Reign of Brayshaw (Brayshaw High #3)

by Meagan Brandy

  “Be a bitch?” Victoria supplies.

  Chloe crosses her arms, her head tugging back. “Better than being fake.”

  “Are you calling me fake?” Victoria jumps to her feet.

  “Seems fitting.”

  “Why are you even here?” Victoria snaps back. “You weren’t invited.”

  “What, worried Raven might start to like me, gain a new friend and leave you behind?”

  “Bitch—”

  “Okay!” I shout, turning to Chloe with a glare. “Will you just... go outside with the boys or something?”

  Chloe throws her hands up, tossing the hairbrush to the couch as she exits the room.

  I wait until the door slams closed behind her to drop onto the sofa. “Why did we have to do this? Why not the same shit me and Cap did – small ass room with nobody around but the two of us – only with a real reverend, or minister or what the fuck ever you call them.”

  “Everything you just said is exactly why you have to do this.” Victoria looks at me like I’m crazy.

  I glare at her.

  “Dude, you married his brother.”

  “Obviously not, asshole,” I snap, dropping my head back on the cushion as panic stirs in my gut. “I can’t do this.”

  “You want out?”

  “Fuckin’ funny, Vee,” I rasp.

  “Look.” Victoria scoots to the edge of the couch. “The only people here are the people you care about – and Chloe.” She glares making me laugh.

  “I don’t really care about Mac either,” I try and joke.

  “Well, other than them.” She chuckles. “Who I’m pretty sure invited themselves so they could party with us tonight. It’s us, the boys, and that’s it. Maddoc is already making this easy. No dresses, no suits, just us. Chill the fuck out and look out the window at the guy you almost lost. All you’re doing today is making sure you never do. That’s it.”

  “We’re eighteen-year-olds who will have to go to summer school just to graduate now, and we’re having a fucking kid and getting married? Vee, I haven’t even got to talk to him yet. I thought I was married to his brother less than a day ago, now here we are.”

  She eyes me, shaking her head. “Does any of that matter?”

  “Shouldn’t it?”

  “No. You said yourself, you don’t care about the word. It means nothing to you, but he means everything to you. This whole husband and wife thing that might be for the sake of some stupid contract today, but in the morning, when you wake up beside him it could mean something more.” She jumps to her feet, holding a hand out, so I slap mine into it. She yanks me up, our eyes meeting. “Tonight, he’ll officially be yours, Raven.”

  “He already is,” I say, squeezing my eyes closed.

  “So what’s the issue? Why are we standing here when we could be making s’mores by the fire already?”

  I scoff and shove her away with a smirk. “You’re trippin’ if you think you’ll be seeing me tonight, Vee.” I take the stairs down two at a time, turning to look up at her smiling from the top. “Straight trippin’.”

  She jogs down, following me into the room. “Should I tease you for wearing a dress even though he said you didn’t have to?”

  “If you wanna get punched, go for it.”

  She laughs, nudging me out the door.

  Maddoc

  “Fuck’s she taking so long for?” Royce looks at his watch then back at me.

  I frown. “You good, man?”

  “Are you?” His eyes widen as his brows lift. “I mean, fuck, bro. You’re about to get married and your punk ass is standing there all fuckin’ calm and shit.”

  Cap chuckles beside him and the corner of my mouth lifts.

  “Why you laughin’?” Royce shoves at Cap playfully. “Now you can’t run around here pretending you don’t have a Victoria-sized stick up your ass.”

  Cap’s eyes narrow, but when I lift a brow at him, his features smooth and he pops a shoulder. I don’t miss the subtle tip of his lips either.

  “Man, we look too good to be standing in the woods right now.” Royce runs a hand down his suit jacket. Grinning at himself.

  “Won’t she be pissed when she sees you guys in suits when you told her she could wear her jeans?” Mac teases. “Every girl I know would flip if she showed up anywhere underdressed.”

  The three of us grin, and Mac looks at us confused.

