Behind the Tears (Behind the Lives) Read Online Free

giving the door a knock.
    Voices started up on the other side, too soft for him to make out.
    “Ash, I needa talk to you,” Dante said, putting his ear to the door. He could just hear Beth say, “It could be good news.” He wished it was. “Please, Ash, it’s important.”
    When no one answered, he headed for his own room, feeling exhausted and wrung out. He pulled off his jacket and threw it onto the bed, then unbuttoned his shirt.
    “Dante?”
    Dante turned around. Dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, Ash stood in the doorway, his body as rigid as a statue. “Did Chaz get parole?”
    Dante shook his head.
    Looking relieved, Ash ran a hand through his messy black hair. “You had me goin’ there for a sec. With your expression, I thought he’d been given it for sure.”
    “I don’t know if he got out or not. I got asked to leave.”
    Ash dropped his hand. “Why?”
    “I yelled at Chaz and unintentionally insulted the judge.”
    “Bloody hell, Dante, I did tell ya not to go.”
    “I had to, plus...” Dante cringed at his next words. “...if I hadn’t gone, Sledge would’ve been there alone.”
    “Sledge?” Realisation flashed across Ash’s face. “You—”
    Dante cut him off, desperate to explain himself. “I didn’t know he wuz there until it wuz too late.”
    “You promised to keep him away!” Ash yelled, his expression telling Dante he was beyond reasoning with.
    “I had no control over what happened.”
    Ash’s jaw flexed, the anger in his eyes making Dante nervous. “Calm down, Ash, Sledge doesn’t think any less of you cos of it.”
    “He fuckin’ hates me.”
    “No, he doesn’t,” Dante said, not knowing whether it was true or not.
    Ash lifted his hands to his head, then before Dante knew what was happening his brother rammed a fist into the wall. Beth screamed in the passage, causing Ash to freeze, then he spun around and headed for the bathroom.
    Dante followed, stopping in the doorway as Ash got into the shower fully clothed. Ash turned on the tap and slid down the wall, tilting his head backwards. Water cascaded down his cheeks like a curtain of tears.
    Dante closed the door, blocking Beth from getting in. “He needs to be left alone.”
    “No, I wanna be with him,” she said, looking distressed.
    Dante gave her arm a gentle squeeze. “Give him a bit of space. He’ll come out when he’s ready.”
    “What happened?”
    “He’s upset over Sledge being at the parole hearing.”
    “Why? Sledge has a right to be there.”
    “Just go back to your room and wait for Ash,” Dante said, unable to tell her more, because Ash had also kept the rape a secret from her too.
    “Why won’t you tell me?”
    “Cos it’s got nuthin’ to do with you.”
    Her eyes flashed with anger. “Everything to do with Ash is my concern.”
    “Not this, its family stuff.”
    “I’m part of the family now.”
    “No, you’re not, you’re just a girlfriend.”
    She shoved him. “And you’re just an arsehole!” She stormed into her room, slamming the door so hard it rattled on its frame.
    Wincing, Dante returned to his room, his head still pounding. He closed his door and pulled open the top drawer of his cabinet, surprised when he couldn’t find his new meds. Stuff it, he’d look for them later, and anyway, he needed aspirin more. He stripped off his clothes, changing into jeans and a singlet, then headed for the kitchen, stopping at Beth’s door as she poked her head out of the room. He went to say sorry, but got the door slammed in his face again. Frustrated, he leaned his head against the wood panelling, again wishing for things to be different—and for someone he couldn’t have.
     

 
     
     
    3
    Sledge
    Sledge steered the motorbike into his driveway just as his mate got out of a battered blue Ford. He’d been driving around for the past hour, trying to get himself under control. God, Ash had been raped! That had blown him away, making his stomach twist up so bad that it physically