Protecting Love (LarssonSiblingSeries #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Betty

I killed a man

It's hard for my brain to process anything right now. I want to run, but my bum is stuck to the mattress. I want to shout at him for answers, but my vocal cords are numb. So, Finn's a killer. Why am I acting so calm about this? I stare into the eyes I've grown so fond of and see fear. It's palpable as our anxiety almost floats around in the air.

"Say something," Finn says, voice cracking on every syllable.

The blood pumping in my ears grows louder when he reaches out, and my hand moves back into my lap on instinct. Finn makes a whimpering sound that slices me in half, but I don't want to get too close to him right now, needing answers first.

"Start from the beginning," I bring my arms under my armpits as I fold my arms across my chest. "You need to help me be less confused right now."

"I'll tell you everything," he nods his head up and down. "Just promise you'll listen. I didn't mean to do it. It was a terrible accident. One, I'm still paying, for now, three years later."

"What happened, Finn?"

There's no easy way for him to tell me, I get it. But, I have a million possibilities and thoughts going around in my head. Danger, being in the forefront. Am I safe? Don't make him angry. Does he have anger issues?

Guilt floods me like a tidal wave.

Of course, I'm safe; it's Finn.

"It was my first Adult MMA Fight League. I trained for years to get to that point of victory to have it go to absolute shit. I had a rival called Kaine Mason. I guess you could call us enemies in the ring. Out of the ring, he was a pretty decent guy. We were similar in age, give or take a few years. Kaine had a family, and his kids were real young, babies even.

"We trained under the same fight club until he decided to move onto Elite's, which pissed off our manager Frank. I didn't want to fight Kaine. I knew I was stronger than him. I was heavyweight, and he'd been fighting lightweight for years.

"Our managers thought it would be a good idea to make us fight against each other. Don't get me wrong, Kaine was an animal in the ring, but so am I and it's a lethal mix. The guy bulked up and trained hard for months before our fight, and I started to think that maybe we'd have a chance.

"Kaine won all of his matches against heavyweights leading up to it, and I was beginning to feel less cocky. I watched his fights, and he was relentless, breaking men's arms in fact. So, I knew I had a real battle coming. The media hyped it up a lot, and the nerves were starting to show on both our parts.

"The day before fight day, Kaine rang me and said how he couldn't believe how much hype it was causing. I agreed, you never really see such a following, especially in the main news, unless you are a star like Connor McGregor or Jon Jones. It kills me now to think how much of a genuinely nice guy Kaine was, he didn't have to call me, but he did, and we had a good chat, talking about shit, wishing each other the best.

"Two rounds in the fight and I can see he's lagging. We both got a few good hits in, and he had me on the ground a few times. But, I was stronger. I held back and dodged some of his side-jabs, trying to let him rest awhile. In the end, I didn't care who won, Kaine had shown he was a born fighter, and in my eyes, that makes him the winner," he breaks off in an almost sob.

I shuffle closer to be near him, my heart hurting at the story he's telling me, knowing it's going to hurt even more in a minute.

Finn takes hold of my hand and brings it up to his face to nuzzle the skin with his nose. "The third round came, and he seemed to perk up a little bit. I saw him come forward at me, and I tried to get my arm around his chest, but for some reason he kicked up at me, tripping me forward. I stumbled before accidentally spinning him around, my arm slipping towards his neck. The crunch is what I heard first as we both fell to the ground and I knew I'd done something wrong.