I shrug and glide back in the water. “I mean, you’re in the water with me right now. Kinda seems like you might not hate being around me, even if you do get mad at least once every time we’re around each other.”
“That’s ‘cause you piss me off.”
“You piss yourself off.”
He glares and I laugh.
I spin around, bringing myself closer to the wall where the water comes about halfway up my stomach.
Royce’s eyes fall to my triangle top and thank god for padded swimsuits.
“Come on, Playboy.”
Slowly, his eyes lift to mine.
“Teach me how to swim?”
He stares a long moment. “I’ll have to touch you.”
A laugh bubbles out of me. “Is that a problem for you?”
“It will be for you.”
I tip my head playfully. “Oh yeah, how so?”
He scoffs, a small tug playing on his lips as his body suddenly loses all of its tension. He walks forward as fast as the water allows him to and smirks. “Clearly you’ve never been touched by a Bray.”
Oh, he’s got jokes.
Okay.
I plant my feet against the wall, grip the edge, turn to look at him, and smirk back. “I’ve never been touched at all.”
I kick off, holding my breath longer than I should as I glide through the water. When I pop up, it’s with a loud gasp. I look toward Royce.
He has yet to move his body, but his eyes, they followed.
I can’t see them from here, the moon now at his back, but I know they’re on me.
Without a word, he climbs out, grabs his clothes.
He leaves.
Ten minutes later Mac is coming through the gate, offering me a ride back to the house.
His ‘offer’ sounds a lot like a requirement, so I accept, and ten minutes after that, I’m stepping into the shower in my bedroom.
I don’t remember falling asleep, but the next thing I know I’m awoken to the sound of my phone ringing.
I frown when I see it’s Ciara who is calling, but quickly answer and bring it to my ear.
“Hey.”
Sniffles sound on the other end and I push against my headboard. “Ciara?”
“Hey,” she whispers.
I frown. “What’s wrong?”
“My mom,” she says quietly, as if she has to whisper. “She’s a piece of shit.”
“What happened?”
“You left.”
I open my mouth but nothing comes out, so I wait for her to speak.
“When I heard you were carried out of school, I went home to... you know, see if you were okay or whatever.” She clears her throat, and my lips twitch. “When I got there Micah was just leaving with all your shit, which is so fucking weird by the way.” A low laugh leaves her.
“Yeah, tell me about it,” I mumble.
“Franky sort of had a fit about that, too, by the way. He’s convinced you two must have been screwing around before that...” She trails off.
I drop my head against the headboard. I hate that for her.
She’s quiet for several seconds before adding. “A guy showed up at the house an hour or so after Micah left.”
“What guy?”
“I don’t know who he was, but he had a smile and a chocolate cake and so she let him in. Right away he started asking her all these questions about you and your brother.”
I sit up. “Like what?”
“If she talked to him before you left, if he knew you left. My mom got pissed, she figured you told people about your life before us, about her brother, but I just assumed he was a friend of Bass’ or something, you know?”
“So what happened?”
“I don’t even know,” she begins to cry, guilt heavy in her tone. “She started yelling at the guy and I just... took off and haven’t been back. I left her in the house with some wannabe square with a freaking comb-over.” She pauses. “I just couldn’t deal. I’m so tired of this crap, Brielle.”
I nod, pulling my knees up and wrapping my arm around them. “I know.” I was too. “So where’s your mom now?”
“Sitting in room 104 with tubes in her arm.” She clears her throat. “She’ll be fine, I guess.”
My eyes widen. “She’s in the hospital?”
“It’ll do her some good to be clean for a few days, something about too much Valium.” She scoffs. “I didn’t even know she was mixing pills with her liquor.”
My brows pull.
Mixing pills with liquor...
No. Can’t be.
Why would Royce send someone to my house after Micah?
He wouldn’t need to, right?
I need to talk to my brother.
Where the hell is my brother?
“Are you okay where you are, Brielle?” she whispers.
I nod. “Yeah. I am.”
“Good,” she swallows. “That’s good. Don’t come back here, okay?”
She knows I don’t plan to, but this helps her feel like she has some sort of control over her life. So I leave her to have it.
“Okay, Ciara,” I breathe into the line, and then it goes dead.
I pause a moment, and then try calling my brother, but get no answer. Again.
So I get up and get ready for school, Ciara’s words heavy on my mind.
Who came to my aunt’s and what the hell did he want?
As I step into the living room, I spot Maybell on the couch. “Everyone’s gone?”
“You didn’t come out, so I thought you might want to take a day.” Maybell stands, coming over to me.
“I was talking to my cousin, and then I tried to get a hold of my brother, but he hasn’t answered in days. It’s not like him.”
I wait, hoping she’ll offer some insight on why he wouldn’t, but she doesn’t, and hey, maybe she’s unaware of the things the boys send their team to handle.
“You can wait, if you need to, child.” Maybell’s eyes scan over the red swollenness framing mine.
I offer a tight small shrug. “If I skipped every time this happens, I’d have failed a long time ago. There will be a next time, and then another, until... well. Until there isn’t,” I tell her even though I get the sense she’s fully aware.
