“That’s a question you’re not prepared to know the answer to, but keep testing me and I might be inclined to show you.” My mouth snaps shut and I watch him in complete silence. “I am man enough to know that I did wrong by that kid. He took me out last week which I am willing to forgive and let it slide considering the events which took place regarding his little sister, but you must remember that he came to me as a willing participant.”
“He was eleven. He didn’t know what he was doing.”
“Maybe, maybe not. I’m not sorry though. He served me well and now I have someone who’s not such a bitch about the jobs I hand out.”
I glance down at Rocko with disgust. How could Tully have dated him?
“So, Noah’s free to go. He never has to do a job for you again?”
“Are you hard of hearing?” Anton questions. “Yes, Noah is released of his obligations to me. Consider us even after his assault last week. However, he has been on the inside for far too long. He knows the ins and outs of my business, my contacts, my clients, and warehouses. If he breathes even a word of this information, sets just one foot wrong, I will end him. Is that much clear?”
Holy shit. Maybe I am hard of hearing because there’s no way I just heard that right. I thought for sure Noah was never going to be released from his evil clutches. It was either work for the guy or die trying to get out.
I nod my head. I know Noah desperately wanted to take him down, but this might be the best shot we’ve got to be free from the guy.
“Now, there’s just the question of my gun.”
“Your gun?”
“Now’s not the time to start acting a fool, Henley Bronx. Where’s my gun?”
“I swear,” I tell him, shaking my head. “Noah kicked it towards the storm drain. We don’t have it. It went down and we got the fuck out of there before you regained consciousness.”
He narrows his eyes on me but must give me the benefit of the doubt as he seems to accept my answer. “One more thing before you go.”
My whole body tenses. Haven’t we discussed enough already? What could possibly be left to talk about?
Anton’s head tilts down towards me and it’s the fiercest look he’s given me yet. “Where’s my son?”
My brows draw down. His son? Who the hell is his son? I shake my head. "I…I don’t know who you’re talking about. I don’t know your son.”
“Don’t give me that bullshit, child. Samuel Rivers, your brother. Where is he?”
My eyes bulge out of my head. “Excuse me?” I shriek in an odd mix of outrage and surprise. “Rivers is your what?”
For Rivers to be his son, that would mean Gina and Anton were a lot more than just rivals. I wonder if he’s the boyfriend she cheated on with my dad and if he was the boyfriend who used to hit her around when she was pregnant with me. He’s the boyfriend who pushed her to give me away. If he’s River’s father, then that’s another connection to me that I simply just don’t like.
I didn’t just dodge the Gina bullet, but I dodge the Anton bullet as well. Thank God she’s a cheating whore. If she hadn’t been with my dad that night, she very well could have gone home and slept with him. I could have almost been his child. The thought sends chills down my spine.
Though, this does answer why he had instructed Rocko not to hurt me. He wouldn’t want his son’s half-sister getting hurt under his watch. That would only cause problems, but then, is that something a guy like Anton would really worry about?
Fuck me. My mind whirls but I try to concentrate, I can think it over later, right now I need to hear what he has to say and then I need to get the fuck out of here.
Anton’s eyes narrow suspiciously. “He’s your brother, your friend, is he not?” he questions. “I keep a close eye on him and are aware of your relationship with him. Now, where is he? I have not heard from him in over two months and he’s been lacking in his duties within the family business.”
Family business? What the fuck? This shit doesn’t make sense.
“Answer me, Henley. Where the fuck is my son?”
“He’s not here. He’s gone,” I rush out, hating being the one who had to share this information with both of his parents. I mean, how fucking unlucky can I be? “He joined the Marines.”
“What?” Anton roars, launching forward and grabbing the front of my jacket, ripping me up off the ground as he fights to control his emotions.
Fear grips me as he waits for my response. “I don’t know,” I say, sucking in a deep breath. “He was here one minute and gone the next. We didn’t hear from him for weeks and then a letter showed up explaining what he’d done.”
