She smiled against my chest.
“My head doesn’t hurt as bad,” she said. “Did they have to shave my hair?”
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to tell her. Especially seeing as how she’d cried about it when she found out that they might.
“Umm.” I paused. “Only a little bit. Right at the edge.”
I touched her head, right under where they’d done stitches, and she sighed.
“Shit,” she mumbled. “And you missed your first game.”
“I missed my first game.” I shrugged. “I don’t honestly care. We won, anyway, even without me. Luckily it was just a scrimmage. So no real problem with me not being there.”
She curled deeper into my arms. “Do you have to wake me up in thirty minutes still?”
The doctor had recommended waking her up every two to three hours. It’d been two since I’d last woken her. So no, I didn’t feel like I had to wake her up.
“I’ll wake you up when it’s time for me to get ready for breakfast,” I said.
“Why do you say that like I’m not going anywhere today?” she asked.
“Because you’re not?” I said.
“I am,” she countered. “Actually, I want to go to school. He’s not going to scare me into not going.”
I grinned at her. “Today is Saturday, babe. No school today.”
She deflated. “Oh.”
I curled my fingers around her neck and tilted her chin up to look at me.
Her eyes were deep and haunted, but they shone with a love that only ever showed when I was looking into her eyes.
“I know that you’re not defeated.” I pressed a kiss to her brow. “You can be a badass on Monday. We have today and tomorrow to chill out and do nothing. Hopefully get that head of yours feeling better.”
That, and my temper under control enough that I didn’t kill Vance the first time that I saw him.
“Did they say if I could play still?” she asked.
I shook my head, then leaned back until I was lying on the air mattress, her directly on my chest.
“No,” I said. “I didn’t even think to ask. But they did say they were going to call today and check on you when we left. Make sure you tell your dad to ask them that.” I paused. “I’m guessing that you probably can’t do anything strenuous until you get your stitches out, though.”
“Friday is the senior game,” she murmured. “I’m playing.”
My lips tipped up into a smile. “Are you not tired?”
She shook her head, and I looked over at her alarm clock that was on the edge of her bedside table.
It read four in the morning.
“Do you want to get up? Go watch some television?” I asked.
I was tired as hell, but I’d do whatever she wanted if she wasn’t tired.
Even get up and watch television when I wanted nothing more than to catch a few more hours of sleep.
Which, in the end, is exactly what I got.
I only woke up four hours later with Perry giggling at something her father was saying.
“…No, I don’t think so,” Perry said. “I was about to poke Banner awake and ask him if he’d get me donuts.”
I sat up, my head feeling like it was full of cotton.
When I blinked my eyes open, it was to find the room completely full.
Other than the sofa that I was laid out on, my parents were taking up the one diagonal to me. Perry was curled up in the small space that I didn’t take up on mine. My sister, brother and brother’s wife were also there.
Then there were Perry’s parents who were sitting on the ottoman that was across the room.
I blinked.
“When did everyone get here?” I grumbled, wiping my eyes with my fists.
“You weren’t answering your phone,” Ashe supplied helpfully, her hands resting on her big belly. “And we got curious.”
I shook my head as if it would help clear the cobwebs, then got up and left the room without another word.
My bladder was screaming.
Once I was done, I slipped some shoes on that happened to be up in Perry’s room.
“You’re leaving?” she asked.
“I heard that you wanted donuts,” I teased.
“And you think you’re going dressed like that?”
I blinked at Perry’s words.
“Um, what?” I asked in confusion.
She gestured to my pants and said, “You can’t wear those.”
I frowned. “Why not?”
She took a hold of my hand and led me to the mirror that was on the back of her bathroom door.
“That,” she said, as if her craziness was more than obvious. “That’s why.”
I shook my head. “Perry, I have absolutely no clue what you’re talking about.”
She poked my dick with one finger.
“That.” She poked it again. “That right there is what I’m talking about. You can’t wear this out in public. Where we’re headed is going to have a crap ton of girls—high school and college alike—there. You can’t be seen like this in public.”
I looked at her, trying to gauge her sincerity.
But the more I looked at her, the more I realized that she was being one hundred percent serious.
I burst out laughing.
In fact, I was laughing so hard that her father poked his head in.
The big, bad, intimidating man stared at us with confusion.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
I couldn’t answer.
I was too busy laughing.
Not that I would tell Perry’s father what I found so funny.
“Ummm,” I hesitated, unable to get my words out through the wheezing. “I…”
“He thinks I’m joking about him wearing these sweatpants out of the house. I’m not.” Perry crossed her arms over her chest.
Perry and her dad had the weirdest relationship.
They talked about things that I would’ve never spoken about with my parents.
Then again, if I’d found my daughter in bed with a guy, I might’ve flipped my lid. He practically let us sleep together last night, after hearing that I’d actually slept with her the night before.
