Contents
Title
Synopsis
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Epilogue
Four months earlier
Quick Note From The Author
Stay Connected
More by Meagan Brandy
Playlist
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Copyright © 2020 Meagan Brandy
All rights reserved. This book, or any portion thereof, may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
No copyright infringement intended. No claims have been made over songs and/or lyrics written. All credit goes to original owner.
Edited by: Ellie McLove, My Brother’s Editor
Proofread by: Rosa Sharon, My Brother’s Editor
Proofread by: Sarah, All Encompassing Books
Cover Designer: Jay Aheer, Simply Defined Art
Created with Vellum
Dedication
To the one who stands for those who can’t stand for themselves and needs no praise, you are courage at its finest.
Never change.
Synopsis
“Cross one, cross all.”
That’s the Brayshaw way.
She should have realized this before sliding into our world with secrets too big to bury.
She didn’t and now the target is on her back.
The day her lies came crashing down, I should have forced her out.
Instead, I locked her in, and with the promise I would never be hers.
I resisted, fought against us.
I caved.
I tasted what became my newfound favorite flavor and fell hard for the little liar.
But then the depth of her treachery reveals itself, and with it a reminder.
Our town is a twisted place, and with truth comes trouble.
In the blink of an eye, my world is split at its core, and I’m faced with an impossible decision, one that leads to a single outcome...
Betrayal.
Prologue
Victoria
The light knock of knuckles against old wood has my eyes popping open to meet the cracked ceiling, but my focus quickly snaps toward the doorway.
Maybell, the woman who runs the group home I’ve spent the last three years of my life in, enters, the wrinkles on her forehead growing deeper with every step she takes inside. She pauses beside the second bed in the room, tapping her shoe against the wood to get my roommate’s attention.
She looks up from her magazine, pulling her headphones from her ears.
“Nira, why don’t you take a walk, hm?” Maybell drops the hint, letting her know to get lost without having to tell her to.
It’s her subtle way of avoiding the backlash of rebellious teenage girls who don’t do well with orders.
Nira glances from her to me, and with an overdramatic huff, rolls her eyes and walks out.
A scoffed exhale escapes Maybell as she drops beside me on the mattress. “All these girls, they’ll be the death of me.”
“Yeah,” I agree. “But would you walk away from this place if you could?”
“Oh, trust me, child.” She grins, her age showing in the heavy creases around her eyes. “I could go if I wanted, ain’t nobody forcing me here, but to answer your question, no. I wouldn’t walk away.” She’s quiet for a moment, a low, hopeful thought spoken in the next. “I’d like to help care for the next generation while I’ve still got it in me.”
Next generation.
Right.
The boys of Brayshaw, the power behind this town. Brothers who share no DNA but are connected in every way that counts. The boys Maybell has spent the last eighteen years caring for, and their fathers before them.
The ‘next generation’ Maybell is referring to, though, isn’t the three she’s already helped raise, but the newest members to the Brayshaw family, one not yet born but healthy, growing inside his or her mother, and the other, just shy of three years old.
A little girl who, as of this moment, only a handful of people know exists—the daughter of Captain Brayshaw. The little girl who was not only hidden from the world she belonged in, but from Captain himself. He learned of her months after she was born and went on a mission to find her.
He did, but their world is not a simple one, and threats too high to ignore kept her from coming home the moment he met her, but nobody could keep a Bray from their child forever. And after several decades worth of battles between power families—the Brayshaws and the Gravens—the right one won.
Zoey Brayshaw is finally home, where she belongs. Permanently.
But I’m not supposed to know any of this.
Not that she exists or is home or the struggles it took to get her here.
Not yet anyway.
Not until later today when Maddoc and his new bride, the true, long lost blood heir to the Brayshaw name, Raven Carver, get home.
Raven, who just learned she has a sister.
Me.
A secret that was given to me when I was a little girl, and only because I had no one to share the knowledge with, but then I did.
I found my sister, met her, spoke to her, lived in a group home alongside her, and chose not to say a word, but six weeks ago, and with a little help, Raven discovered the hidden truth on her own.
Her and I, we share a father, one neither of us would ever claim, the enemy to all who proudly represent the Brayshaw name and the head of another, Donley Graven of the Gravens. A bastard of a man who tried to ruin this town and the people in it, people who once trusted in his name.