Anton drops me and my knees buckle beneath me, sending me down to the hard ground. “Get out of my sight,” he tells me.
I stare up at him, too put off to move or to even speak.
Anton steps into me, glaring down at me like some kind of raging bull. “I TOLD YOU TO GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY SIGHT.”
My eyes bulge from my head and I scramble to my feet.
Before I know it, I’m racing as fast as I can, desperate to get out of here and away from that man. I’ve never been so terrified in my life. That man is completely unhinged, a monster who just happens to be my half brother’s father.
All I know is that the mystery of Rivers just got that much deeper…darker. No wonder he refused to let us in; a convicted criminal for a mother and mobster for a father. Hell, if that was me, I probably would have left for the Marines too.
Suddenly, a piece of my heart heals for Rivers while it also breaks just a little bit more. I can’t imagine the life he’s had to grow up with.
I break out from the trees with my feet pounding against the uneven ground. People are all around in the dark with their phones lighting up the small space before them as they all call out, but my mind is spinning, I can’t make out what they’re yelling.
I crash into a hard body and hands are suddenly gripping me. I pull away, desperate to be released. What if it’s Rocko coming to finish what he started? “I got her,” a voice too near my ear calls out.
I glance up at the person holding onto me too tightly; Spencer.
My whole body sags with relief and Spencer has to readjust his hold to keep me from falling to my knees. “Where’s Noah?” I rush out, my eyes stinging with unshed tears. “I need Noah.”
“It’s alright,” he tells me softly, pulling out his phone. “We’ll get him. He’s worried sick. He’s been looking for you.”
Spencer walks back towards the racetrack and the closer we get to the bright spotlights the safer I begin to feel.
“Spitfire,” Noah calls out, making me spin around and search him out to find him racing frantically towards me. “Where have you been?”
I release Spencer and start for Noah, the tears finally spilling from my eyes.
Noah grabs me, wrapping me in his arms and squeezing me tight before taking me by the shoulders and pushing me away. Under the lights, his eyes rake up and down over my body, taking in the dirt stains and grazed skin. “What the hell happened to you?”
“Please…just take me home,” I beg of him. “I’ll explain later. Just…we need to go. Now.”
“Ok,” he promises, instantly turning around and leading me towards his Camaro, calling over his shoulder for Spencer to find Tully. “You’re safe with me, Spitfire. I’ve got you.”
Chapter 11
Dad walks through our front door, looking down at the mail in his hand, a stumped look marring his face as I fiddle with Aria’s hair, working on my braiding skills, though honestly, I should just give up. My braids suck, but Aria seems to love them so I’m happy with that.
Dad scrunches up his face, dropping the mail down on the entryway table except for one before scratching his ass and grunting in true trucker style. “Broken Hill University,” he grumbles. “The fuck is this?”
My eyes whip up from Ari’s hair and I accidentally yank a little too hard on it. “Owww,” she cries out, drawing out the sound
while grabbing the chunk of hair from between my fingers and desperately prying it out.
“What did you say?” I ask, ignoring the whiney child sitting at my feet while gaping at dad who scratches is head in confusion.
“Maybe they sent it to the wrong place,” he murmurs, flipping over the envelope to take in both sides. He must have been looking at the back as a second later, his head whips up. “Why on earth is something from Broken Hill University addressed to you?” he questions. “Did you apply here?”
Wait. Did I not tell him about this? “Um…yeah,” I tell him. “Sort of.”
“Oh, Henley,” he says, letting out a sigh. “I wish you’d talked to me about this. Don’t get me wrong, I’m so proud of you for wanting this for yourself, but Broken Hill University? Do you have any idea what the tuition for this place would be? Shit. I can’t even think about that. Did you apply for community college here in Haven Falls? You know they have a pretty good science program.”
“I know,” I tell him as I fly up off the couch and snatch the big envelope out of his fingers, “and yeah, I did…as my back up.”