All her dad had asked was whether or not I wanted to sleep in the bed with her, or for him to blow up his extra mattress.
Needless to say, the fact that Perry was talking about my dick print in my sweatpants should’ve been one of those moments I went running for the door. Dawson Street only rolled his eyes, declared that I needed at least a dozen glazed donuts for just him, and left the room.
“And I want glazed cake.” Perry patted my chest. “Four of them.”
I grinned and pulled her in close, feeling my dick get even harder. Then I pressed a kiss to her lips, backed away, and headed out the door without another word.
I found that my bike was blocked in by my brother’s truck, so I went back inside and snatched his keys before heading out.
It was when I was at the donut shop that I saw the first person that was from our school.
“Hey, is Perry okay?” the young kid asked.
I’d never met him before in my life.
“Yeah,” I said. “She’s fine. She has a concussion and some bruising, but she’ll be back at school Monday.”
“Hell of a thing that Vance did.” The kid shook his head. “It’s all over school. Did y’all press charges?”
I ignored him and everybody else that was now hanging on his every word and ordered my donuts.
When I was done, I looked at the kid and said, “Sadly, we don’t have any hard evidence that Vance was the one behind it.”
With that I left, angry all over again.
And it didn’t fuckin’ help that Vance pulled up with a fucking smirk on his face just as I was leaving.
Somebody must’ve called him.
Son of a bitch.
Putting my brother�
�s truck back into park, I got out and practically sprinted toward him.
He grinned like a fuckin’ loon, which was when I finally got myself under control enough to realize that it was too fuckin’ easy.
There had to be a reason he showed up. And that he was presenting himself with a proverbial bow on his head.
He wanted me to lose control.
I stopped, took a deep breath, and turned around.
When I got back into Ford’s truck, I saw Vance’s smirk had disappeared.
Rolling down my window, I said, “You won’t get away with it.”
He shrugged. “Maybe I will. Depends on what we’re talking about.”
Gritting my teeth, I drove back to Perry’s house and brought the donuts inside.
All the while everyone ate, I wondered if there was a way to kill someone and not be caught.
Probably fucking not.
Chapter 21
This is not friendship weather. Stop inviting me to places.
-Perry to Blue
Banner
“I think it’s time to get a restraining order,” my father suggested. “I was hoping to avoid it, but I don’t think it can wait anymore. You both should be getting one.”
My father looked from me to Perry and back.
“I agree,” Dawson murmured. “We can do that on a Saturday, right?”
“I’ll go with you,” Ford offered. “And yes, you can. I’ll call ahead, talk to a few people, and we’ll get you set up before we even step foot in the door. But, after yesterday, I’m fairly positive that they’re going to be ready for it.”
After yesterday.
After Perry was beaten up, stripped from the waist down, and left like a piece of trash underneath the bleachers. Bleeding and bruised.
I clenched my hand, not realizing what I was doing until all the cream filling in my donut was all over my hand.
“Shit,” I grumbled.
Perry snickered and swept her finger across the cream, bringing it to her lips.
My eyes caught hers as she sucked that finger clean, and I decided that was the single hottest thing I’d ever seen her do before.
And she damn well knew what she did to me.
“We’ll go after breakfast,” Ford suggested as he stood up, pulling his phone from his pocket.
Ashe watched her husband go, then looked from me to Ford and back.
My brows rose.
“Go,” she mouthed.
I patted Perry’s thigh with my hand and then stood, walking outside to find my brother on the phone.
He gestured me closer with his hand and then continued to speak as I polished off my donut.
It was when he was finished that I realized why I was outside.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he said. “You’re thinking that beating the absolute shit out of him would be really, really nice right now.”
I gritted my teeth.
Beating him wasn’t what I was thinking.
Killing him was more accurate.
“Don’t do it,” he said. “Today, after you get the restraining order against him, it’s going to look really bad if you go out there and pick a fight with him. We need him to break the restraining order. But there’s only so much that the judge will allow before he thinks that you’re the one who instigated it.”
I clenched my teeth.
I knew that.
But the reality of the situation was that I needed to control myself, and I had no control left.
“He hurt her,” I croaked.
There were literal fucking tears burning my eyes.
She meant so fucking much to me, in such a small amount of time, and Vance had almost hurt her so badly that she wouldn’t have been able to recover.
And I was just supposed to be okay with that?
“Yes, you’re supposed to be okay with that,” Ford said. “You have to take the higher ground.”
“How about you leave the rest up to us?”
Dawson.
I turned to find him standing next to my father on the top step. He was staring at me as if he’d never seen me before.
“You love my girl.”
Not a question. A statement.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then how about you let us figure it out from here,” he said. “Keep your nose clean. Don’t do anything that’ll jeopardize that career of yours. You being at that school will help my girl be safe. If you’re not there, who’s going to take care of her?”
