“I’m aware,” I say, lying through my teeth.
“Then stop giving them hope they can keep you both,” she hisses. “Everyone here serves a purpose of some kind. There are no coincidences, no accidents. You’re delaying the inevitable, and in turn, Zoey goes to sleep every night telling a picture of her daddy that she loves him instead of him himself.”
Wha...
I am delaying she said, not they are delaying. And keep us both?
Us who? Me and Zoey?
No. No, no no.
Fuck, I’m gonna be sick. My stomach turns, heat spreading across my body and creating beads of sweat across the back of my neck. My entire body flushes.
Holy shit.
I take a second, turning away and closing my eyes. I take a deep breath and when I open them and look back one of the security guards is heading for me.
My muscles tighten but relax when he holds out a cold-water bottle for me to take.
“Ms. Brayshaw.” He nods his head.
He catches me off guard, but slowly I take it from him.
He walks away, and I take a few small sips to settle myself.
“They’re Rolland’s men,” I say, doing my best to play off what she just said when I’m flipping the fuck out in my head having no idea what it truly means
“They’re Brayshaw men,” she corrects with an inquisitive tone. “Your men.”
I scoff. “You knew all along, didn’t you?”
“I did, but I’m not sure I fully believed it until we went to get your things.”
I could tell when she mentioned my mom, she knew her. “When you saw her for yourself.”
Maria nods. “Yeah,” she whispers, regretful. “The woman I saw was not the Ravina I knew.” I don’t ask because I don’t fucking care, but her next words catch me by surprise. “She was my best friend once.”
I can’t hide it, my eyes widen. Her best friend? “You’re from here.”
She scoffs. “You’d never know it. My existence was erased a long time ago.” Her eyes move to mine. “I was never strong enough for this world. I wasn’t like you. I was too weak, emotionally and physically. Too naïve. I didn’t see the knife, only felt it in my back.”
I eye her, finding no reason for her to talk out her ass.
She gives a small smile. “I knew you didn’t know yet.”
I glare.
“There is no way you’d be sitting here if you had.” She looks to the four Brayshaws, so I finally give in and do the same. “I may not know you well, but there is a freedom that surrounds you that the people here aren’t used to. You can’t be controlled, you rebel, you push, you question. Your mind works a little different than those we know. I think it’s why Rolland fears your influence.”
“Rolland has bigger issues than me.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure,” she breathes.
The boys pretend to guard Zoey and she widens her little legs, lifting one and then the next as she leans from side to side, an adorable effort at juking before running completely around Royce, tossing it into the little hoop that is just slightly taller than her reach. She gets so excited when she makes it and almost falls over, but Maddoc is right there to catch her before she can.
“She’ll never have a scraped knee again if those three have anything to say about it...” Her voice trails off and I look to her.
She stares at Maddoc and Zoey, and her lips smash together, a deep crease forming on her forehead.
Wait.
She knows I’m watching, and slowly her eyes come back to mine. She holds back nothing, showing her pain and loss and... longing.
Something hits my foot and my eyes snap down to find the little basketball at my feet.
Steps echo across the cement and I freeze, unable to look up for some reason, but then tattooed knuckles come down on the ball and my eyes lift.
Cap reaches up, touching my cheek, his blue-green eyes on me. “Stop,” he whispers, then moves his mouth to my ear so Maria can’t hear. “It’s okay. I was scared at first, too. There will be a next time, Raven.”
I squeeze his wrist only letting go when I have to, and he walks back to his family.
My eyes slide right, and I spot Zoey, her big eyes are locked on me. She pushes her blonde hair from her face as she stares at me. Her little hand lifts, and she almost looks shy as she waves her tiny fingers at me.
My stomach muscles tighten and my teeth clench as pressure begins to knock behind my eyes. Somehow through that, I manage to raise my hand and wave back.
Her smile is instant and huge and I bite my tongue.
She spins around and throws herself in Royce’s arms.
“That way!” She points down the back of the house, where I can’t see, and they disappear.
“She has a little train back there, it’s tiny, goes in a circle around a tree, but she loves it.”
Me too, kid.
I push to my feet and head back for the truck.
“Raven,” Maria calls.
I don’t turn back but stop walking.
“Just because you didn’t know love as a child doesn’t mean you won’t know how to love one.”
Doesn’t it?
It’s not until the sun has started to go down that footsteps float through the cracked window. I sit up to find Maria has made her way back to the front door, and it’s only Captain who walks Zoey up.
She hesitates a moment but then offers him inside.
The three disappear, closing the door behind them.
Maddoc and Royce move over to the security guards, likely grilling them on processes.
I look from them to the house, to the basketball court and anger fills my veins.
Maria’s words were clear, the boys hint without hinting about protecting Zoey at all cost was crystal.
Me or Zoey.
I pull my knife from my waistband, glaring at the inscription.
Family runs deeper than blood, but Zoey is their blood. They love her with all they have. I’m the outsider. How dare they leave me in this position.
How dare they let their feelings for me cloud their judgment.
There is no risk, no fucking sacrifice too big in this instance.
They’re delaying the inevitable.