  Royce grips his shoulders, shaking him lightly. “That’s right, my man. Any other girl would flip. Raven ain’t any other girl. She speaks Brayshaw.” Royce looks to me. “She speaks Maddoc.” He grins lightly. “She knows what he really wants.”

  Chloe only shakes her head, pouting in the seat she took when she came storming from the cabin.

  The reverend makes his way toward us, so Cap slips the flask we were passing around in his inside jacket pocket.

  “Gentlemen.” He nods his head with a smile. “Are we ready?”

  “Is she?” Royce asks, making us laugh.

  The man turns to him. “She is, son.” He looks between Captain and Royce. “And she’s asking for you both.”

  My brows snap together and look up the small incline, finding Victoria making her way down, her eyes on the ground.

  I take a half a step forward only for the official to slide in front of me with his hands up.

  “Please.” He smiles. “Stay.”

  The boys jog up the hill without a word, both their eyes on Victoria as they pass her, but she doesn’t look up until she’s almost to me.

  She nods, the corner of her mouth lifted as her eyes scan over me. “She was right.” She looks to me. “Nice suit.”

  “Nice outfit.”

  She shrugs, and steps to the side. “Not supposed to be the one in white, but it’s what the queen ordered, literally,” she jokes, running her hands over the satin top while she glares at the white skinny jeans. “How you guys got all this shit here overnight, I’ll never understand.”

  “Get used to it.”

  Her eyes find mine.

  “It wasn’t only our lives that changed yesterday. Yours did too.”

  She licks her lips, looking away in thought.

  A moment later, Royce steps around the corner.

  He points at me, slips his shades on, then gives me his back. Cap steps around next, pausing right beside him.

  Royce holds a hand out.

  It’s her fingers I see first, slipping into my brother’s. Then her wrist, but Cap slips to the left, blocking the rest of her.

  I tilt my head, my eyes narrowing but it doesn’t help.

  Right when I’m about to push forward, go get her my damn self, Cap moves aside, and there she fucking is.

  My girl.

  Black leather jacket unzipped, laying over a lacy, white dress that allows her skin tone to peep through, and cuts off at the knee. It’s tight, shaped to her hips and fucking perfect for her. Simple, easy, but damn if she doesn’t bring it to life.

  Her hair is curled and down, laying all around her, a deep part in the center, and she’s got those red lips again, her black boots covering her feet.

  Fucking perfect.

  I force my eyes left, scanning across the three.

  A solid, tight line. My brothers both hold a hand of hers, leading her right where she belongs.

  Right to me.

  My baby, or more, my babies.

  We’re having a fucking baby.

  If someone had asked me months ago if I wanted a kid, I’d have laughed in their face. My answer would have been a thoughtless, easy, never.

  But now, knowing Raven has a part of me inside her, that the two of us will be linked on a deeper level, a level no one else will ever reach, no matter how hard they might try, I’m desperate for it.

  Desperate for our little one.

  And I’ll kill anyone who dares to threaten our future.

  Our family.

  My body grows warm, a calm spreading through me I haven’t felt in weeks, a purpose I’ve neve
r known crawling up my muscles and settling into my bones.

  My feet carry me to them, and the closer I get, the higher the corner of her lips rise.

  I stop right in front of her, my hands landing on her hips, and I lower my forehead to hers.

  Slowly, my brothers release her hands, patting my back as they walk by and Raven’s palms slide up my chest, fisting my jacket at the collar.

  Her choppy breaths fan across my lips and I fight the urge to drop mine to hers.

  Not yet.

  “I don’t think this is how it’s supposed to go,” she whispers. “I’m pretty sure I was supposed to walk to you.”

  “Yeah, well, we don’t do things the right way, baby. We do it our way.” My hands move up her ribs, under her jacket and squeeze. “And our way is how I like it.”

  She nods against me. “Me, too.”

  “You ready, baby?” I whisper. “Ready to belong to me?”

  She pulls back, looking up at me. “Come on, Big Man,” she murmurs. “You know better than that.” She lets me go, stepping back and around me, so I slowly spin to keep facing her.

