Nick's POV
Reagan continued. "Raymond got out of that mess by paying Jay off with money he didn't owe. I felt sorry for him, I really did. But he was obsessed with Georgia. And Jay…" He swallowed hard.
"Jay wanted Georgia as payment. Raymond couldn't stand that idea. So when Jay demanded David's body to be a punching bag instead, Raymond said yes. He told me Jay just wanted to scare David. He asked if he could bring David to my birthday party. I thought it was nothing serious, just a stupid plan to rough him up a bit."
He looked at me again, eyes bloodshot and heavy with guilt.
"I didn't know what they were really planning, Nick. I swear on my life, I didn't know it would end the way it did."
For the first time in years, I didn't see him as the reckless bastard who ruined everything. I saw a broken man haunted by every wrong turn he ever took—one that, deep down, he wished he could undo.
