Cataclysm (7 page)

Knowing what that sound meant, Kerrigan reached over and grabbed the collar of his shirt, pulling him toward her. Her eyes never left the road, but her lips still managed to find his before she let him go.

As he began to fade from sight, Dominic looked out of his window in time to see Olivia pass them in the Mustang. She was holding onto the steering wheel tight, trying to keep the car on the road while slapping at Tyson. And then there was Colton. He was looking at Dominic with wild-eyed wonderment, and his mouth dropped open just as the last of his brother’s physical form dissipated with tiny gold and white sparks.

There are times in our lives when no matter what we do to protect the ones we love from the evil we perceive to be buried inside of us, the truth rears its ugly head and slams into our face, forcing us to show our hand. At that point all we can do is batten down the hatches and prepare to ride out the storm.

Mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, best friends—they all want to believe the very best in us. They overlook our flaws, explain them away, hype up all the good deeds we have done. For the most part, it’s the right thing to do.

They say two wrongs don’t make a right, but two rights can’t undo a wrong either, now can they?

When you’re a person as deeply affected by your own conscience as Dominic, no matter how hard they try, your family can’t pardon you from your crimes. You have become your very own judge, jury, and executioner, and you’re not about to let yourself get off that easily. No slap on the wrist for you. Nope. You deserve life without the possibility of parole, and you’ll imprison yourself in that truth for the duration of your miserable existence.

We, more than anyone else, see the dark spot within ourselves, and it’s magnified tenfold just because we let it be. What starts out as a minuscule speck of something not quite right—say, a tiny white lie—we let grow and fester until we have made it into a pitch-black cloud that shrouds our soul. It becomes bigger than us, by our own design, because it eats away at our conscience. Some of us refuse to let it go, even when it becomes a moot point, believing that we’re not really as good as our loved ones believed us to be because, well, how is that possible when we did something wrong? But there’s not one single person on the face of the planet who can say they have led a perfect life. That they haven’t gotten away with some harmless lie or a little cheat here and there.

Here’s where it starts to get a little messy: Some of us get carried away and start compounding those little cheats and harmless lies. Before we know it, cheats and lies have morphed into things much worse until we’re swimming in shit up to our eyeballs because it eventually has to come out. Right?

Whether it’s something we choose to do because we really aren’t as good to the core as our loved ones had hoped or believed, or if we really are good, but were forced to the dark side because a better alternative hadn’t presented itself at the time, we still did it, and we must atone for those sins. Eventually.

Dominic was paying for his big time.

He was cursed—a freakish specter, one of those things that go bump in the night, the stuff children’s nightmares are made of. He believed he deserved what he had become, and that all those “dirty deeds done dirt cheap” in his past had led to the sentence he carried. His penance for cheating, stealing, beating, and killing was becoming something not of this world. All those other lives, innocent or not, had been profoundly affected by him—all in the name of protecting his three-member family. The truth of the matter was he really didn’t give a rat’s ass about himself, but his little brother? He didn’t deserve to suffer. Neither did any of those mothers, wives, and children of the men he had put six feet under.

His day of reckoning had come. Maybe not at the pearly gates of Heaven, but most certainly in his own private Hell.

Colton knew. Well, most of it anyway. By the end of the day, he would know it all. Because Dominic needed to purge his soul of the sins he had committed against mankind, against himself. Whatever the end result, he would live with it, somehow.

Kerrigan had accepted him for what he used to be because she was just the kind of person who always saw the good in people. The thing about that, though, was he hadn’t committed any of those sins for her sake. He had justified the wrong he had done by the right he had done by his brother. Sure, some of it had been for his alcoholic mother as well, but it was because of Sarah Grayson’s handicap that he had to be the one to make sure Colton would be all right, that he would have everything he needed to live a somewhat normal life—a life with the same opportunities kids who came from normal households did.

Still, the end didn’t justify the means. Colton was such a good kid that he would hate Dominic for the guilt he was about to strap onto his shoulders like a backpack full of lead.

Damned if you do. Damned if you don’t.

Last night when they had reached the house, Kerrigan had pulled the Barracuda into the garage, and Dominic went invisible from his manifested state as they greeted their friends. Olivia’s eyes pled a thousand pardons for the mishap—a mishap that was completely at the fault of one very inebriated Tyson. He had apparently had a delusional moment in his drunken state and decided the solution to everyone’s problem was for them to beat Kerrigan and Dominic home, not fall behind. He had pushed down on Olivia’s knee, forcing her to stomp on the gas pedal. By the time he had relented, it was already too late.

Sydney’s slaps to the back of Tyson’s head had been unrelenting, and all he could do was duck and endure the barrage while repeating his mantra of apologies. He couldn’t even fend off the attack because then he would have dropped Colton.

That’s right. When he saw Dominic disappear before his very eyes, Colton had screeched a, “Dude... What... the fuck... was
that
!?” and then passed out in the back seat. It had taken both Tyson and Talon to haul him out of the car and up to his room. Gabe, the mothering hen, flailed his arms behind them and barked orders. Three people, smashed out of their minds, carrying another who barely looked to be breathing while bumping his head into nearly every wall or stationary barrier along the way—it was quite a sight to see. Hopefully, Colton wouldn’t have multiple concussions when he woke.

Needless to say, Dominic hadn’t thought it would be a good idea to pull out the smelling salts to rouse him. He wanted Colton to sleep it off and give him some time to come up with the words to tell his little brother what he should have told him the day he had arrived.

