by Rebel Hart
My mind kept flying back to that bathroom and what happened. Thankfully I mustered up the courage to fight after I finished the blowjob. He definitely wanted to take things further, but when he came, he was distracted enough that I was able to punch him in his groin, grab my phone, and get out. The more I thought about the fact that he’d forced himself on me, the less tethered to reality I felt. I didn’t recognize the woman who just took his abuse back in that bathroom. Gun or not, I should have fought more.
“Cherri?” Avery said quietly. “Are you okay?”
I shook my head. “No. I let him—”
“Hey!” Alistair barked, and I jumped.
“Alistair,” Avery hissed. “Don’t do that!”
“Sorry, but I’m not about to let you blame yourself for what he did to you,” he growled. “He hurt you, Cherri. You did what you had to do to protect yourself and took an opportunity to get out when you could. Don’t you ever, ever blame yourself for that. It’s not your fault.”
“Don’t yell at her, Ali,” Avery said, but she said it weakly.
“No, it’s okay, he’s right,” I said. “I’m blaming myself. I just feel like there was more I could have done.”
Avery petted my head. “Babe, you survived. That’s what counts. I should have been there with you.”
“The reality is, none of us expected that he would do that to you. I think even Nikita was upset,” Alistair said.
“Wait… What do you mean? Who all knows?” I asked.
Avery looked at me sadly. “The entire court. After it happened, Nathan came walking back with a gun in his hand, fuming, saying that you punched him and bolted. When Kyle figured out what happened, he flipped out. Nathan pointed the gun at him. It was crazy. If Nikita and Jaxon hadn’t shown up to calm Nathan down, I’m afraid of what might have happened. Ali’s right. When Kyle told Nikita what he did, it was the first time I’d ever seen her look sad.”
“What happened to Nathan after that?” I asked. “Where is he now?” Avery opened her mouth to reply, but I stopped her. “You know what? Don’t answer that. I don’t care.”
Avery smiled at me. “Good.”
“Actually, there’s only one guy I really care about, and that’s Deon.” I leaned forward and touched Alistair’s shoulder. “Can we go back to the park. I’ll call and see if he’s still there and ask him to come back if he isn’t? I really just want to be with him right now.”
“Sure,” Alistair said, immediately putting on his blinker to turn his car around.
“No,” Avery said. “That’s not a good idea.”
I furrowed my brow. “What? What happened to you being Team Deon?”
“I am!” Avery said. “I am Team Deon, and I think you guys should be together, but right now, you need to get some rest. Spend some time apart for right now, and you can link up with him later or tomorrow.”
“All we’ve done is spend time apart.” For some reason, tears were crawling into my eyes. “I don’t want to be apart from him anymore. I want to be with him.”
“I just…” Avery said. “Not right now.”
“Avery, what’s going on?” Alistair asked.
Avery looked at me, then Alistair, then me, and then sighed. “Deon’s still at the park. I told Nathan that’s where Deon was, and Deon’s gonna get the jump on him.”
My jaw dropped. “Avery!”
“He deserves whatever he has coming to him for what he did to you!” she squealed back.
“I’m not worried about Nathan. I’m worried about Deon! Best case scenario, Deon beats him within an inch of his life and goes back to prison forever. Worst case, Nathan shoots Deon and kills him!”
“Avery, what were you thinking?” Alistair scolded.
“I was thinking that it’s been a long time coming. Nathan needs to get his ass kicked!” Avery said. “He needs to know he can’t hurt you anymore.”
I couldn’t even comprehend Avery’s logic, so instead, I clamored up between the front seats and grabbed Alistair’s arm. “You need to take me back to the park.”
“That’s not safe,” Alistair replied. “We don’t know what’s going to happen.”
“I don’t care!” My heart was pounding so hard I was surprised my whole body wasn’t jumping with it. “I’m the queen! Take me back to the park, right now!”
Alistair kept his eyes on the road, but I could tell he was conflicted. Finally, he nodded and turned on his blinker. Despite Avery’s begging for him not to, Alistair made his way back toward the park. When we arrived, Nathan’s car was in the parking lot, and I felt like I was going to throw up. Alistair parked his car, and I jumped out, running around, looking every direction I could for Nathan and Deon. Finally, I heard some scuffling and ran in the direction of it, but when I got to where it was, things had already excelled past a point I could control.
Nathan was there, bloodied and bruised. He was out of breath, and his shirt was torn. Trickles of blood were falling from his head, mouth, and eye. Still, he had his gun at his hand and had it outstretched toward Deon, who didn’t look nearly as banged up, nor did he seem phased by Nathan’s gun.
“You’ve got about thirty seconds to shoot me before you’ll regret not shooting me, Nathan,” Deon hissed.
“Shut up!” Nathan screamed.
All I could think to do was get between them, so I rushed out, in spite of Alistair and Avery calling me back, and stood in between Deon and Nathan, facing Nathan. “Move!”
“No,” I responded. “You’re gonna have to shoot me too.”
“Cherri,” Deon growled behind me. “I got this.”
