Page 110 of Wicked Minds
“Tried that, remember? You blew me off forher.”
There’s no snark in his tone. He just sounds bone-tired.
“It wasn’t intentional. There’s…” I sigh, leaning forward to rest my elbows on my knees. “There is so much I can’t tell you, Grayson.” I hold his stare, needing him to hear me. “I need you to get over this hostility you’re holding on to ‘cause I don’t know what to do, and I could really use your help.”
His eyes close as he drops his head back to the sofa. “I can’t even help myself. I’m in no position to help anyone else.”
“What has happened?” I ask him directly. “Because there’s no way you’re acting this way solely over Riley.” I wrack mybrain. “Is your Gran okay, or did something happen with your dad?”
The noise that leaves him concerns me. It’s the sound of someone broken, and not once have I ever seen Grayson break. He is an insurmountable strength. Everything this life has thrown at him, he’s dealt with it head-on. Taken it in stride, even if it struck him deeper than he’d allow anyone to see. His dad’s arrest. His Gran’s illness.
Riley’s sudden appearance is the first thing to crack that facade, but somewhere along the way, he’s completely fallen apart.
“Oh, you know,” he says blasé, yet there’s a manic cackle in his voice that has me seriously concerned for his sanity. “Just Gran thinking I’m my grandfather and telling me someone—pretty sure my dad—is killing her daughter. Then, mistaking me for my dad and looking at me like Freddy Krueger walked into the room.
“Oh, and I can’t forget her latest revelation where she told meshegave the police the evidence they needed to arrest him.” He emits a harsh, broken laugh as I stare at him wide-eyed.Well, fuck. That’s… a lot.
“And I can’t fucking tell if it’s the insane ramblings of a woman whose brain is being ravaged by a disease that makes it impossible for her to differentiate reality from make-believe or if there’s any actual basis to her words.”
Falling silent, he stares at the ceiling, lost in his thoughts. “Yesterday, I watched my father all dressed up in his suit for court, and I couldn’t fucking see it,” he continues, tone devoid of any emotion. “If he’s a monster, I don’t fucking see it.” With his head still resting on the sofa, he turns it toward me. “What the fuck does that say about me?”
“It means you’re human, Gray. That you don’t want to believe the worst of the only parent you’ve got,” I say as reassuringly asI can. “The way this is eating you alive… you need to find out if what your Gran said about your mom is true.”
“How?” he asks, defeated. “Can’t exactly ask my dad.”
“If your Gran had evidence of your dad’s embezzlement, maybe she has something else?” I muse aloud.
“Wouldn’t she have used that to send him to prison long before she did?” he counters, still sounding just as forlorn.
“She might not have anything conclusive, but there might besomething.”
He just shrugs his shoulders, and I drop it. Now isn’t the time.
Since I have him, though, a pressing question has been nagging at me since I found that revolting envelope of cards scattered on Riley’s floor.
“Gray,” I hedge, aware I’m walking on thin ice. “Did you tell your dad that Riley was at Halston?”
“No,” he answers bluntly, not looking my way.
“You’re sure?”
He nods. “Yes.”
Fuck.Then how did he know she was here? I scrub a hand over the coarse hair along my chin. Could her mom have passed it on to her on Christmas Day, and I missed it? Possible. It’s not like I was in my right mind that day. Except, I saw how determined Riley was to run… the fear in her eyes…
I rub my palms down my jeans.Just one more fucking puzzle to solve.
Mind reeling, I decide to leave Gray to his thoughts. I stand, going to exit the room, when he asks, “Is she okay?”
I stop, glancing over at him. His eyes are open, trained on me, and I know who he’s referring to. I momentarily debate not answering him. Would serve him right after the way he delivered that life-altering news to her.
Yet, after what he just told me, I find myself answering honestly. “No, Gray. She’s not okay. You decimated the already unstable ground she was walking on.”
His throat bobs as he swallows, and I see regret flash across his eyes before he closes them and sags deeper into the sofa cushions.
“I’m gonna stay at hers for the next few days,” I tell him. “I imagine Logan will be too.”
He simply nods. “I think I’m gonna shower and head into the office. Might stay in the city for a bit—clear my head.”
