Page 56 of Word to the Wise

She’s spent her life surrounded by violence, only to find love with a man who directed it at her, so I’m not naïve enough to think she won’t be hesitant now that she knows my secret. I deserve every bit of her doubt. But I need her to understand that even if I don’t regret what I did to Gabe, I do regret what came before that. Because I was too late.

I couldn’t save my sister.

I stare into Reed’s deep brown eyes and wait for her to pull away. For her face to fill with fear. But neither of those things happen. Instead, she does something unexpected—she places her hand over mine on the counter.

One touch, and I want to be a better man. I want to deserve her. I want to prove that the things I’ve donedon’t make her unsafe. I’d burn the world down to protect her—she’s everything to me.

If there’s one person who makes me feel worthy of making it through the day, it’s her. Breaking that endless cycle of mornings where I forgot why I was climbing out of bed. If there’s one person who gives me purpose again—it’s Reed Jackson.

“Tell me what happened.” She rolls her shoulders back, not releasing my hand. “Please.”

I’m sure she’s read the articles. There’s not much online, but she’s a smart girl. She can put two and two together. Gabe died less than a month after my sister, and I was one of their primary suspects. The only reason they couldn’t prove it is because my father used his contacts to bury the evidence.

If it were up to me, I’d be locked up. After all, I deserved worse than that for failing Sienna.

“Okay.” I pull my hand back and wipe my palms over my face.

My neck is prickling with unease.

I’ve never said this out loud, which is why I ran from Las Vegas in the first place. But if anyone deserves to hear the truth, it’s Reed. She’s trusted me with her scars; it’s only fair I show her my own.

“Sienna wasn’t battling depression like the papers made it sound, even if she’d been struggling the couple of weeks before. It wasn’t some long-term thing, and she’d never been in and out of treatment like my dad told them.”

When he met with reporters, he played up Sienna’s struggles. He figured it made him look better if she wasa lost cause he’d tried to save. He leaned hard on the pity angle so his business wouldn’t take a hit.

That’s all he ever cared about—his money, his hotels.

Sienna and I were chess pieces. Legacies meant to someday take control of his fortune. Neither of us wanted it, and he resented us for it. I think it was a relief for him when I finally moved to LA. Then, at least I could disappear from sight, and he could pretend I didn’t exist.

“Gabe and I met in college, and we were really fucking close for a while. I considered him one of my best friends.” To even say that makes my skin itch after what he did. “After college, we got a little too heavy into the party scene, which is easy to do in Vegas. And it just devolved from there.”

Reed doesn’t interrupt me. She blinks up at me with her big brown eyes, listening to every word, even if it feels a little like she’s weighing how she feels about them.

“When Sienna turned twenty-one, she and Gabe started dating. It was casual at first, and they tried to hide it from me because they figured I wouldn’t approve.”

“Did you?”

“No.” I click my tongue. “Gabe was one of those guys who really let the money get to him. Drugs, alcohol, women. He used them all, and my sister got caught up in it.”

“The heart makes stupid decisions.”

If I had to guess, her comment isn’t just for my sister. She’s also been burned by a guy not worth her attention.

“It was my fault; I introduced them.” I shake my head. “They started dating, and Sienna started to party withus. She dropped out of school and made her whole life about him. At first, I thought it was just a phase. But he was feeding her addiction, and Sienna slowly started to spiral. I tried to convince her that he was dragging her down, but she didn’t want to see it.”

“That’s not your fault.”

“Yeah, it is. I should have done more.” I close my eyes and tip my head back. “She started getting distant. And then she was gone.”

“Did Gabe have something to do with it?”

Looking into Reed’s eyes, I want to keep this part to myself because she doesn’t need to carry any more crap around. But I can’t lie to her.

“I knew he was giving her pills, and I thought that was the extent of it. But a couple of weeks after she died, one of her friends came up to me at a bar and told me more about the night that it happened. Sienna was in a bad spot, and the coke Gabe gave her was cut with something else. She was in and out of partying and sleeping. At one point, she went to go lie down, and Gabe thought it would be funny to send a few of his friends in there to—”

I stand up, my words clogging in my throat as I start pacing.

“You don’t have to tell me.” Reed slips off the barstool and walks up to me, taking my hand and pausing me in place.

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