“Back up?” he shrieks as I drop back down on the couch, the nerves beginning to take over. “Look, Honey, you’ve been working your ass off lately, improving your grades and you’ve done an incredible job, but BHU isn’t exactly…affordable.”
“Dad…”
“Just…let me get this out, Honey.”
“But…wait.”
“I have no doubt that the second you open that letter there’s going to be a massive ‘Congratulations’ written at the top, but I don’t want you getting your hopes up. We simply can’t afford a prestigious school like that. I know you have big dreams and I swear to you, I will work my ass off to pay for community college, but BHU? I just…it’s not in the cards.”
Devastation pours out of him in waves as his gaze drops to the envelope between clenched fingers. My heart breaks for him. He’s always done everything in his power to give me the world and it kills him knowing that this is simply out of our reach. “I’m so sorry, Squish. I wish you’d said something about this earlier.”
I let out a sigh. “Thanks, dad, but if you’d just let me talk for two seconds, I would have been able to tell you that I applied for a full scholarship.”
His eyes flick back up to meet mine. “What?” he gasps. “A scholarship?”
“Yeah,” I chuckle. “Mr. Carver suggested it a while ago. I guess it slipped my mind to talk to you about it. I’ve had so much going on.”
“Are you kidding me?” he questions, snatching the envelope right back and scrambling to open it. “Then what the hell are you waiting for?”
“Hey, give it back,” I demand, prying it from his fingers, terrified that we’re going to rip it in half in our excitement. I mean, a rejection letter probably wouldn’t come in a big envelope, right? “In all the movies the kid is the one who’s supposed to open it and it’s supposed to be some big defining moment with slow suspenseful music.”
“I raised you for eighteen years,” he defends. “Shouldn’t I get something for all my hard work?”
“Screw that,” I laugh as he finally releases the envelope. “You get the knowledge of knowing that I’ll have my own kids one day who are going to give me hell.”
“Yeah,” he chuckles. “I can’t wait to see you suffer through all the bullshit you did to me, but at least another ten years would be good. I’m not ready to be a ‘Grandpoppy’ just yet.”
“Whatever,” I say, rolling my eyes as I turn the envelope over. “You’ll make a great ‘Grandpoppy.’”
“Damn straight, I will. Now hurry up and open that thing. I want to see if my daughter is going to be the next star of Haven Falls.”
“Dramatic much?” Fidgeting with the fold of the envelope, I slip my finger under it with incredible anxiety pulsing through me. I slam the envelope back into dad’s hands. “I can’t do it. You do it.”
“No way,” he says, thrusting it straight back at me. “This is all on you, remember? You want your movie moment.” Dad looks down at Aria. “Drum roll please, Squirt.”
Aria instantly starts drumming her hands on her lap, starting slowly and laughing like a hyena, though probably having absolutely no understanding of what has us so excited, nervous, and anxious all at the same time.
“Fine.”
I take a deep breath and slide my finger under the flap, tearing the paper as I go. This is the moment I’ve been waiting for, the moment that will tell me if all the hard work I’ve been doing has paid off.
I reach in and curl my fingers around the papers within before sliding them out of the envelope and instantly losing my shit.
Oh, God. This is too much. I fly up off the couch, needing to pace the room and have somewhere to throw a tantrum if this doesn’t go the way I hope.
My eyes scan over the paper and I let out a breath before reading out loud.
“Dear Miss Henley Bronx, thank you for your interest in applying for the…blah, blah, blah.” I scan over the little introduction before getting to the good stuff. “Congratulations. After thorough consideration, we are pleased to offer you the Victoria Bradford Scholarship.”
Dad throws himself to his feet, grabbing me in a massive bear hug. “Holy shit, Kiddo. You fucking did it.” Booming laughter comes pouring out of him as the shock begins to take over. My eyes grow watery with happiness and I jump up and down, so damn proud of myself.
This is incredible. I can’t believe it.