Restless and unable to sleep, he had lain next to Kerrigan while she had continued to give him a pep talk, but not even she could soothe his frantic mind. He wouldn’t be at ease until the truth was out there, and he knew where he stood with Colton.

Around noon the next day, the moment of truth arrived.

Colton was sitting out on the screened-in back porch sipping a cup of coffee, nursing his hangover, when Dominic finally got up the nerve to go to him. Ever faithful, Gabe was by his side with his legs curled underneath him while talking to Millie in baby-speak as the pup licked incessantly at his chin.

Gabe looked up when Dominic and Kerrigan stepped onto the porch. From the expression on his face he knew what was about to go down. His brow furrowed and then relaxed, giving them a half-hearted smile. He was torn in two with conflicting emotions. On the one hand, it was obvious he wanted to be strong for Dominic, encouraging him to get everything out in the open, but on the other, he was full of concern for the man who had become such a good friend to him. Worried and sad at the same time, the momma bear in him didn’t know who to defend.

Dominic inhaled deeply and let his shoulders relax, steeling himself for the conversation about to take place. He plastered a playful smirk on his face and carried himself as if it were any other day and he was just any other big brother poking fun at his younger sibling, taking advantage of his obvious discomfort.

“Mornin’, Colt!” he said louder than necessary and clapped him on the back.

Colton winced. Pain shot through his head like an ice pick to the skull, but he tried to steady his balance before the piping hot coffee spilled down the front of his pristine white T-shirt.

“How ya feeling on this fine, bright, sunny day?” Dominic chuckled as he pulled Kerrigan to sit on the couch with him across from Colton and Gabe. Once she was settled, he draped his arm over her shoulders. Millie hopped down from Gabe’s lap, trading it for Kerrigan’s, and began yet another tongue bathing.

Colton scowled. “Like death warmed over.” He took a careful sip of the steaming cup of cure-all. “Why are you so chipper? Shouldn’t you be feeling about the same way? You drank just as much, if not more, than I did.”

“Bah, you just don’t know how to handle your liquor, young upstart.” Dominic gave him a condescending wink. “In the future, try popping a couple of Excedrine Migraines before you start kicking ’em back, Junior. Keeps the hangover away.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind.” Colton’s eyes had dark rings under them, making him look more tired than he should have been after the way he had passed out the night before. “I can’t even remember half of what happened last night, and my brain keeps conjuring up shit all on its own.” He shook his head back and forth with a chuckle. “Dude, I could’ve sworn I saw you disappear right in front of my eyes. Just...
poof
, vanished into thin air. I think someone must have spiked my drink or something.”

Gabe, Kerrigan, and Dominic looked at each other while Colton laughed to himself, oblivious to the fact that no one else found his temporary delirium quite so funny. Kerrigan patted Dominic’s chest and gave him a tight smile. Translation: now was as good a time as any to drop the bomb. No more dragging ass and dodging the bullet. One way or the other, the secret was going to sink to the bottom of that sea, and he was going to face the consequences. Should he sink along with it, or swim for the shore?

Dominic looked out over the back yard. The sun was shining bright. Puffy white clouds littered the sky like cotton balls suspended in air. Birds were nesting in the trees. Spring flowers were in bloom. He sucked in a breath of fresh air, taking it into his lungs and feeling them expand before exhaling again. It was a good day to die—metaphorically, of course—but maybe some good old exercise would keep one foot out of the grave. The shore it was then.

“Yeah, about that,” Dominic began, his resolve unwavering for the first time in a long time. “There’s something you need to know.”

Gabe cleared his throat and stood. “Okay, well I guess that’s my cue to leave.”

Colton put his hand out and blocked him from leaving. “Where do you think you’re going? Sit back down.”

Kerrigan noticed a little something extra in the way Colton looked at her best friend. There was a tiny spark of familiarity tinged with a smidge of possessiveness behind those eyes. She had seen that look before, only full-on and unabated—every single time Dominic looked at her. Colton must have felt the weight of her stare because he darted his eyes in her direction and then away, swallowing hard and wetting his lips nervously before turning back to Gabe. She chanced a look at Dominic to see if he had seen the same thing, but he was busy watching his foot tap on the floor in nervous anticipation.

Oblivious to her discerning observation, Gabe answered in as sweet a manner as she had ever heard from him. “This is a family meeting, boo. That means Gabriel Baxter, diva extraordinaire, exits stage left.”

“You’re just as much a part of this family as any of the rest of us.” Kerrigan was unwilling to let him believe otherwise. “Which means this involves you as well, and you stay.” The look in her eyes told him everything he needed to know: Colton might need a friend by the time Dominic was done spilling the beans. Since he and Colton had developed quite a strong bond, that friend would be Gabe.

“All right, let’s get this show on the road then.” He resumed his previous position.

Colton had been watching the three of them interact like there was something heavy they were about to drop. The other shoe—if the other shoe was a heavy wrecking ball. “The way you guys are acting makes me think I might need to Irish up my java.” He laughed uncomfortably and sat his mug down on the table beside him before leaning back in his seat. “What’s up?”

Much to everyone’s surprise, Dominic ripped the Band Aid off in one quick, jerky motion. “I’m a ghost, Colton.”

There. The truth was out. They say the truth shall set you free. Odd, Dominic didn’t feel very free. The weight was still there, pressing down on his shoulders so hard he thought he might actually lose a couple of inches off his shins.