. "Fuck off, Ridge." He sighs but otherwise returns to watching his show.

We haven't seen Nina in almost sixteen hours. How the hell am I supposed to relax? I have no fucking clue what's going on with my cousin, but whatever it is, it’s about to whip him upside the goddamn face.

"Get your shoes on. We're leaving," I declare, snatching my wallet and keys off the kitchen island. Owning a line of resorts gives us badass privileges, like staying in a room that's more like a decent sized apartment. Kai and Henry are next door, so I'll just message them the plan.

Plan infiltrate Nina's life like we never left has been initiated.

I almost forget I told Ridge to get ready, then he opens his broody mouth. "No thanks." Slumped on the couch, I can almost imagine him as a pouting teenager. Now that I think about it, he did this a lot in middle school and high school.

"I'm not asking." I throw one of his tennis shoes at him and feel sick satisfaction when it thumps him hard in the thigh. Tuning out his grumbled protests, I wait by the door as I try to rein in my impatience.

Ridge has always struggled more than me, Kai, and Henry. We've all had our bouts of depression, but when Ridge sinks, he drowns. He'll never admit it, but he's sensitive and feelshard.

On the drive to Nina's, I sneak peeks at my cousin. Growing up the way we did with absent parents that traded childcare means we grew up far closer than some siblings. The part-time nanny at my place was always stoned out by the pool, and Ridge's nanny spent more time snooping in the mansion than anything else. We only had each other and Kai.

Kai introduced Henry to us in middle school after Henry helped him with some schoolwork. I'll never forget the look onHenry's face when he laid eyes on Nina for the first time. He was stunned speechless, but weren't we all? Which was the exact reason Ridge was practically begging her to eat with us that day in the cafeteria.

"Why are we going back there, Trev? Will said not to."

Grinding my jaw, I fight the urge to shove him. Since I'm driving, I pack my words with a punch instead. "You aren't fooling anyone, Ridge. The guilt isn't only yours to hold. You can't take that shit away from us. Acting like you're the reason, theonlyreason, Nina was kidnapped and tortured for two years is completely invalidating to the rest of us."

I feel the weight of his glare before he asks, "The fuck are you on about? Itismy fault.Ishould have brought her home.Ilet her walk out of my house without a second thought. AndIchanged my number. If it weren't for me, she would have years of happiness instead of bruises and suicidal thoughts! If I hadn't changed my number, we would have known she was safe andaliveyears ago!"

His shouting doesn't faze me. It's a fairly normal occurrence when he gets into a rut. If it weren't for me and my dominant tendencies, he would have thrown himself off the deep end a long time ago. He has a close relationship with self-sabotage.

"Who told you to cut ties with our families, Ridge?"

"What?" he snaps, breathing hard. I repeat my question only for him to scoff off my meaning. "You didn't make me do shit, Trevor. The choice was all mine."

Thankfully, just as my temper gets the best of me, I pull into Nina's driveway and throw the truck into park. A big sigh puffs from my lips as I scrub my hand down my face, but when that does nothing to alleviate my rage at Ridge or myself, I slam my hand into the steering wheel.

"The fuck?!"

"Shutup, Ridge. For just a damn second." Breathing heavily, I try to rein in my control as my emotions continue to slip. "You wanna play the guilty game? Fine. Here you go."

I turn in my seat and look my cousin dead in the eye. "Will asked Nina to come home earlier that day to help set something up for her party. Kai and Henry were supposed to pick her up after the movie they went to see at the theater, so they didn't get her text until it was too late. Nina chose to walk home, thinking there was no harm in an easy twenty-minute stroll in the summer across town. You didn't think twice about letting her walk out the door."

"I would have brought her home. I was so wrapped up in my new painting," he whispers brokenly, staring straight ahead like he can remember that day as vividly as if it were yesterday. "I shouldhave?—"

"Nina didn't tell you she was walking home when she left you in your art room." My tone leaves no room for argument. I'm stating facts. "Meg didn't even know what Nina was up to that day since she was so focused on the sweet sixteen party. I was lazing around at home that day."

Fast forward to the day we told our families to fuck off. "AndI'm the one who shattered your phone, brought you to the store the next day, then set both of us up on a new plan with new numbers. Me.Imade the decision to cut us off from our family. Meg could have easily called me instead of you and gotten the same result."

I swallow, hating everything about all of it. "Don't you see? We all hold some responsibility for what happened. Meg, Will,Nina, Henry, Kai, you, me. Don't hold all of our actions on your own. Had one of us done something different, everything could have been better."

I've never said all of that out loud, but he needed to hear it. Hell,Ineeded to hear it. Ridge sits there silently staring off intospace. Instead of demanding a response, I unbuckle his seatbelt and mine. "Come on," I mumble and hop out of the truck.

He has a lot to think about and facts to sort through, but he can do that on Nina's couch while I make sure she's eaten something. Hearing the door slam behind me has me relaxing a little, knowing I don't have to drag Ridge into Nina's home.

We all just need a little Neen to heal our worried hearts.

Chapter 17

---