The letter is snatched out of my hands and I take the chance to grab Aria and spin her around. Dad reads over the letter, probably double checking that I read it correctly and I stand back, watching him with a smug expression. I mean, why the hell not? Look at this incredible thing that I just did.
Dad’s eyes scan left to right over each line and the further he gets, the wider my smile becomes. I’m going to be a college girl. Shit, I can’t wait for Noah to get back so I can tell him all about it.
“Hold up, hold up, hold up,” Dad says, holding a finger out as his brows dive down in confusion. “When you said ‘scholarship,’ I assumed you meant a full ride.”
“I did,” I say as concern begins flooding me. What’s he talking about?
“This isn’t a full scholarship, Henley.”
“What do you mean? Of course, it is.”
“Here, look,” he says, pointing to the letter before him, much further down than I had originally made it. “It says you applied for the Montgomery Scholarship, which was awarded to another student from out of state. However, they were so impressed with your achievements that they have offered you the Victoria Bradford Scholarship instead. But this isn’t a full ride. The scholarship only covers parts of your tuition.”
Dread seeps in and sits heavy in the bottom of my stomach. “How much of my tuition?”
Dad shakes his head, still scanning over the papers before flicking to the information pack that came with it. “I don’t know, Squish. Hopefully it’s enough, hey?”
I drop down beside Dad and lean over, reading over the information pack and taking in the tuition details as though it’s the most important piece of information that I’ll ever need. Reading it all makes me sick. The kids in Broken Hill wouldn’t even blink at this shit, but for us over here on the wrong side of the tracks, this is the kind of money that people would kill for.
“Alright,” dad says, scratching his head. “So, the scholarship will cover roughly fifty percent, but the remaining fees are still ridiculously high.”
“Too high?” I question, trying to work out if this is even possible. Dad doesn’t respond, just starts from the beginning and reads over it again, deep, deep in thought. I try to go over my options and read the fine print regarding the payment options.
I pull out my phone and bring up my calculator app, doing the math to work out what the monthly repayments would be and what earning potential I’d have with a part-time job. After crunching the numbers, having a job would help
but I’m still not sure it’s going to be enough, especially if I consider that I’ll need to watch Aria every now and then and squeeze a life in there somewhere too.
Though…if I worked over the summer as well and saved up as much as I could, that would give me a bit of a head start.
“I think I can do it,” I tell dad. “If I worked and saved every little dollar, I might be able to scrape through.”
Dad turns to me and sucks in a deep breath. “You really want this, don’t you?”
“So damn bad,” I tell him, “and if it’s not this, then it’s going to be community college where I’ll still have to work every day to pay for it.”
Dad scans over the information pack once again. “Well, if you’re going to be a college student; I can’t have my baby exhausting herself working a shitty job for minimum wage day in and day out. I’ve got you covered kid. We’ll make this work.”
My eyes bulge out of my head. “Are you serious? I can go?”
“How could I possibly allow you to pass up an opportunity like this? We’ll work it out. You can work a weekend job; a diner or something like that, and I’ll pick up a few more deliveries during the week. It’ll be hard but we’ll make it happen.”
I throw myself into my dad, my arms circling him and holding as tight as I possibly can. “Thank you so much,” I nearly cry. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”
“Sure, I do, Squish. I’ve seen how hard you’ve been working lately and I know just what this means for the kids in Haven Falls. You’re going to have your friends bowing down at your feet, impressed as shit. You did the impossible, just remember, when you’re winning awards and making millions of dollars, I’d really love a house on a hill with a shed big enough for my truck.”
“You got it,” I laugh moments before Aria crash tackles into us, sending us flying into the back of the couch.
The need to share this with Noah and Tully is far too great and I push up off the couch. “I’ll be back in a bit,” I tell Dad and Ari. “I need to go tell everyone.”
Dad rolls his eyes but the smile is impossible to move from his face. “Alright, just be back for dinner. It’d be nice to all eat together tonight and celebrate.”
Undeniable: Haven Falls (Book 5) Page 11