Blow after blow, we keep the same pace, trade punches and break through skin. Blood drips down my lips while his flows from above his left eye.
We go in for more, but I switch shit up knowing we could go all night, and when we did tire, it would be at the same damn time.
I would know.
I trained the motherfucker.
I knock him in the ribs, first right, dodging his uppercut, and connect with his left next. He allows himself a single second to breathe, and I use that second to bend my upper body back, twist and spin around him, wrapping him into a headlock.
His next move is to give me all his weight, but I drop us both to the fucking ground before he can and scoot my ass back until the passenger side door meets my back, offering more balance.
Bass growls, his hands locked on my arms, his legs fighting for dominance he won’t get.
But then my hair is pulled from above and my head darts up to meet the Malibu fucking Barbie hanging half out the window.
“The fuck?!” I shout, banging my head against the door to jerk myself free, but she digs her claws in deeper.
“I said stay in your fucking seat!” Bass shouts.
“I’m in the fucking seat, you said nothing about the window.” The girl smirks and his growl turns into a groan.
“Hey, Pamela Anderson’s spawn, get your fucking hands off me or you’re gonna have problems.”
“Oh.” She fake pouts. “I’ve got plenty of those, what’s one more?”
“How ‘bout one that ends with a knife in your side?”
Our heads jerk toward the porch to find Raven, Victoria, Maddoc, and Cap all standing there.
Raven flips her knife open, running it along her index finger, her eyes popping up. “Been a while since I’ve got to use this baby. Give me a reason to.”
A rasped, mocking laugh leaves the girl but Bass cuts her off quickly.
“Cut it, rich girl. Let the bitch go.”
I tighten my hold, digging my knee into his spine and he jerks, trying to reach back.
He manages to slip around, and then we’re rolling again.
We jump to our feet, his grip tight on my stretched collar, until he has my chain locked in his fist.
The motherfucker meets my eyes, and a fire flares in mine.
He knows better than to touch—
He rips it off, my family crest flying somewhere to the left, so I lay his ass out.
He falls back, slamming hard onto the rocks beneath his feet, and I jump on top. I serve him another hard hit to the jaw and his hand shoots up to grip my neck, squeezing, and my airway closes.
But I wink at the bitch, wishing for unconsciousness.
It’s only fair I lose it too, right? Like she did?
I let him go, allow him his other hand to fly up and grip me tighter.
The world around me starts to spin, and when a grin starts to split my lips as the gray takes over, his eyes narrow.
The bastard sees what I want and tosses me aside instead, refusing to give it to me.
I cough, choking for air, and he pants, climbing to his feet as I do.
“Are you guys done now?”
Our eyes fly to the porch to find Brielle standing there.
It’s Bass who speaks first. “You’re in his house...” He trails off, pushing to his full height, and we both slip closer. “I know what this place means to them, to him. If you’re inside this house, then you’re...” His features pull tight.
She gives a small smile. “Inside his heart?”
Fuck me, my chest pounds heavy.
His jaw tics, the tension on his face doubling. “Brielle,” he edges.
Her eyes find mine and I have to grip the porch railing to keep myself standing.
Baby girl...
Brielle’s eyes soften, a small curve to her lips. I don’t realize I’ve moved closer until I’m shoved aside, and Bass slips between us.
He dashes up the steps, grips her by the arm, and pulls.
I lose my shit, dart forward, rip his arm from her body and gently nudge her back.
My brothers come to stand before her, and Bass’ eyes shoot wide.
“Are you for fucking real?!” he shouts. “You want to guard her from me? That’s my fucking sister!”
Brielle’s hand lands on Captain’s arm and his eyes find mine.
I give him no sign, so when she goes to step around him, he lets her.
She steps closer, toward me, and my gut twists when she inches past. “Bass, please. Don’t do this.”
“Seriously?!” is shouted from behind us and all eyes snap that way.
Barbie sits on the edge of the door, her arms folded over the hood. “We drove ten fucking hours through the night to get to you, then you ignore him for days, and that’s the first shit you say when he whoops ass in your name?!”
“Shut up!” Bass shouts.
You can spot her eye roll from here. “What, you know you’re thinking the same thing!”
He whips around. “I said—”
“Yeah, yeah,” she cuts him off, dropping back in the seat and rolling up the window.
Brielle tips her head, squinting at the car, at the girl. “Who is that?”
“Don’t.” He glares at her. “Get in the car, Brielle. Now.”
My heart stops.
She can’t leave.
I need her here, we need her here.
As if he could hear my inner thoughts, he says to her, “You don’t belong here, Brielle. Let’s go.”
“You’re an idiot if you think that’s true.”
“And you don’t know shit,” he forces past clenched teeth. “Stay the fuck out of it.”
“I know you haven’t been to see her, that you don’t have someone watching out for her. That you pretty fucking much dropped her and ran and she was miserable before us.”
He rushes me, pushing his bloody forehead to mine. “Watch it.”
“Nah, motherfucker.” I’m getting pissed over my own words, over what she went through. “You watch it. You might not be under our thumb no more, punk, but don’t forget where you’re at. I could run you over with that sweet little ride of yours, and there ain’t shit you could do about it.”