It’s become clear, this place is bigger than a power ran high school and its rival, though that’s been their world the last four years. This is bigger than the team they built there, and the plans they have for once they graduate.
This town and its secrets had the power to make a man of power, Rolland Brayshaw, choose to stay in prison instead of running free. It kept a money-hungry whore away, living in a rundown trailer with the kid she didn’t want instead of living lavishly in a mansion. It kept me hidden, kept Zoey hidden, ran Maria away. The reasoning may be unclear, but the result the same. If this place can do all those things, taking me is kid’s work.
The secret Brayshaw returns, not by accident, but intentionally. Give one to save the other.
The boys start back for the car and with each step taken, their feet drag a little longer, shoulders lose a little height, and heads hang a little further.
This kills them.
And as if this sight alone wasn’t fucked up enough, the front door is tugged open and a tear-streaked face and messy blonde curls bounds out.
She cries, calling after her daddy and the three-stop dead in their tracks.
Captain whips around, dropping to his knees right as Zoey reaches him, her little arms wrapping around his neck, cutting my air off.
My eyes move to Maddoc, but he doesn’t look at the little girl desperate to keep her dad with her. His eyes are on the SUV, temples taut, lips smashed in a firm line.
His hand lifts to his face, and he runs his fingers across his jaw, pausing once his entire mouth is covered. He squeezes his jaw, his eyes falling.
I lay across the seat, staring at the ceiling.
I’m pretty sure this trip backfired. We came out here so Cap could share his world with
us, to hold him and them over until they could make it out here next. To convince them this was the right move, trying to keep us both, delaying.
There’s always a sacrifice to be made.
A few minutes pass and the three finally slide in the vehicle, a heaviness with them, threatening to crush me whole, but anger is enough to keep me together.
The car ride home is a silent one.
Once we get to the house, the four of us climb from the SUV and head straight up the stairs. Royce and Captain disappear into their own rooms and Maddoc pauses by mine.
He grips my chin, his eyes bouncing between mine, suspicious. Knowing. “We’re sleeping in my room tonight,” he says, leaving me to follow.
He turns on his shower, so I start stripping from my clothes, tossing them to the floor, and make my way to him.
We step inside, and he moves me into the spray with a soft grip to my shoulders. He smooths his hands over my hair as the water soaks it, running his fingers down my spine until he reaches the curve of my ass. He trails to my hips and turns me away from him.
His head dips into my neck, and he kisses there a moment before a small sting from his teeth pierces my skin. His lips hit my ear, but his words never come.
I spin in his arms, stepping backward until my shoulder blades hit the cool tile, bringing him against me.
He falls into me, his eyes hitting mine and I know.
He knows.
This is it.
The broody rich boy was never supposed to fall for the project problem child anyway, and the problem child never should have allowed herself to believe her world could be more than settling and survival.
I run my tongue along my teeth, lifting my chin to grip his bottom lip between them. I clamp down until he growls lightly.
“My baby.” His eyes close. “She doesn’t bare her teeth in vain,” he whispers, running his tongue along the wound. “She bites.”
His lips hit mine and he kisses me rough, demanding, but then it shifts. His muscles fall, his hands sliding into my hair with a gentleness he’s fighting to control. He savors every swipe of his tongue, every move of his mouth against mine.
He takes his time knowing we have no more.
Tomorrow, it all changes.
Captain steps from his room around four in the morning, pausing in his tracks when he spots me sitting against the wall of mine.
He walks over, eyeing me carefully.
I nod my chin, and he drops down opposite of me. He taps his knuckle twice against the wall behind him and not five seconds later Royce steps out, half asleep.
He frowns at the sight of us, but slowly drops beside Cap.
I look from Captain to Royce.
“She knows.”
Royce looks to my door. “What does this mean?”
My stare meets his, and realization hits him.
He closes his eyes, dropping his head against the wall. “We take her or she runs on her own.”
Captain’s chest rises with a deep inhale, and he looks down the hall.
“Captain.”
He licks his lips, like words are lodged there and need help out. “I have an idea.” He lets out a tortured chuckle. “I have no fucking clue if it’ll work, but I do know you’ll hate it.”
“Fuck, man,” Royce rasps, pinching the bridge of his nose.
“Does it keep her from them?”
“Sort of.” Captain’s eyes hit mine. “But not only them.”
My vision blurs, so I close my eyes. My airway starts to close, so I swallow past the grating in my throat and force out the only fucking thing I’m one hundred percent sure of at this moment.
“I trust you.”
“Do you have questions for me?” Rolland asks quietly.
I scoff, looking out the window. “None I would trust you to answer honestly.”
“That’s fair.”
My eyes slice to his. “Fair?” I repeat. “Fair?” I shift in the seat to face him fully. “Are you for real right now?” I gape at him.
“I simply meant I can understand why you wouldn’t trust me. I haven’t given you much reason to.”
A humorless laugh leaves me. “You’re seriously sitting there talking like we’re headed to a fucking basketball game and this is the small talk on the way.”
He moves his eyes to his phone, typing away. “I’m sorry you feel that—”
I slap the phone from his hands and his glare flies to mine.