Eighteen years ago, he raped our mothers with purpose, but decided they weren’t worth the trouble when neither baby he’d worked so sickeningly hard for was to be a male who could later take his place.
Donley tried to force them both into abortions, but each had run away before he could be sure they’d followed through. Their disappearances were still a win for him as nobody would learn the truth.
A lot has happened since then, though. His lies have been exposed, and with his end, both his name and empire have fallen.
Everyone pays when they piss off a Brayshaw.
Cross one, cross all.
A heavy sigh leaves me.
I’m expected to move out of this group home today and into the Brayshaw Mansion at the back of the property line, hidden and protected by thousands of tall, shadowed trees, a blanket of darkness to shield the black in their
souls, or maybe it serves an opposite purpose—to hide the light they don’t want others to witness.
There is light, tenderness, and care, but nobody would ever guess so as they don’t share it with the world.
It’s, in part, why their home is reserved for them and them alone. Those on the outside aren’t allowed near, can’t see, and could never enter.
I have been inside many times now... because they allowed it.
First, it was at Raven’s demand, and they weren’t happy, but then things shifted.
The strong four became a loose five. I wasn’t in, but I was present, accepted.
Will my foot even cross the steps this time?
I swallow past the lump forming in my throat, looking to Maybell.
Her dark eyes move between mine, a knowing glint staring back as she confirms what I assumed—she knows what she isn’t told.
“You put it off long enough, girl,” she scolds, but there is no anger behind her words.
My shoulders fall.
A seriousness takes over her, a hint of tenderness she typically reserves brimming the surface. “Go on, Tor. The sooner it happens, the sooner it’s out.”
“The sooner they send me packing.”
“The faster they can forgive,” she counters.
A humorless laugh escapes and I drop my head back.
“Uh-huh, yeah.” I stand. “’Cause they’re known to forgive outsiders.”
“You’re not an outsider.”
“I’m not her, either.” I look to Maybell, speaking of Raven. “I might not be just the blonde from the group home anymore, but I’m not her. They don’t... they won’t understand.”
They have no real reason to try.
“Raven will want to understand,” Maybell says. “And slowly, they’ll follow.”
“What if she doesn’t?”
Maybell stands, stepping right in front of me. “Then you make her.”
Make her.
I can’t even laugh, though I want to—as if anyone who has ever tried to make Raven Carver, Raven Brayshaw, do a damn thing has ever been successful.
Yeah, right.
With a deep breath, I hold Maybell’s gaze a moment before I force my feet into the hall, out the front door, and onto the dirt road that leads to the mansion, venturing deeper into the trees and off the path once it’s in view.
It’s been a month since Raven and Maddoc got married and decided to take a mini-vacation to breathe after all the shit they went through to get to where they are now—on top of the town.
During that time, I’ve gone back to being who I came to this place as, the overlooked loner I worked hard to create.
Before, it was easy. I’ve always been a watcher, a listener, and I’ve never been social, so I purposefully avoided useless conversation, which helped block out unwanted friendships. The fact that the few others from the group home were mixed into Brayshaw High already meant I wouldn’t stick out like an ugly duck amongst swans, they were used to seeing less ‘pristine’ females around.
I knew and appreciated quickly no one would bother with a bitchy blonde mess with winged eyeliner and red lips, not when prissiness and perfection and mirrored personalities were so sickeningly desired.
Now, though, being who I convinced myself I wanted to be when I first arrived here took an effort I didn’t even want to give.
Living the loner life was no longer appealing.
Realizing this was like granite to the face.
It was only days into hiding myself that I started to grow restless and couldn’t stay away, no matter how hard I tried.
That’s when I knew for sure there was no going back. I’ve always had self-control, but it seems to have slipped.
What started out as righting wrongs I’d helped create, turned into more and without permission.
My little wonder grew to want, want morphed into need, and there was no going back from there.
Possibility bloomed, grew richer roots, and clawed its way into the ground around me.
I couldn’t stay away, so I compromised with my own damn mind, and it was back to hiding in plain sight, like before.
Like now.
But Raven called. She’s home, and very unlike Captain.
He looks for me, scans the yard when he passes the girls’ home, and I have no doubt he’d stop if he spotted me, which is why I made sure he didn’t.