  She walks backward, toward my brothers, toward her sister, and the reverend.

  She smiles, holding her hands out, speaking for all of us to hear. “I’ve always belonged to you. Let’s make it official.”

  I lick my lips, clenching my teeth together to keep myself in check when moisture threatens to surface in my eyes.

  It’s been a helluva year, I’m ready for a helluva future.

  I follow, stepping right beside her, pulling her into me as the reverend begins to speak, but I don’t catch a damn word.

  I hear nothing but the pounding of my heart against hers.

  Proving further we’re one in the same, Raven’s fingers plant themselves directly over my left pec, and she closes her eyes.

  I hold her tighter.

  Mine. Forever mine.

  “Kinda morbid, isn’t it?”

  I look to Collins. “What?”

  “You got married ten feet from here less than two hours ago, and here we are pouring our mothers’ ashes in a creek.”

  I glance from the fancy marble ern in his hand to the wooden box the morgue gave me that holds my mother’s remains. I open it, unseal the plastic bag on the inside and dump it all out in one shot. “Yeah, I guess it is.”

  I sigh, staring at the small bubbles in the water as the steady flow creeps over the small rocks beneath the bridge.

  Rolland told me she liked it here, that they would sit out on the balcony of the Bray cabin and listen to the water run.

  There’s no comfort in the words he gives and bringing what was left of her here, pouring them into the water, it means little to me. I can’t forget eighteen years of what she was, but I could at least leave her in a place that wasn’t tainted. I can’t say if she deserves it, but I know all about getting things you don’t deserve.

  “I’ve gotta admit.” I cut my eyes to him. “Out of all the things that surprised the hell out of me the last few months, this right here takes the cake.”

  Collins gives a light laugh, looking out at the water as he slowly pours his mother’s ashes out.

  “I tried to get her to live,” I admit after a minute. “Your mom wouldn’t hear me.”

  He nods. “Yeah, she uh... she wasn’t really alive as it was.” He looks off. “I lost her to depression a long time ago. She had to be a cold statue around Donley so much, I think she forgot who she even was. Me following his orders later didn’t exactly help her heal either.”

  “We’re orphans.”

  “Can you be an orphan if you’re over eighteen?”

  I shrug.

  After a minute, he pushes off the railing and faces the opposite end of the creek.

  “It’s a little pathetic to admit, but I feel free for the first time, I get to make my own choices for once.”

  “What do you even want, Collins?”

  He hesitates a minute before nodding and meeting my eyes. “To leave this place, start over somewhere new.”

  “You can’t run from who you are, I learned that the hard way.”

  “But who am I, Raven?” he asks, hopelessness in his tone that has me looking away.

  “Where will you go?”

  “Anywhere,” he admits. He sticks his hands in his pockets, holding up a pair of keys. “To the cabin and the house.”

  “You might come back.”

  He shakes his head. “I won’t, and besides that, they’re yours. Not mine. So is the money in my trust fund.”

  “No.” I shake my head. “Your parents went through a lot, and all they got for it was you and money. It’s yours, Collins. You’ll take it.”

  He stares at me a minute before a slow smirk finds his lips. “Man.” He smiles. “Raven Carver, an honest to God, unicorn.”

  A light laugh leaves me, and I head back for the cabins, but he doesn’t budge.

  I meet his eyes once more.

  “I’m going to say goodbye, quietly, and then I’m going to leave just as quiet.”

  I nod.

  “Good luck, Raven,” he says earnestly. “And thank you. You didn’t have to save her corpse or tell me what happened or anything you’ve done along the way. You really didn’t have to allow me to come here today for this.”

  “Last thing I wanted was to see you on my wedding day,” I say teasingly, even though we both know it’s true. “But I wanted it done.”

  He nods, understanding. I think he wanted it finished too.

  “I hope this place brings you everything you need,” he tells me.

  My eyes slide to the balcony behind us and the man standing at the foot of it, watching. “It already has.”

  Maddoc’s eyes keep mine as he makes his way down the stairs, so I wait right here, allowing him to come to me like he wants.