“No! I’m done with all of this shit!” I barked. “Put your gun down or shoot me. Those are your options.” Nathan glared at me and then took a step forward. I could hear Deon stepping forward behind me, but I took my own step toward Nathan, bringing my face closer to his gun. “What’s it gonna be?”
“Nathan will be shooting no one.” We all looked over, and Connor Loche was approaching, looking wholly unbothered by the situation. “Drop your gun,” he ordered.
Nathan listened immediately, pulling his gun out of my face, but keeping it in his hand.
“You,” Connor said to Alistair. “Take these young women and leave.”
I looked over at Connor with a leer of my own. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“Yes, you are,” Connor responded. “This is a matter between me and my children.”
Sounds and color bled away from me. Children? I looked at Nathan, who’s expression went sullen, and then I turned around and looked at Deon. I tried to catch his gaze, but he was avoiding looking me in the eyes, and it was clear at that moment that it was true.
Nathan and Deon were…brothers.
Years of knowing Nathan. Years of knowing Deon. All of it came to a head in a single moment. They’d both been lying to me. Questions raced through my brain at a pace too quick to track. Did Nathan actually care about me at all? Did Deon? How did I end up in the crosshairs between them? What else had they been lying to me about? Did anyone else know they were brothers? Was I just an idiot, staring down the obvious?
I looked at Nathan, but the fact that he’d lied to me meant nothing. When I looked at Deon, however, my heart broke. I loved him so much. What else was he hiding from me?
“I can’t believe this,” I said finally.
I stormed away from Deon and Nathan to where Alistair and Avery were standing.
“I swear we didn’t know,” Avery said quickly.
I nodded. “Okay. You were right, Avery. We shouldn’t have come here.” I looked pleadingly at Alistair. “Can you take me home?”
“Of course,” he responded, and I didn’t wait. I immediately walked off back toward Alistair’s car.
I’d been betrayed enough for one day. I just wanted to crawl in bed and never come out.
28
Deon
“Nathan, this is your brother, Deon.”
He was a little scrawny, I thought, but his br
own eyes were warm and welcoming, and he seemed truly happy to see me.
“H-hi,” he greeted, holding out his hand toward me. “I’m Nathan.”
A handshake? We were only ten. What kind of ten-year-olds shake hands?
“Go on, Deon,” Connor said. “Shake his hand. It’s the manly thing to do.”
I reached out, took his hand, and shook it, and he smiled back at me. “I can’t believe I have a brother. I’ve always wanted a brother.”
I’d always wanted one too. All of the kids in my neighborhood had siblings, and I was always jealous of them. They always had someone around to play with and talk to. I had my mom, but she worked a lot and was gone most of the time. The kids in the neighborhood would hang out with me, but eventually, the streetlights would come on. They’d all had to go home, and I’d be alone again.
Even if I missed my mom, my old friends, and my old room, having a brother—that was something I could get used to.
“What’s that?” Nathan asked when I pulled my basketball out of my backpack as I was unpacking in my new gigantic bedroom.
“Are you serious?” I asked. He blinked back at me innocently. I held it out toward him. “It’s a basketball. Haven’t you ever played?”
“No. I don’t really have time for sports,” he replied, tossing the ball up and down a couple of times.
“You don’t have time? What do you do besides school?” I asked.
Nathan’s eyes guided up toward the ceiling as he thought. “Well, before school, I have to work on my Spanish and my French. Then after school, is Italian and German. I get a little break for dinner, and then before bed, I study business.”
My jaw dropped. “You do all of that? When do you play with your friends?”
Nathan’s gaze dropped to the floor. “I…don’t really have any friends.” That made me sad—a kid with no friends. I wouldn’t like that very much. He rolled the ball in his hands a few times before finally saying, “It’s kind of heavy.”
I wrinkled up my nose. “No it’s not.” I sputtered out a laugh. “You’re weak.”
Nathan’s smile turned into a scowl instantly. “No I’m not! I’m strong!”
“It’s okay! I’m just roasting you,” I said.
Nathan tilted his head to the left. “Roasting?” He looked at the distance between us. “You’re not even touching me.”
Was this kid serious? What world had he lived in? “No, roasting, like making fun of you. It’s what friends do.”
“We’re not friends. We are brothers,” Nathan said.
“Aren’t we friends too?” I asked. “Shouldn’t brothers be friends?”
Nathan absently blinked a couple of times, and then a smile slowly crept on his face. “Yeah. We should be friends too!”
I nodded. “Good. Bring that basketball, then. I’m gonna teach you how to play.”
“Okay!”
I had been so happy to have a brother. Look where having a brother got me.
Watching Cherri walk away from me, looking so disappointed, killed me. I wanted to run after her, but with Nathan still standing in front of me and with Connor to my left, I knew I wouldn’t get very far without getting into more of a scrap than I wanted to with Connor there. He didn’t scare me, but I never knew what he was going to do next. It made it difficult to act recklessly when it came to him. I would finish hurting Nathan for how badly he hurt Cherri, but if it needed to wait until a less compromising time, then I could wait for that moment.
Connor crossed his arms and looked at us like we were no more than a couple of children who had misbehaved. “What’s going on here?”
