because she was a single mom with a kid while you were a single guy with no responsibilities who got himself into trouble. I’d say that’s pretty legitimate.”
“She had money,” he snarled, stepping toward me. From the rustle at my back, I knew my friends were ready to breach the tree line. “Our parents’ money! Your father’s life insurance. Her life insurance! It should have all been mine.”
I paused, studying him closer now. “You thought she was rich? And what, just not spending any of it?”
His chest was heaving as he glared at me. “She never spent money. Not unless she had to,” he snapped. “I knew she was hoarding it away. She had to be.” He spun now, kicking hard at his car.
“But…” I considered him for a minute as I ran over what little Mom had told me about her family. I knew she’d gotten a little money when they’d died, but it hadn’t been much. “She had to pay for their funerals.” I racked my brain, trying to think. “You just said she paid for your rehab, your debts, your education. Maybe she put money into our house?” I shrugged, not really sure. “I told you my dad’s money went to medical bills. She explained that years ago when she told me if I ever had kids to be prepared to pay out the nose for it. You’re the accountant, so I’d think you’d be the one to trace it.”
“I did trace it!” He whirled, screaming the words at me.
Fuck this, Ian spat. I’m leaving the camera in the tree, but I’m coming down, he stated firmly. This shit is going sideways fast. Wow, Ian swore twice, he really was worried. The errant thought tickled my brain as I sidestepped Lyle.
“There had to be more! There had to be!” Panic twisted his face now. “I made promises, damn it! I swore that once she was dead, I’d be able to pay. How could I have known that there was almost no money left? That she had used the little she had brought in over the years on you to buy diapers or groceries or pay for your school?” He spat the words as if they were disgusting, rather than realities of being a good parent. “She didn’t have a good life insurance policy! The perfect Candice only had enough to pay for her goddamn burial,” he seethed, slamming his fist into his car again. “And the fucking lawyer she had draw up the custody papers made them so damn tight I couldn’t even put an insurance policy on you like I’d promised.” Ice froze the blood in my veins, and I felt everything inside of me still.
The link in my head went dead silent as the repercussions of that statement echoed across our bond.
Chapter Thirteen
Pixie
“You told them she’d have an insurance policy?” The words felt foreign in my mouth. “You told the people you owe money to, a lot of money to, that my mother wouldn’t pay your debts but had money and a life insurance policy.” I was shaking now as my wolf fought to rise to the surface, the need to override Alarick’s command as strong as breathing. “You told them you’d put an insurance policy on me if it wasn’t enough.”
“I sold everything to pay what I could, but it wasn’t what I’d promised. Then they took you away to that damn school,” he hissed, stepping closer. Shock held me in place as my wolf howled her sorrow and fury. “Awful things happen at boarding schools, especially to scholarship students. It’s on the news all the time. I figured you’d run or get kicked out. Everyone had seen you regress, fall apart, shut down. When you disappeared, I wouldn’t have even been a suspect—a healthy young girl like you would fetch a good price, you know.”
I’ll do worse than kill him. It was Shannon’s voice in my head now, her roar of fury inciting my own.
Hold. Alarick’s voice rang with command, though snarls of outrage echoed through us. She needs to hear it all. Thoughts had a taste now, breaking through the horror that held me—anger and pity were sour, sinking inside me.
“A drunk driver killed her.” I barely got the words out of my frozen lips.
He inclined his head, as though it meant nothing to him. As if she meant nothing to him. “He was drinking, yes. He knew who he was hitting. They gave him a choice. Death by them, or time