  He steps against me, his eyes full of so many things, none that have to be said out loud, at least not yet.

  Maddoc looks over my shoulders. “You helped Captain leak the information to Donley about him being shot. That leads to the meeting being called and all of us standing here after.”

  “It was the least I could do,” Collins responds.

  “You didn’t have to do anything. The Graven I knew you to be wouldn’t have considered helping us in any way.”

  I grin against Maddoc’s chest. That’s the closest to a thank you he’ll ever give Collins.

  Good job, Big Man.

  “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry for all the shit I did. I’m leaving, you won’t hear a sound from me ever again.”

  Maddoc’s muscles tense a moment, and then he says, “It’s not worth shit, but knowing you’ll be far away from her helps.”

  A light laugh leaves Collins, and I look up to Maddoc right as his eyes come down to me.

  Without another word spoken, Maddoc leads me up the small hill, and toward the front of the cabin.

  His arms wrap around me and he buries his head in my neck, breathing me in, his deep exhale the most calming thing I’ve ever felt.

  The creak of the old wooden deck has him slowly pulling away, and spinning to stand at my back, his arms still locked around me, palms flat against my stomach.

  Cap, Royce, and Victoria step from the cabin, while Mac, Chloe, and Bass walk up from where they just set up some chairs for our fire tomorrow morning – they don’t get us tonight.

  “You were stressin’ out,” Victoria teases.

  “Fuck off.” I flip her off, not letting my smile free. “But for real though, how do normal people not jump off cliffs on a daily basis?”

  Everyone chuckles.

  “It’s called nerves, Raven,” Chloe says. “And normal people have been getting them since they learned to walk, so we’re well versed in how to handle them.”

  “Please.” Victoria rolls her eyes. “Everyone knows you pop a Xanax before all your routines.”

  “Excuse me, but I—”

  “I think we’re ready to turn in,”
Mac interrupts the two, stepping forward to give everyone one of their bro shakes.

  He smiles when he gets to us. “Congrats, guys. Thanks for lettin’ me be here.”

  “Yeah, man,” Maddoc says. “Thanks for giving us your cabin for the night.”

  “Of course.” Mac grins. “We’ve got Chloe’s.”

  Chloe winks and the two walk off, climbing into Mac’s Jeep.

  “I’m going in too, I need to get off my fucking feet, call Zoey before she goes to bed,” Cap announces before he steps forward with a soft smile.

  I nod and am about to move forward to hug him, but Maddoc’s grip on me tightens, so I stay planted.

  He steps to me, kisses my temple then clamps a hand on his brother’s shoulder before walking to the door, but he only stands there with the handle in his grip, eyes on Victoria.

  “What?” she asks.

  His eyes narrow, but I’m not sure it’s enough for her to notice. “You planning on coming in, or you waiting for an invite to the party?”

  She looks around, confused. “What party?”

  Royce chuckles, glancing to Mac who nods to him and turns back to us with a grin. “Sorry, VicVee. This is a party for three. I’m going to play with the wannabe princess and her Mac daddy.” He waggles his brows, slaps Maddoc’s back and rushes off.

  We stare as he lifts a wide-eyed Chloe from the passenger seat, slides in then spins her, placing her on his lap in a straddling position.

  Her head snaps to Mac, obviously unaware of the third-party member, but when Mac leans over, kissing her as he revs the engine, she settles in.

  “Wow,” Victoria deadpans.

  “Yeah,” I sigh with a grin. “No shame.”

  Maddoc’s silent chuckle shakes against my back and Vee sighs.

  “I... guess I better go in before he locks me out,” she mumbles where Cap can’t hear.

  “I bolted all the bedroom doors, so you have to either sleep in Cap’s bed or on the couch.”

  Cap shakes his head while Victoria’s glare flies to mine.

  “I’m kidding.” I laugh. “Last room on the right is for you. You have your own bathroom and everything, so you don’t even have to come out until morning if you don’t want.”

  She nods, walking for the door and slipping past Captain, leaving me and Maddoc alone.