“I will—”
I meet his step forward with one of my own. “You’ll what?”
“Stop!” Brielle shouts, coming down the stairs and facing off with us both. She frowns from me to him. She looks ready to say something, to shout, but the longer she stands there, staring at him, reality slips back where it belongs, front and fucking center.
This is her brother, her family.
The one person in the world she felt she could—can—depend on. Her safe place.
And she’s missed him, she told me so.
What am I supposed to do? Make her choose between me and him? One or the other?
We’re no longer in the same place, so how can she have us both?
If she leaves, I’ll crumble.
It will break me.
Goddamn it, I might have to follow her.
But my family...
“Stop thinking about what you want, Brielle, and think about what’s best for you.” Bass glares at her.
I almost feel bad for the dickhead after that, because those are the wrong words to say to the girl who has only ever done what her big brother asked of her.
Brielle comes down the steps, her eyes tight, unease heavy within them, but she’s strong, and she’s ready to make him understand.
So I step back and let her take the lead.
Brielle
“Are you really going to stand here and pretend you know what’s best for me?” I ask, but not for a response. “You have no clue what my life has looked like since the day I was sent away, and now I know that all that time you lied to me about the one thing in my life I hated more than our parents.” My voice dies down, and my brother’s features grow taut. “Do you even know what that was?”
Royce is closer now, too far to touch, bu
t close enough to feel.
My silent support.
My lungs expand. “Not being able to be with you, forced, or so I thought, to be separated from you.” A low laugh leaves me. “You were all I ever had, Bass. Did you not feel like half of you is missing when we were apart like I did? Are you really just happy living this lavish life somewhere else? A life I don’t even know about where you have a fancy car and drive around with Miss America in your front seat? I mean, am I nothing to you?”
He slips closer, his eyes pleading. “I have done all of this for us both. I came here alone, sent you there, left, found somewhere to create a brand-new fucking life for us.”
I shake my head. “You might tell yourself this when you’re forced to think about it, but it’s not true. If you understood me at all, you would have known I didn’t need all that. All I needed was my brother.”
Bass swallows, a barely audible ‘Needed’ escaping him.
My back burns with Royce’s presence.
He’s even closer now.
“Yeah. Needed.” I nod. “I don’t need you anymore,” I admit to myself and him. “I love you, and I want to see and talk to you more, like before, but I don’t need you like I need him.”
He licks his lips, a strangled look in his eye. “You’re leaving with me, Brielle.”
My muscles constrict as I stare at my brother. “No. I’m not.”
“And look what being here has gotten you.”
“That’s not fair.”
“It never is, Brielle!” he stresses. “It never is. It never will be.”
Anger swims in my gut. I don’t shout, but I’m stern. “Maybe you should go back to whatever it is you found that became more important to you than me and I’ll do the same.”
My brother, his face falls flat, shocked and he draws back as if I’ve slapped him and maybe it’s wrong, but I’m glad. He should feel that.
“For once in my life, I have something I don’t have to let go of like I had to let go of you. I have the chance to stay and fight for what I want. Don’t ask me not to. You won’t like what follows.”
Bass glares heavy, and then he suddenly darts out, grabbing Royce by the collar, and getting into his face. “You’re not playing your fucking games with my sister.”
This time Maddoc is quick to hop up on the steps and throws himself between them. Their chests hit, but Bass doesn’t push.
Maddoc’s voice is low and clear, a chilling calm. “Touch my brother again, and I’ll roll your car down a hill with the blonde still inside.”
“You both need to fucking breathe a minute.” Cap steps up, looking from Bass to Royce.
Royce shakes his head. “I’m gonna find my fucking necklace this chump ripped off.”
He steps off the porch, his brothers following him, and I turn to my brother, but the girl inside the gorgeous, shiny black vehicle catches my eyes. She winks, refocusing on her phone in the next second.
“Should you maybe see if she wants to get out?”
“No,” Bass answers instantly, frowning her way. “She can sit there.”
“That’s kind of rude.”
“Trust me, she could use a little nudge off of her Prada pedestal,” he grumbles, but a heavy sigh follows. He pins me with a quizzical look, a question he doesn’t have to ask.
I nod, and he drags his hands down his face, a low cursed ‘fuck’ following.
Raven steps down the stairs, now standing off with my brother, her friend. “What the fuck are you doin’, Bishop?”
“That’s my sister, Carver.” Bass frowns.
Raven’s gaze narrows. “It’s Brayshaw, and you might want to remember that.”
His lips twitch, a softness taking over him, and she scoffs a low laugh.
“Congratulations, Brayshaw.” My brother grins at her. “I bet he’s as beautiful and strong as his mother.”
She looks to him, a cloud covering her eyes. “Thank you, for all you did for me and more,” she rasps. “But fuck you for what you’re doing right now. Brielle is family. She stays.”
She walks inside the house, the door slams shut behind her and my brother laughs lightly, but it’s swallowed when he meets my gaze. “You don’t belong here, you heard him say it too, and I’m sorry, but it’s true. You don’t.”
