PLAY WITH FIRE

CHAPTER 30

HOLDEN KINCAIDE

PRESENT TIME

I was getting over being woken up by my phone ringing. This time I'd managed to slip out from my bed and out of the room without so much as knocking Scarlett and causing her to stir. When I was out on the balcony I looked down at the name on my phone and froze. Oh god.

Breathe. In and out. Breathe. 

I accepted the phone call, bringing the phone to my ear. Neither of us spoke for a moment. 

"Hey Honey" She spoke softly. I could imagine the warm sympathetic smile on her face and the thought sent an ache straight to my heart. Hearing her voice both calmed me, and put me on alert. I sucked in a sharp breath, closing my eyes. 

"Hi Mrs Hartley" I greeted her, mentally punching myself in the face when my voice barely came out as a whisper. There was an airy chuckle on the other end of the line. 

"Holden, I've known you since you were a toddler. You're family. It's Melinda to you" I rubbed a hand over my face, shivering as the wind picked up, hitting my bare back, sending a shock wave of goose bumps over my entire body. 

"Sorry...Melinda" I fixed myself, the both of us falling into silence again. We hadn't spoke in a while now. Since I'd told her I got enough evidence to get Scarlett out of prison and put my brother in. 

"I'm sorry to hear about your Dad" The Hartley's knew of my hate for my blood family, just not the reasons as to why. 

The Hartley's were my real family. They knew that. And so did my modified birth certificate. 

"The lord detests lying lips" I spoke, hearing Melinda's loud snort on the other side of the line, a small smile coming to my lips as I closed my eyes. 

"Holden Maverick Hartley-" Stab straight to my heart. "Are you using the bible against me?" I grinned through the pain. 

"Possibly. Is it working?" A long pause. 

"Yup" I let out a laugh, shaking my head at my chosen mother on the other end of the phone. 

"You're not sorry at all, are you?"

"Not one little bit. That man is burning in hell with your mother" Apart from Scarlett, Melinda, Killian and...Nolan.... nobody knew about what I'd gone through growing up. 

A month before the accident Nolan had walked in on a beating, not a rape thank god, but an intense beating. I remember watching the colour drain from his face in an instant, his eyes wide in shock and disgust. He was the first person to ever get physical with my mother. She'd been the one delivering the beating whilst Wyatt held me still. Nolan practically threw her to the floor, hands shaking as he punched Wyatt getting him away from me. His whole body was shaking by the time he'd managed to drag me out of the house and to his car. 

Nolan cried that day after I'd told him everything and god did I never want to see it again. 

"How is everyone? Hallie? She's graduating soon" It felt like both yesterday and a hundred years ago that Nolan, Eros, Dean, Schmidt and I were planning a trip for after graduation. The pain in my chest intensified as I thought about Hallie. 

She was the same age Nolan was when he died. 

"That girl worries me. She's been distant lately, less cheerful then the girl she used to be. I think she'd really benefit from a visit" I stiffened. 

"Melinda, I don't think-"

"You're her brother, Holden. That's how she's seen you since she was a little girl. It was bad enough for her to lose Nolan, and now she's losing you" No matter how old she got, she would always be the little girl I'd protect with my life. I felt protective over her the way Demetrie did Scarlett.