by K. I. Lynn
The breath gets knocked out of my lungs as Austin’s football moves come into play, digging his shoulder into my abdomen, a solid hit, sending us both down to the ground.
It’s fucking hard, concrete scraping against skin, knocking my head at least once. There’s no pause as we pick ourselves up. I grab onto his shirt and jab my fist into his ribs.
“I fucking told you to stay the fuck away from her!”
I don’t care that we’ve gained an audience. The sounds of surprise and shock, some egging on, are the soundtrack of my hits connecting, beating into him the ridiculousness of his grievances.
My head is flung to the side as he gets in a blow. I can taste the tang of blood in my mouth, probably from a split lip. Everything is a bit blurry as I turn back to him, my glasses missing.
“She’s an adult. She can make her own decisions,” he says as if that’s some type of argument in his favor.
We’re grappling, stuck in a hand-to-hand struggle, both straining to gain the upper hand.
“Yes, she can, but you can’t seem to take no for a fucking answer.”
He sneers at me. “She hasn’t told me to leave her alone.”
Fuck! My gaze snaps to her as my chest fucking clenches at the worst time. She’s horror struck, but staring right at me, not him.
The words may not have passed her lips, but she doesn’t talk to him, doesn’t hang out with him, and most definitely doesn’t have his come inside her.
A strike to my abdomen brings me back to the assclown whose arm I have pinned in place with my own. I grab onto his neck, pushing him away as he gets in another few hits.
“She doesn’t want you.”
With all my force, I swing my fist around and land a punch right at his cheekbone. It sends him stumbling to the ground again.
He spits on the ground, painting the concrete red, and looks up at me. “You’re just a pathetic asshole who can’t get it through his head that he can’t have his stepsister.”
Rage comes over me again and before he stands back up, I lay him out again.
“You’re the pathetic one who can’t tell when a girl doesn’t want you!”
He bolts up and charges again, digging his shoulder into mine, slamming me into the brick wall. The impact knocks the wind from me and the disorientation gives him time to pummel my sides. It takes more than a few ticks to get my breath and focus back to retaliate.
I swing my elbow into the side of his head repeatedly until he lets go.
He falls back, and we’re grappling for control again,
“You’re in love with your stepsister,” he hisses at me. “Do you understand how sick that is?”
“Shut your face!” I scream, folding his arm under mine, trying to punch at his ribs again until I can get to his head. I need to knock the fucker out.
The crowd is far enough away they might not hear the shit coming out of his mouth, but he needs to stop, and I’m determined to shut him the fuck up. He doesn’t get how what he’s saying affects Kira, too.
I don’t give a fuck anymore if people know how I feel about her, but Kira does, and I’ll be damned to let this asshole put her through that.
A siren goes off and suddenly I notice the blue and red lights flashing, bouncing off everything around.
Shit.
Austin lands another hit to my face, setting a ringing off in my head and my vision to blur.
Damn.
I swing blindly back at him and connect with something, just as the booming authoritative voice ends it all.
“Break it up, boys.”
Fuck all that is fucking fuck.
We’re both breathing heavily, reluctantly breaking apart.
“Get on your knees, hands behind your head.”
“Kira, catch.” I pull my phone out of my back pocket and toss it to her before complying.
I get a dirty look from one of the two cops, who eyes Kira. She looks at me in confusion, but there’s something else in her eyes I can’t make out.
“Call my mom,” I say to her. The last thing I need or want right now is my father finding out what happened, at least not first.
The theater manager is there now, talking to them.
We’re only on our knees for a minute or two, a spectacle for all to see. Whispered words, gossip in the making, but it’s all about the fall of Brayden Hunt and Austin Reed’s friendship. A few talking about protecting my stepsister.
It’s all people we went to school with and a few curious onlookers.
One cop walks around and pulls my hands behind me, linking, caging me with metal handcuffs before hauling me up to my feet. This is a moment I never expected to happen to me.
A hand on my head as I’m stuffed into the back of the patrol car.
I look back to Kira. Her brow is furrowed, my phone clutched in her hand. I want to kiss the worry from her lips, but I have a feeling the next few days are going to be full of nothing but shit.
The cops enter the vehicle. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Austin being shoved into another car. Of course they wouldn’t put us in the same patrol car together. We’d probably fucking kill each other, even cuffed.
I focus on Kira again. The tears in her eyes kill me.
Fill me with hope.
I pray she can see how much I love her right now. I love her for not looking away from me during that fight, not even once. Love her for showing me how much she still cares by simply standing there, all of her defenses gone.
The cops talk among themselves, but I pay them no mind. It takes them a few minutes to start driving; I stare at Kira the entire time, and she doesn’t stop staring at me either.
Her heart’s breaking for me. She hates seeing me in this like this and it’s obvious in her expression.
Finally.
I’m finally getting the real her. The raw truth. It took this, but for the first time in a long time, I’m once again sure.
This girl still loves me.
She wouldn’t look at me the way she’s looking at me now if she didn’t.
I feel warm liquid leak down into my eye.
Blood.
Kira flinches, her eyes filling with tears.