She pulls in a full breath, a slow nod following, “You know, sometimes having my boys at your side makes the world around you real dark.” Her smile’s slow and real. “But every now and again, someone comes along who realizes the world around them holds no light... when they’re not.”
Something inside me twists at her perfectly chosen words.
A world of darkness.
That’s what I’m risking by being here.
If she knows this, she doesn’t voice it, but pats my cheek.
“Will you remember something for me?” she asks, speaking before I can respond. “I need you to remember what feels like the end, is always the beginning. My boys are tough, but I’ve known for some time that breaking into a certain one’s soul would prove to be the hardest battle yet. So just... remember those words, will you, child?”
I swallow, nod, and she does the same, leaving me in the living room alone.
With a deep breath, I head out the front door, and I’m met with an SUV full of Brayshaws.
Instantly, Royce’s eyes meet mine and narrow.
“You’re here.”
“I knew you’d step out eventually.” He takes in my swollen skin but doesn’t comment. He pushes off the back door, pulling it open for me.
When I don’t rush forward, he gives a cocky grin.
He thinks I’m nervous, maybe even second-guessing myself and the reason for him being here, but he’s wrong.
I don’t know why he is here, but I’m sure it’s because he pulled me from the cafeteria at lunch my first day, and then the whole him causing a scene at his own party.
Not that I’m complaining.
I tow my backpack up a little higher on my shoulder and smile.
His
brows furrow, and I glance past him to find a grin on Captain’s face.
I skip down the steps and toward Royce, slipping past and right into the seat.
I reach out to grip the handle, and he stares at me like I’m some creature he isn’t so sure what to do with.
I close the door, and I’ll admit, there’s a bit of fluttering happening in my stomach when I glance around the vehicle.
Cap has spun in the driver's seat, smiling back at me while Raven watches me intently from the front seat. Victoria is at my side and winks while Maddoc keeps his smirk to himself and steps out his door.
Royce walks around and Maddoc pushes the seat forward but makes no other move.
“Fuckin’ for real?” Royce glares.
Maddoc laughs. “My girl’s in the front seat to give her more room, gotta be behind her.”
“Motherfucker, please. Bet your ass is behind her every fuckin’ night since her belly’s busting out in the front.”
Raven laughs, fueling Royce’s fire.
“Unless she’s got Ginuwine on repeat, practicin’ for a rodeo.” He grins.
Maddoc fakes like he’s about to box his brother, and Royce’s hands fly up just as quick. They bounce around a time or two, making everyone laugh.
It’s cute, how playful they are.
I miss that the most, easy fun with my brother.
It’s Royce who gives in, shoves Maddoc, and climbs in the back with a grin that turns into a frown the second we’re all inside and the doors closed.
Captain starts driving now and I shift to face Royce.
He stares out the side window, his easy grin now a flat frown.
He must see my head turn in his peripheral because he looks to me, tipping his head back.
“What’s wrong?”
I swear he tenses though he hides it well, and I know the girls’ heads have snapped this way, but I don’t look. I stare at the boy in the back.
The tiniest of creases frame his eyes when I’m positive he tries for blank and bleak. “Not a damn thing.”
“Liar.”
Silence.
A long, creepy beat of it.
Royce licks his lips and looks away.
I face forward. “Who’s SUV is this one?”
Raven studies me. “It’s Pacman’s, why?”
Pacman must be Captain considering her hand fell on his shoulder as she said it.
He meets my eyes in the mirror.
“Are you finicky about your car?”
He gives a slow shake of his head, his smirk returning to the road. “Go for it, Bishop.”
Awe, look. He gets it.
I unbuckle and climb into the back row, plopping down right beside Royce and refasten my seat belt.
I look up, meeting Royce’s frown, and reach past him.
He trails my hand over his shoulder and past his neck. I grab his seat belt, tug it over his body and click it into place.
I smile. “Playboys should always wrap it up, right?”
His side grin’s so wide it has his lips parting, he flashes a hint of his perfect whites, but he faces forward, unwilling to give it to me completely. His hand lifts to help wipe it away and he kicks a leg out a little farther.
It’s the perfect reaction really, because he’s settling into the seat more, his frown officially turned upside down.
Objective met.
A raspy chuckle slips from Raven in the front seat, and when I face forward, she meets my eyes.
She nods and faces forward.
Later that morning, when I walk into my second period class, the teacher hands me a summer school ballot, the first class listed to start six weeks from now, check marked, and circled in red?
Swimming.
I smile, an unexpected warmth blooming in my chest, sign where the highlighted section tells me to, and hand it back.
I make my way to my seat, a sigh escaping as I take it.
The light Maybell was talking about, a sliver of it shines through, and not for the first time, and it has everything to do with the stubborn, bighearted, Brayshaw.
Thank you, Playboy.
Chapter 18
Royce
Brielle steps around the corner of the living room and into the kitchen, squinting when she spots me standing outside the screen door.