My eyes narrow. “I’m not sure you know your boys at all if you think this isn’t gonna go ass fucking backward to whatever you’ve cooked up in your head. I know them, each fucking one. They would never agree to stay away for this. I can promise you this will not be as cut and dry as you want.”
His forehead tightens and he settles more against his seat. “What do you think they’ll do?”
“I don’t know, but I suggest you think back into that vault of a mind you seem to have and figure it out, that or stand there with wide eyes and tense muscles letting them know what a great leader you are, can’t even keep your own sons in order.” I tilt my head. “How ever will you control an entire town, dear Brayshaw?”
“You sound like you want me to govern them in.”
“As if you could if you tried,” I force past clenched teeth. “What I want is for you to understand and accept the shift you refuse to see.”
He eyes me a moment. “And what shift would that be, Raven?”
The car slows to a stop, the locks on the door popping up.
“What was once yours no longer is. This is their town, best if you figure it out now, Rolland. I’d hate for you to be embarrassed when you give an order and all eyes shift to them for confirmation.” I push my door open and walk straight for the man blocking the entrance across from where we’re parked, not acknowledging the gun sticking from his pants.
He pulls out a metal detector, his eyes locked on me as he moves it across my front, pausing when it beeps at the waist of my jeans.
He eyes me. “No weapons allowed.”
“Are you telling me the men inside, the men who run entire towns and meet in an abandoned warehouse on a dirt lot, have not a single form of protection on them?”
The man’s eyes narrow.
“Sergio, please meet Raven Brayshaw.” Rolland steps up behind me.
Sergio’s eyes snap back to me and he dips his head, moving to the side with another breath.
I scoff, squeezing through the iron door that’s slowly started to roll open.
We’re met with two more security, but they don’t look either of us in the eye.
Again, they dip their heads and move aside.
A few feet in and the walls change. From rusted old iron to black drapes, just like the one at the end of the hall.
It’s pushed open for us and we step into a small cubed space. A curtain is pulled closed behind us, and the one in front is slid open.
My pulse begins to race.
I don’t realize my leg is bouncing until Rolland leans closer to whisper, “Settle yourself, Raven. You must be sure for this to be accepted. They will smell your fear or hesitance.”
“Fuck you,” I whisper back, and take a deep breath. “I’m not fearful, or hesitant.”
An empty chair comes into view, and then the farther the curtain rolls, the more chairs are revealed, only these ones aren’t empty. In each one sits a different man, and behind each man is another.
“Ready?” Rolland asks and extends his elbow for me to take.
I push forward without him.
I don’t miss the twitch to the man at the end’s lips. I glare at him first.
The soft chuckle behind him has my eyes snapping over his shoulder.
Alec Daniels.
He winks, and my muscles settle slightly.
Again, my stare finds the man in the chair in front of him. Tan skin, tattoos creeping up his neck – the only one in jeans and a t-shirt.
This must be Gio’s boss – Trick Rivera, the Riverside
family.
Movement to my right catches my attention and I spot security spacing out every inch of the room, one every three to five feet, none making direct eye contact, all wide-eyed and aware.
“Ah.” A grating voice wraps around my shoulder blades and I spin for the entrance right as Donley and Collins walk through with their heads held high.
Donley holds his hands up. “The princess has arrived.” He gives a nasty smile. “And so punctual.”
I look to Collins, who, much to my surprise, only nods his chin.
“Rae.”
“Collins.” I eye him as he and Donley move toward the men in their seats, shaking hands with each of them, both eyes focusing on the empty chair for a moment longer than necessary.
Mine tighten, cutting across the room once more.
Five families, five chairs, only four taken by the men before me.
My stare slides to Rolland and his pinches in warning.
A laugh leaves me before I can help it and suddenly all eyes are on me.
One of the men in a suit sits forward, his elbows on his knees.
“You look much like your mother.”
“I take offense to that,” I reply instantly.
I think I catch him off guard as he laughs lightly.
“I see you’re much more outspoken than her.”
“Let’s not with the unnecessary banter. I’m here for a reason.”
“Indeed, you are.” The man grins, his eyes moving to Rolland. “I assume she’s aware of all she needs to be?”
Rolland opens his mouth to speak but I step forward.
“You people may like to pretend women are weak and have no voices, but I’m not and I say what I want. I can speak for myself.” I stare the man right in the eye, enjoying the way his tighten in surprise.
“I see.” He sits back, looking to the others a moment before moving back to me. “Ms. Brayshaw, I’m Calvin Greyson.”
I blink at him.
He fights a grin. He can’t be more than twenty-five, if that. “We’re simply here as witnesses. Your town is your town, your issues with the Graven family are your issues. That being said, a town divided cannot sit on the council with us. That is the purpose of the union that was promised before your time. In order for us to be a strong unit, we need to be just that, a unit. A town divided is weak. It was agreed upon that should Brayshaw openly accept the marriage to Graven, the Gravens would see it as a move of good faith, and the Brayshaws would take final lead.” He turns to Donley. “This is correct, Donley?”
Reign of Brayshaw (Brayshaw High #3) Page 7