The car pulls away from the movie theater, heading to the precinct. I crane my neck to keep her in my sight for as long as I can, my heart pumping wildly.
She still loves me. Fuck, she loves me.
I’m on my way to jail, and it does nothing to diminish the relief in my veins. I exhale slowly and let my head fall back on the headrest, my mind churning.
I hope she knows there’s no going back now. Not after what she just allowed me to see.
As soon as I’m a free man again, we’re going to finish this.
As soon as they let me out, I’m making her my girl once and for all, and there’s nothing that can stop me.
I want to scream. Break things. I want to tear out my own motherfucking hair.
My body is motionless. Incapable of moving. Signals fire off in my brain, commands sent to limbs that have no plans of responding.
Austin’s face was destroyed.
So was Brayden’s.
They almost killed each other, and it’s all my fault.
Most girls would be thrilled that two guys fought over them to that extent. I’m just sick to my stomach. On the verge of a panic attack. I’m worried for Austin.
But I’m fucking terrified for Brayden.
Is he okay? Oh God, he needs stitches. What if he gets a concussion? Austin had pounded into his ribs really bad. What if something was cracked? Are they taking him straight to the hospital for a checkup?
I can’t think straight. Can’t function.
“Kira!”
I recognize the voice calling out to me, but I don’t respond to it.
This is going to go on Brayden’s record. There’s no way it’s not. I don’t know enough about the law to even begin guessing how this is going to affect his future.
A hand lands on my shoulder, and I’m urged to
turn around. It’s Ashley. She’s panting, blue eyes worried. Distantly, I wonder where the other girls are. I lost sight of them when Austin approached me.
“Are you okay?” Ashley asks me.
A sob catches in my throat and I shake my head. “M-my fault.”
She squeezes my shoulder. “What?”
“This is all my fault,” I whisper, trying to hold back the tears. My attitude pushed Brayden to this point. I should’ve been more upfront with Austin, done an even better job of pushing him away. Had I done so, he wouldn’t have come up to me today.
Had I been kinder to Brayden, he would’ve never felt threatened by Austin’s presence.
I pushed both of them to this point because I was too mentally fucked up to do right by either of them.
“Come on. I lost Lyn and Jenna in the crowd. We need to find them so Jenna can drive us to the precinct.” Ashley grabs my hand.
I’m thankful one of us has a clear head. Without her, I’d probably still be rooted to the same spot.
We walk a few feet through the crowd. I see Ashley looking around for the other girls; my mind still can’t focus past the back of her head. Brayden’s keys and phone are clutched tight in my hands, along with his broken glasses that I picked up off the ground during the fight. My hands are braced against my broken heart.
“There they are!” Ashley points at her sister about thirty feet away from us, and we head in that direction.
Is it me, or are most of the people we pass turning to stare at me? I know a lot of them, too. People both Brayden and I went to school with. Austin hadn’t been too discreet when hurling his accusations at Brayden. I wonder how much of that did these people hear.
Probably all of it.
Even more probable? By tomorrow afternoon, this entire town will be aflame with gossip about how I’m fucking my stepbrother.
I’m going to care about this tomorrow. I’ll be furious with Austin. He loves me, but he practically ruined a good portion of my life because he couldn’t keep one of my most important secrets to himself.
I’ve hurt that man. More than I had any right to. I will hurt him again the next time I see him because I’m finally going to make it clear to him that we’re never going to happen. Ever.
But that doesn’t erase what he’s done.
Right now, though, I don’t care about any of that. I can’t. Getting to Brayden, making sure he’s okay, is all that matters.
“Yo!” Ashley calls out.
Marilyn and Jenna’s heads snap in our direction. They jog in our direction, both of them staring at me worriedly.
I don’t even know what the fuck to say.
“Dude,” Jenna says. “I want to crack a joke about how fucking lucky you are, but your expression tells me it’s not the right time.”
I roll my eyes at her.
“We need to get her to the precinct,” Ashley tells her, letting go of my hand. And that’s all it takes for the four of us to start pushing our way through the crowd. We make it to Jenna’s car and she presses the button to unlock the doors.
I open one of the back doors.
“You’re fucking disgusting.”
All four of us freeze.
There’s no need to turn around and see who that is. I know. An old, familiar anger burns through my veins.
“Do us a favor,” Marilyn sneers, looking like she’s ready to storm around the car and start throwing punches. “Leave her the fuck alone before we make you.”
“Oh? Is the little girl incapable of defending herself?”
That’s it.
I spin around, my free hand fisting. Jennifer’s malicious, narrowed eyes focus on my other hand, the one holding Brayden’s phone and keys, and they narrow even further.
She knows this is his phone.
She knows it because this bitch has the bad habit of paying way too much attention to my fucking man.
“Do you want me to break your face?” I ask her slowly, calmly.
“You mean like Austin had to do to poor Brayden because of your slutty ass?”
Her arms are crossed. Her posture is entirely defensive. This cunt is preparing herself for my attack and she’s afraid of it, yet she has the nerve to still goad me.