I wait for her to reach me, shove the thing open and come outside, but she doesn’t. She wraps her hand around the frame and pokes her head out, the rest of her still tucked inside.
“What are you doing here?”
What am I doing here?
That’s what she comes at me with?
For real?
My face must give me away because she laughs and slips the rest of the way onto the porch. “I only meant I didn’t expect to see you after school. I mean, I didn’t expect to see you this morning either, after you ditched me in the pool last night and—”
“I get it.”
She laughs again and fuck, man. I shouldn’t be here.
Why am I here?
I don’t realize I’m walking backward until suddenly she’s eye level.
She has no makeup on today, and there’s no sign of puffiness on her face, which is good.
I like her face like this, clear and smooth.
Nothing but her.
I kinda like her.
Wait, no. Not like her like her, but I like her.
I mean, she’s what I like.
Wait! No.
I mean she’s cool, as in not annoying.
She’s a pain in my ass but not the kind I want to run over with my 22’s.
The kind I want to do naughty ass things to.
WHOA.
Bro... chill.
“Where you going?” she asks.
My eyes dart up to hers.
Virgin.
“What?”
She fights a smile, and I notice I’m standing in the dirt in a brand-new pair of Nike throwbacks.
For real? Now I’m a full three feet from the porch steps?
Fuck this.
I shake my shoulders out and make a mental note to ask Maybell about that shoe cleaner she uses.
“Put a suit on. I’ll wait.”
Her brows lift. “Like a blazer?”
“Like a swimsuit.”
“Now?”
“I said I’ll wait.” I frown, turn away, and head back for my ride.
The girl laughs her way back into the house.
She’s buckling into the passenger seat and we’re pulling away from the property within five minutes.
“So, where we going?” She pulls a bottle of lotion from her bag, and squirts some in her hand.
“You’ll see when we get there.”
In my peripheral, her palms flatten against her thighs and start to rub.
I squeeze the wheel a little tighter, my dick twitching in my trunks.
Fuck, man, what am I, twelve?!
She’s putting lotion on. And? Who cares!
I’m not even looking, touching or rubbing and the hot dog printed over my groin is about to be a jumbo dog.
“Royce.”
My head snaps her way.
She tilts hers. “You okay?”
I quickly focus on the road. “Huh. Yeah. I’m good. Fine. Put that shit away, yeah?” I jerk my chin toward her.
She squints and then looks to her hands. “Oh, yeah, sorry. I should have asked.”
“The answer will always be no.”
She doesn’t say anything for several minutes, instead staring out the window. When we’re on an old dirt road, she looks my way. “This looks like an exquisite place to dump a body.”
I scoff. “There’s a little waterhole back here, some sandbars and cliffs and shit.” I cut her a quick glance and keep down the narrowing path. “The entrance is on the other side, but this is the way Maybell would bring us when we were kids.”
“Why not the entrance?”
“No one could see us back here.” I frown at the road.
&nbs
p; When we were young, we were tough, but we were just little boys. We were smart, but not always smarter than grown-ass men with agendas. As added precaution, we were hidden away for the most part.
We had each other, lacked nothing in life, but we weren’t free to roam. The world around us wasn’t safe, facts we understand now more than ever.
It only took one brother falling in love and risking it all, the other getting shot at and me, well, I pretty much partied through it all, came in to fuck up who needed fucked-up, and went on my merry way.
Before we were wild fuckers, we were brave boys.
Places like this were our escape, even if it was still just the three of us.
I don’t know why I’m bringing her out here, and this way.
My foot finds the brake and I’m ready to stop, throw it in reverse and go around, but then I look to Brielle.
She’s unbuckled her seat belt and has her shoulders and face out the window.
When she realizes we’ve stopped, she shifts, her shiny silver hair sticking to the gloss she must have snuck onto her lips as she looks over her shoulder. Right at me.
My stomach hollows and I wonder if I forgot to eat.
And then I remember... I ate plenty.
A heavy frown forms and concern seeps into her crazy, unusual turquoise eyes.
I face forward, take my foot off the brake, and fuck it.
I keep forward until we’re at the wide, flat embankment, park and hop the fuck out.
I don’t wait for her, instead leaping along the smaller rocks. Once I’m on the flat dirt plane, I ditch my shoes, and then jump up another. I continue until I’m at the highest peak point.
It doesn’t take long for her to make her way to me, but she pauses a rock below. I don’t have to glance over to know she’s eating the place up.
She loves the water, and this place offers a hell of a view.
Foothills of all sizes make up the place, large boulders mixed within them. Some of the hillsides stretch long and wide, curl and curve around the banks while others cut off completely, leaving a straight shot into the cool-ass, fresh and clean mountain water. There’re more hidden groves in this place than any other around here. You could come out here, walk all around on the busiest of days and still find your own private, hidden little cove.
“This is so nice.” She scans the area as far as she can see.
I nod, pointing over to the far left peak. “Soon as school’s out, the swim team will start settin’ up rafting trips that’ll leave right back there and take you about four hours downstream.”
Break Me Page 19
