"What? How would you know that?" None of the guys have been told the final steps. It's a secret Kai has kept his lips sealed about.
"Because I helped him create this whole plan," he admits, guilt covering his face. "We were both drunk. His girlfriend and his mom had just died. He was really fucked up over it and I was just trying to take his mind off it. He started talking about the perfect way to get revenge on someone. I didn't think he was serious. I thought we were just messing around. I had no idea that he would use it against my daughter of all people. There are only three steps left. She's been so strong to make it as far as she has but he's going to use those last three to break her." The fear is clear on his face as he looks in the direction of Aria's hospital room door.
"What is the final step?" I know I should probably ask what the other final step besides Kaylee is but I need to know what step it is that's going to destroy her.
"Making her watch as he kills the person she loves most in this world."
My entire body freezes for a moment at his words, unable to comprehend why the hell Kai is willing to take things so far.
"Aria doesn't let many people get close to her. She doesn't have any siblings and she hasn't seen her mother since the day she was born, which leaves …" He trails off with a half-shrug.
My eyebrows shoot up. "You?"
He nods. "I'm all she has, and I know it's going to destroy her when he uses her love for me against her."
"Why the fuck are you still here? You know what he's going to do, and you haven't left?" I ask, unable to wrap my head around this.
"You'll understand when you become a parent. Youneverabandon your child. As long as she's here, so am I."
I don't understand. Maybe if my father wasn't a piece of shit and my mom had some type of mental capacity to put her children first, I might.
"But, if you really want to understand what you're dealing with here—with Kai's obsession with my daughter—then I have something that might shed some light."
I'll admit, Kai enacting C-4 on Aria did seem out of left field. As far as I know, she didn't do anything to him. Blaine got butt hurt when she turned him down. That's it. That doesn't warrant what Kai is doing to her.
"What is it?" I ask.
"Not here. Meet me at my house and I'll show you."
* * *
A momentof hesitation runs through my mind as I turn into the neighborhood Coach Patrick lives in.
I've learned to be paranoid and suspicious of people. Not everyone is out to help but I remind myself that he's trying to help his daughter. He knows I want to protect her so we're fighting the same battle.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend, right?
I park on the street outside his house and wait. My phone rings with a call from my mom but I ignore it. She can wait. She's probably drunk and wants me to pick up my little sister from the sitter. Irresponsible. That's my mom in a nutshell.
I watch Coach Patrick's rental pull into the driveway before I climb out of my car.
He seems as paranoid as I am.
No one likes Malakai Harris but people do what he says anyway as a means of survival. It's safer to do as he says than fight him.
We hurry into the isolation of his house and he shows me to his office.
Cases line the walls with books, different football trophies, and a few framed photographs—not too different from Kai's home office.
Why the fuck do they even have home offices? They're football coaches for fuck’s sake. It's not like they have a business that requires an office.
"Have you seen this before?" Coach hands me an eight by ten photograph. The color has faded with age but the picture is clear. It looks like a high school dance photograph featuring what has to be a young Kai with a pretty brunette on his arm, and Coach Patrick with a beautiful redhead who looks almost exactly like Aria.
"I think so—not sure though. Is this her mom?" I ask.
Sadness builds in his eyes as he nods. "Her name is Lillian James. She was my high school sweetheart and … Kai's sister. I thought Aria keeping her mother’s last name was a good way to honor her.”
What the fuck? Kai raped his own niece? What kind of sick fuck does that shit?