He’s patient, or he forces himself to be anyway.
Raven is the complete opposite.
She’ll get out, walk right inside the group home and drag my ass out the door herself, if even just to hang out on the porch after she did it.
My cheeks fill with air as I attempt to calm my nerves.
Out of everything—knowing who attacked Raven when she was young, the news of my being there when it happened, the truth about Donley being both our biological fathers, Raven’s mom being a complete fucking psychopath, and everything in between—this is where my real fear lies.
This is the part I’ve dreaded the most, the disclosure of a secret so devastatingly complicated.
“Standing in the shadows again?”
The sultry, crisp voice wraps around my ribs and squeezes the air from my lungs. My heart beats double-time as I spin.
Messy blond hair, clear blue-green eyes, and a small side grin, Captain stares.
Shit.
Twigs snap beneath his feet as he comes closer, the crack of each one spiking my pulse higher.
My spine straightens, and I shuffle backward until my shoulder blades meet the tree I tucked myself into, allowing no room for an escape should I need one.
“Hi,” I manage to force out after a long moment.
The corner of his mouth slowly lifts higher, his gaze roaming across my face as if he’s refreshing his memory of me, and my teeth clench tight.
“Hi,” he mimics. “Why you hidin’ in my orchards?”
“Maybell told me Raven was home,” I say.
He nods, humor lining his features. “She tell you this today, or a week ago?”
“What?” Shit.
A low chuckle leaves him, and he takes another step forward, his chest now brushing mine.
“You thought I didn’t notice?” His words are a slow whisper. “That I’d let you keep hiding in the shadows, watching?”
Shit. Shit.
Captain’s eyes fall to my lips when my tongue sneaks out to wet them.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” he accuses, his stare flying back to mine. “Why?”
“I haven’t,” I lie.
“You’re lying.”
It’s what I do...
“Captain—” I bite back my words when he jerks in even more.
His hand finds my neck, and he uses his thumb to help lift my chin where he wants it, his lips now only a breath away from mine, thick and full and so, so tempting.
“You laid in my bed, touched me in your sleep,” he rasps, the blue in his eyes darkening, almost covering the green completely. “Dreamt out loud.” A slow smirk appears, and his tone drops to a playful roughness that stirs deep in my stomach. “That was my favorite part.”
I swallow, my body growing lax against the tree.
I should push him away.
He stands perfectly still for several seconds before he says, “This is the part where you tell me to kiss you, sleeping beauty.”
I frown, my palms flying forward to plant against his pecs, fully intending to shove him back, but my body betrays me, my hands not doing as I willed and instead pull him in.
Greedy, heated lips fall on mine and I forget how wrong this is of me, my mouth answering his tongue’s demand and opening farther.
Anything for him, my subconscious screams.
His teeth lightly scrape the skin of my bottom lip, forcing a low groan from deep within his chest, and he pulls back when I’m positive this was him having not even started.
He tilts his head to the side, a heavy, rasped chuckle escaping.
“I
knew it,” he confesses, his tongue peeking out to tease the corner of his mouth.
I clear my throat, officially dazed. “Knew what?”
“You want me,” he states with confidence, drawing back, but only by an inch, and his knuckles skim down my neck. “Same way I want you.” His eyes find mine again, a calm command front and center. “Say it.”
Reality slams back into place, pulling at my muscles until I can hardly breathe.
What did I just do?
We’ve had a simmering attraction for weeks, months even, but it’s never been spoken of.
We’ve talked, but not about anything outside of what we’ve needed to.
We’ve hung out, but never alone, except for the night at the Brayshaw cabin, when Raven married Maddoc.
Neither of us could sleep, and we both ended up out on the balcony looking up at the stars and old sugar pine trees. It was comfortable, the silence we sat in, so when he said he was going to watch a movie, I took that as an invitation and followed him to his room.
I did sleep in his bed.
I didn’t realize I touched him, and while I have been known to talk in my sleep, he never mentioned it. Not that he had a chance.
Like he said, I’d been avoiding him, but not for the reasons he’s thinking or one he’d ever guess.
I swallow, shaking my head as I answer his question in a copout way.
“I hardly know you.” The lie is easy, the truth that follows even more so. “And you don’t know me at all.”
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