“Ask him!” Nathan growled. “I showed up, and he fucking jumped on me like a wild dog!”
“Looks like he got the better of you too,” Connor said. “You don’t know how to fight without a gun?”
Nathan looked at Connor and seemed truly shocked by that statement. “I…”
He looked at me, and for a second, his eyes briefly flashed that same offended look he gave me back when I called him weak when we first met. He’d always been committed to proving he was strong. I was beginning to figure out why.
Connor turned to look at me. “You. Why are you starting something with your brother?”
Suddenly, I didn’t know if I should make a mention of what he’d done to Cherri. Would that help or hurt his standing with Connor? Which was better? Would it come back on Cherri if I did say it?
“Thanks to this asshole, Miss Abrams jumped out that window, and everyone thinks I fucking pushed her!” I growled instead.
Nathan stomped his feet like a spoiled brat. “I did not have anything to do with her jumping! I have no idea why she did that!”
The sincerity in Nathan’s gaze was shocking. “You—” I started, but before I could get any additional words out, Connor cleared his throat and shook his head at me. Was Nathan not involved? Miss Abrams quite clearly brought him up. “Guess I heard a bad rumor,” I said.
Connor’s harsh gaze relaxed a little. “You shouldn’t believe everything you hear. Moreover.” He walked forward, took Nathan and me each by the shoulder, and shoved us a little closer to one another. “Whether you’re on good terms or not, you’re brothers. You should have each other’s backs.”
I shoved myself out of Connor’s grip, but I could see the way Nathan was dwarfed under his touch. He was petrified.
“Deon,” Connor continued. “Do I need to reach out to your parole officer and make a mention of your fighting?”
If I could set a man on fire with a look, Connor would be up in flames. Connor was all about power and control. He didn’t scare me, but no matter how much it bothered me, he had more chips than I did at the moment, and I had to be smart about how I played mine.
“No,” I forced out through gritted teeth. “It won’t happen again.”
“Good.” With his hand still gripped tightly on Nathan’s shoulder, he guided him back toward the parking lot. “We’re going.”
As they were walking away, Nathan looked back over his shoulder at me. All at once, I was thrust back through time to that moment that we met, to that little boy who was just happy to have a brother.
Fuck.
I stayed where I was until Connor and Nathan were in his car and out of sight. Then I finally climbed in my car and started back to my house. I was even more confused than I was when the day began, which was something, considering the fact that I was lost as shit when I left my house that morning. I had to figure out how to navigate the next couple of days. I had to figure out how to apologize to Cherri and deal with the fact that I had a small, growing bead of sympathy for my brother. Avery, Alistair, and even Cherri seemed flabbergasted that Nathan had suddenly turned abusive, but if our father was fucking him up, was there still hope for redemption?
I turned the corner toward my house, and a brand new, sparkling car that stuck out like a sore thumb was parked in front. My mind raced wildly, considering the number of people it could have been, but when I parked and got out of the car, I was shocked and pleased to see Cherri get out of the driver’s seat.
“Cherri,” I said. “Hi. I was just about to call you.”
“I bet you were,” she said. “You know, it feels like everyone’s been just lying to me for the last four years. And if it was just Nathan, or just Kyle, or hell, the entire fucking Royal Court, that would have been fine, but I never expected you to lie to me.” My lips parted to respond, but Cherri held up a hand. “But I lied to you too. I let you think that Nathan and I had broken up and almost used you to cheat on him. Call it even?”
I let out a sigh of relief. “I would fucking love to call it even.”
She nodded. “Good.” She opened her driver’s side door and started to climb in, nodding her head toward the passenger’s side door. “Get in. Now that we’re even, I want answers.”
29
Cherri
Deon and I rode in total silence as I drove us all the way to the park in South Postings, where we w
ere meant to have our first date. It’d changed quite a bit in the four years since we were last there, but there was still a large oak tree that I could park under so that we could watch the setting sun. I parked my car and put some music on over the radio, then unbuckled my seatbelt.
I used the button controls next to my seat to lower my seat so that it was flat and then pointed toward the panel on the other side of Deon. “Use those buttons over there. Get comfy.”
Deon nodded. “Okay.”
While he was fiddling with the buttons to bring his seat flat as well, I reached into the back seat and dragged out the items I’d stopped for at the store when I’d made my plan. Alistair and Avery had just dropped me off, and I realized that I didn’t just want to toss Deon away. He’d kept a pretty big secret from me, but there had to be a reason. This was the only thing standing between us now, and if I could just get over this one last hill and be assured that he was still the man I’d grown to love, that would be enough for me.
I pulled out a can of cream soda and handed it toward Deon. “Still your favorite?”
He smiled wide. “Yeah. They didn’t have them when I was locked up. I didn’t even realize I haven’t had one since I got out.” He took it, and his fingers brushed against mine, sending a jolt of electricity streaking across my body. “Thanks.”
“You’re welcome.” I reached back into the bag and pulled out my own can of cream soda, then pulled out the pre-packaged sandwiches I’d picked up. I handed one to Deon along with a bag of chips, then pulled the other sandwich and bag of chips out and set them up in front of myself. “Our picnic.”