Who indeed?
Because, though I liked my boys there, they weren’t me.
They cared about Perry, but I was sure they wouldn’t take a bullet to the chest for her.
But I would.
“Okay,” I finally said. “I’ll try to be good. But the moment that he gets too close, I’m not going to allow him to get away with it.”
“Restraining order will keep him away a hundred feet,” Ford said. “But we’re going to need to talk to the school officials. The principal. The resource officer. They’re going to have to change everything around so that he’s no longer in any of your classes, and definitely not in the same lunch as you.”
I scratched the back of my head as I thought about that. “I don’t have all of the same classes with her.”
“That won’t matter if they make it to where Vance is nowhere near her,” Dawson grumbled. “Because, I tell you this now, they’ll either get him away from her, or I’ll pull her from that school. And that’ll cause a big ass stink when I enroll her in the rival high school. She’s a star volleyball player, cross-country runner, and track girl. They’re not going to want to lose her. And Vance ain’t shit at that school.”
That was true. But still… I just hoped that the restraining order helped. Even though I had a sinking feeling that it wouldn’t.
***
Dawson
“This isn’t going to work,” I said to the men in front of me.
Ford and Trance.
They looked intimidating as hell as I stared at them.
I was glad that they were on my side.
“You’re going to have to do something more drastic than a restraining order, Dad. And you know that,” Ford murmured quietly.
I looked over at Trance to see him wince.
“I was trying to play nice,” Trance admitted. “I was trying to do this the easy way. The nice way. The kid just lost his dad, and I know that that’s hard, but fuck. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t have Banner living like this. I already sent him away from his home during his senior year. He changed schools. We did everything right. Yet, still he persists.”
“None of that was on you,” I said. “I heard the story from your son. There was nothing you could do there. The sooner you realize that, the better it’ll all be in the long run.”
Trance sighed. “I fuckin’ took that kid to the movies when he was nine.”
“Well, he tried to beat the shit out of my kid last night. The kid that your kid loves. You’re going to have to choose a side, man. Your kid’s or Vance’s,” I told him bluntly.
Trance rubbed his face. “I think we need to go visit Vance.”
Chapter 22
I hate people and bras.
-Banner’s secret thoughts
Banner
“Stay,” she pleaded.
I hadn’t been home in two days.
I needed a change of clothes, and Dawson had given me the ‘you’re going home tonight’ look.
But I couldn’t say no to Perry.
Not with that pouty lip of hers pulling my heart in her direction.
“Perry,” I whispered. “Your dad is giving me death ray eyes every single time he sees me. I think he wants to spend time with you by yourself for a while.”
She shook her head, her hands scrunching in my shirt as she looked at me with so much alarm on her face that I couldn’t help but cave.
“Okay,” I said. �
�But I’m gonna have to sneak in again.”
She breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Thank you,” she breathed.
“I am going to go home, though. Shower, change my clothes, and tuck a few extra changes into my car before I park it. I’ll walk from the church. It should take me about an hour,” I told her.
Her eyes went wide and she immediately started to shake her head. “Banner, no…”
“I can’t sneak back in if I don’t leave first,” I teased. “And if you keep your parents occupied while I do the sneaking, it’ll be much better for me.”
She pressed her face against my chest, and I tried not to move as she rubbed her bruised face against my pectorals.
My breathing was ragged, though, by the time she pulled away.
Her tears were breaking my heart.
And I decided, right then and there, that I would be making a pitstop to find Vance before I came back here.
“Be fast,” she pleaded.
I smoothed her hair back from her face, then dropped a kiss onto her scratched nose.
“I’ll hurry,” I promised.
Except, it may take me a bit longer than the hour I’d originally told her.
So, when I got on my bike and left a few minutes later, I texted Perry’s mom and told her that she may need some distracting.
Then I went home, changed my clothes, did a load of laundry, packed some shit into a backpack, grabbed my things, and then made my way to my door.
From there, I drove to where I knew Vance to be staying and shut the car off.
I stared at the front door of the house—a big mansion monstrosity that Vance surely didn’t need—and got out.
I walked up to the door and knew this was going to go one of two ways.
I was either going to get in a fight, or I was going to accomplish my goal of getting him to leave.
Either way, the next few minutes were not going to be pretty.
Knocking on the door, I took a deep breath and waited.
The door opened in about thirty seconds, and Vance looked fucked up on the other side.
“What are you doing here?” he snapped, looking pissed.
“I’m sorry, Vance.”
Vance blinked.
“Fuck you,” he growled.
“I’m sorry that your dad is gone,” I told him. “I’m sorry that our friendship has come to this. And, although I’ll never be able to look at you the same way after what you did to Perry, I do wish that you find happiness one day. I just want you to do it away from me.”
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