“When are you going to stop being the pathetic bitch who sucks every dick you can find while waiting, praying, hoping that Brayden one day looks beyond how cheap you are and falls in love with you?”
Everyone around me gasps.
Jennifer’s mouth falls open, her face paling.
I meant every word. At this point, nothing in the world could make me take them back. So I stand here, eyes on hers, waiting for whatever comes my way after that statement.
The last thing I want is to be delayed from going to Brayden.
But so help me God, if this bitch doesn’t realize in this moment that it’s in her best interest to back the fuck off away from what’s mine, I think I’m going to kill her.
The next round of cop cars that arrive will have to bring an ambulance in tow.
Jennifer snaps her mouth closed, practically shaking with her fury. “You have so much fucking nerve, little girl. Who the hell do you think you are? You’re fucking your stepbrother, and you think you have the right to believe you’re better than me?”
I knew this was coming, but my stomach bottoms out regardless.
She knows now. Without a doubt, she knows.
If the whole town didn’t know before, I give it a matter of hours before it’s all over the grapevine.
“She could be fucking the pope and every crack-dealing pimp within a two state radius, and guess what, whore?” Ashley sneers. “She’d still be fucking better than you!”
Despite everything going on, that comment makes me want to laugh.
I love my girls.
Jennifer glares at Ashley, but it doesn’t take her long to redirect her venom back at me. “What are you going to do when everyone finds out about you and Brayden, huh?”
My first impulse is to tell her, “It doesn’t matter, bitch, because I’ll still be the one fucking that cock.” I want to spite her. Lay a claim on what’s mine.
Something holds me back. Jennifer is studying me just as hard as I’m studying her. As if . . .
She’s unsure.
This bitch is probing. Looking for proof. She’s not as certain of what’s happening between me and Brayden as she’s pretending to be.
It makes me sick to my stomach, but I have to deny it. Lie. What’s happening to Brayden is bad enough. The last thing we need to handle right now is the social implosion this would cause us if Jennifer decided to spread her suspicions.
God, I hate this chick. Now more than ever.
“You should try learning your lesson and moving on, Jenn. Maybe then you wouldn’t be jealous of every girl he spends time with instead of you.” I turn to get into the car.
“You’re the only girl he spends time with!”
Damn right. Because right now, his body is mine. His heart, too. I just don’t know how long I’ll own both.
Not that it’s going to stop me from going to him.
“You think you know the truth about me and him, but you don’t know shit.” It’s the last thing I tell her. I’m the first one to get into the car. My friends take a bit longer, and I know it’s because they’re staring Jennifer down, daring her to say something else about me.
Eventually, Jennifer turns to leave, and one by one my friends get into the car.
“What a fucking skank.” Marilyn slams the front passenger door closed.
Jenna gets into the driver’s side. “I want to slice her face apart. I know that’s probably wrong of me to say, but I’d love to disfigure the bitch for life.”
“It’s not wrong. She has it coming.” Ashley gets in last. “I don’t know how we’re going to keep her from running her mouth.”
I don’t either, and I can’t think on it. Jennifer’s gone. My mind fixates on Brayden once more and how worried I am for him. I don�
��t know what possesses me to try looking into his phone.
Jenna’s driving as fast as she legally can. When I swipe my thumb across the screen, I almost gasp with shock. There’s no passcode. It automatically takes me to the home page, and the first thing I see is my picture.
It’s a picture of me sleeping in his bed, my arms curled around one of his pillows. He caught me with the sunlight illuminating my features, and goddamn it, there’s a smile on my face.
I’d probably been dreaming about him. About all the things he’d done to me the night before.
Heart in my throat, I open up his gallery.
Me.
Nothing but my pictures as far as I can freaking see.
In a lot of them, I’m asleep. In others, I’m awake and he somehow managed to catch me unaware.
Others are from my Facebook. He must have downloaded close to a dozen of my pics.
“Oh, Brayden,” I whisper, closing my eyes as two tears leak out. Yes, it’s his fault he engaged Austin. Both their faults that they couldn’t control themselves.
I can’t get out of my head how vicious the fight was.
They’d been two men out to truly kill each other. Had the cops not arrived, God knows what would have happened to either one of them.
I don’t know what’s going to happen to Brayden now. His father still pays for his college tuition. He’s going to kill Brayden when he finds out about this.
More tears leak out.
Afraid one of the girls will see, I try to surreptitiously wipe away the tears and turn my head to stare out the window. It takes me a while to even realize I’m hugging Brayden’s phone to my chest tightly.
Ashley rubs my shoulder soothingly again—her go-to comfort move. “Kira?”
“Hm?” I don’t look at her.
“I know there’s a lot of bad feelings between you and Brayden, that he hurt you really bad in the past. Even if you don’t tell us the details, it’s obvious.”
I have no idea where she’s going with this, so I remain quiet.
“Have you ever entertained the idea that . . .” She pauses, and I hear her take a deep breath. “Girl,” she says in a low tone. “I think it’s obvious you’re still in love with him.”
It’s like being stabbed in the chest, but it’s something I had already admitted to myself deep, deep down.