“How can you stand there and say it so sure?” Anger envelops me, but disappointment weighs down my words. “The last time you saw me, you clearly saw a weak little girl, fragile and frail, but that’s not who I am. You hardly know me anymore, Bass.” I begin stepping backward up the steps. “And lately, I’ve realized, that I... I don’t know you at all.”
His shoulders fall with his features, but I don’t stand there and wait for whatever it is that’s weighed him down. Our damaged relationship is his fault, not mine.
“Yo, what’s this shit?”
We turn to find Maddoc lifting the papers off the ground, the one’s Bass threw.
As if his memory was jogged, he makes his way over there, tearing a few off the ground and thrusting them into Royce’s chest. “Ask your fuckin’ brother.”
He’s met with a growl and slight shove.
Royce looks to the papers as I make my way over. “Fuck is this?” He flips through them, his eyes popping up to Bass. “This ain’t me.”
Bass narrows his eyes. “No?”
He walks to the back of his car and pops the trunk, nodding toward it. “This either?”
He doesn’t believe him.
We walk around, and the entire trunk is full of the same sheets of paper.
“My car was over-fucking-flowing with this shit this morning.”
I pick up the calendar sheet, the Brayshaw High logo stamped at the top.
“Every single one is July.” Captain frowns.
“And has the twenty-third circled.” Maddoc looks to my brother. “Why?”
“Figured it was a twisted message.” He glares at Royce. “July twenty-third is my birthday.”
“And the first day of the Leo.”
I don’t realize everyone has frozen around me until I look up and around and all eyes are tight, wide, or worried.
“What?” Maddoc asks slowly.
“July twenty-third.” I look between them. “I’m a Cancer. On the twenty-third, the signs change, and Leo takes reign... why is everyone looking at me like that?”
Maddoc darts past us, running up the porch, and disappears into the house.
I look to the others. “What’s wrong?”
“Remember the guy I told you about, who crashed into Raven and your brother, wrecked his ride?”
“His name was Leo.” My eyes widen and I look at my brother.
Royce and Captain share a private look.
“My team, they said they thought they saw someone watching—” He cut off, looking to me. “You were here when we talked, weren’t you?”
Shit.
I look to Royce and he narrows his eyes, stalking closer.
“Tink?”
I open my mouth, but close it. “I talked to Ciara, and she said someone came to the house after I left.”
“Who?” His dark eyes flash.
I shrug. “She didn’t know. All she said was he was asking questions and brought chocolate cake—” I freeze. “Holy shit.” I step toward Royce and his hands find my hips, bringing me into him. My brother glares and looks away from us.
“Coach Von. Royce, he used chocolate brownie as his way to get me and Taylor to take the Valium. The person who went to my house brought chocolate cake, and my aunt ended up in the hospital. It had to be this Leo guy.”
Captain looks from me to Royce. “The shit with Enoch, it didn’t start until you got to her, and doubled once she was here. Coach Von said he wasn’t the only one watching her, someone else wanted her. Maybe he was led to her.”
Bass whips around, his hands folding over his head. “Fuck!”
“What’d you do, Bishop?” Royce growls, releasing me and pushing me to the side.
�
��What’d I do? What the fuck did you do?! Look at my sister’s face!”
The arguing starts again, accusations flying around, and they get in each other’s faces again.
Captain slips between them, and now they’re all shoving.
“You guys!” They ignore me.
Nobody, however, can ignore the screech of brakes, a large cloud of dusk that flies up in the driveway as Mac whips around it.
His door is thrown open, and he jumps up on the side. “The courts at the school are on fire, alarm didn’t go off.”
“Fuck,” Royce snaps, cutting a warning glance at my brother before he runs forward.
I run with him and he whips around.
“No.” He stops me short.
I glare. “If you don’t let me in with you, I’ll get in my brother’s.”
Royce growls, wraps his arms around me and yanks me to him. “That’s low, baby. Real low.” He kisses me hard and quick. “Get in.”
Cap runs inside while we jam out of the parking lot and toward the school.
As we pull in, the smoke is easily spotted.
Royce jumps out, Mac with him, and then my brother whips in and hops out, too.
“Call the fire department.”
Both Bass and Mac shake their heads, and all at once, they move forward.
Royce pauses a few feet away. “Stay in the car.”
My brother throws a look over his shoulder that says the same damn thing, but it’s not for me.
It’s for the blonde in his front seat.
As soon as they’re out of sight, we both push our doors open and step out, staring up at the dark cloud of smoke coming from the back of the school.
She walks up beside me, turning to me with a smile.
“Brielle Bishop, in the flesh.” She flicks her eyes over me. “You don’t look like the helpless little lamb he’s made you out to be.”
I frown, my heart pounding, but I take deep breaths to settle it. “Not to be rude, but I don’t want to talk to you right now. I don’t even know who you are.”
The corner of her eyes crease slightly. “Really?”
That surprises her?
She faces forward. “Huh.” She nods, walks back to the car, and slips inside.
Break Me Page 36
