BE MY BRAYSHAW

by Brandy, Meagan

  The cloud of uncertainty surrounding me must be suffocating him the same as he says, “I assume you realize now.”

  “That you knew I was a product of the enemy, Graven, by dirty blood, all along?” My eyes slide his way a moment, but I quickly look away.

  “I’ll admit, I wasn’t positive, but I had a feeling, maybe even a bit of hope, you were the child of the woman I tried to free.”

  “What does that mean?” I ask him, having never actually held a conversation worth anything with Maria. I had learned bits and pieces of this, but nothing means a damn thing when it doesn’t come directly from the mouth who knows the full truth. “Free her, how exactly?”

  “Your mother worked as a Graven maid, she was... their property, as far as property goes, and Donley threw her out like garbage when he learned she was pregnant with a girl when all he was after was a son. Maybell brought her to me, and I offered her a home, a safe place to make a living and raise her child, you, once you were born.” He looks to me. “Unfortunately, she never had the chance. I believe you know why...”

  “He took me from her hospital bedside.” I shrug. It’s not sad, it’s reality. “Why’d you let her back in your home after that?”

  His forehead creases and he glances away. “Guilt, maybe. I’m not sure anymore.”

  “And that was enough for you to slip me in past your sons?”

  “I gave them a file as I do every time we add to the group homes. All I did was simplify your past.”

  Simplify, right.

  As if ‘abusive home’ and ‘absent parents’ even comes close.

  I watch for a sign of a lie as I ask, “Do you have a real file on me, Rolland?”

  He shakes his head. “Not for the lack of searching,” he admits. “You’re not in the system, Victoria. You don’t even have a birth certificate on file, it’s how I suspected there was more to you than you shared. Technically, you don’t exist, but we can change that, if you’d like.”

  A long moment of silence stretches between us, and when he realizes I have no comment on his last statement, Rolland inhales deeply, dejection clear as crystal in his tone. “I knew the risk I was taking allowing you into the Bray house. You came as a secret, that meant you must have had more. I assume we’ve only brushed the surface.”

  “You only learned what I’ve allowed you to, and nothing more,” I tell him bluntly, my eyes connecting with his and holding. “Many of the things I know have no weight on this place... but many do.”

  There is so much the boys don’t know, things the Brayshaws likely thought they’d long buried, but that’s the thing about secrets, it takes two to have one.

  Or so the naïve believe.

  The only way to bury the truth is to bury the man, the manipulator, and the predecessor.

  How they forget, I don’t know, but...

  For every burning king, there’s a boy who rises from the ash.

  That’s how kingdoms work.

  That is the exact reason I haven’t dropped to my knees and let all my secrets pour from my mouth.

  This family’s strength, while unwavering and unparalleled, wasn’t built on loyalty as most believe.

  It was built on blood and betrayal.

  My truths will hurt some, break many, and might just lead one Brayshaw to the grave, but greed is a cunning bastard, and I’m its newest victim.

  I could leave and take my secrets with me, but I won’t.

  I want in, and not just for Captain, for me, too.

  I’ll tell them when they’re ready for more and let the consequences fall where they may.

  I drop my head back. “Did your PI really find nothing on me?”

  He fights a smirk. “Nothing. I had thought Mero died long ago, so I never would have thought to look for clues that could lead to him. They hid you well. Both my brother and your father.”

  I nod. “Mero was careful, sure, but it was Donley who gets most of the credit. I would spot people trailing or watching us, and I knew who they were sent by. Mero knew too, but he didn’t care. To him it was like free security. He pretended never to notice, but he saw everything. Donley pretty much cleaned up any crumb he might have left behind. He allowed no room for chances.”

  Rolland regards me a long moment. “There was a price.”

  “There’s always a price, Rolland, and his was high. Wanna know what it was?”

  “Do you want to tell me?”

  “Raven’s life,” I rush out, having never shared this before, and a heavy ache twists in my ribs. “If Mero lost me, no matter how it happened, he would kill her. If I stayed his, stayed hidden, she got to live.”

  Deep lines form at the edge of his eyes and he shifts his body to face me better. “Victoria—”

  “The threat wasn’t even meant for me, but for Donley. What kind of girl would care to protect some random girl who shared her blood, right? After all, family ran deeper than blood...”

  Rolland’s eyes narrow. “He shared that with you?”

  “More like drilled it into me, made sure I’d never forget them, never turn my back on him for my father. Guess he had some fear I might care for the man.”

  “Those words are sacred in my family.” Rolland’s lips press into a firm line.

  I shrug, knowing full well the weight the Brayshaw sentiment holds on your soul, and refocus the conversation.

  “Mero tossed out the threat on Raven’s life knowing Donley planned to leave Raven right where she was—the last thing he wanted was for her to end up here and people to find out what he had done, raped the virgin that was promised to his own successor out of greed and need for a male heir. He brought his own family down, but it took an eighteen-year-old, five-foot-three chick’s fearlessness for him to realize it.”

  “He was a weak man in more ways than one,” Rolland studies me.

  “I could have walked away,” I tell him. “So many times, I could have left, just… ran. It would have been so easy.”

  “Yet you stayed with a monster.”

  A sad scoff leaves me, and while I keep my head facing forward, I shift my eyes to Rolland. “To protect a sister I didn’t even know.”

  “Why?”

  “Because even though I’d never met her, never saw her, my gut told me her purpose was bigger than mine,” I answer instantly. “I was right.”

  Rolland inhales as he stands, and when he offers me his hand, I take it, allowing him to pull me to my feet.

  He stands there, staring straight on with his shoulders high and eyes bright, a vibrant green like his only biological son.

  “That is honor,” he says. “That is loyalty without purpose or personal gain. That, Victoria Vega, is Brayshaw.”

  Warmth wrapped guilt starts under my ribs, slowly spreading throughout my chest as unease drives my eyes to a second floor of the Brayshaw Mansion, to the window that leads to a certain little girl’s room, and what do you know...

  He’s watching.

  Chapter 3

  Captain

  She releases my dad’s hand, her eyes remaining locked with mine.

  Her existence is infuriating.

  Intoxicating.

  Fucking troubling.

  I don’t know what it is or why it’s there, but there’s a fiery pull between us, one that’s been brewing since the beginning, and with her under the same roof as me now, I can only suspect it’ll grow.

  My eyes narrow on their own accord and she tips her head, not willing to look away first.

  I hate how my body senses hers, but worse, I hate what the little fact confirms.

  She drives me fucking mad, but goddamn how mad I could drive her—

  “Whatcha lookin’ at, Pacman?” Raven cuts into my thoughts.

  I glare at the girl in our yard. “She looks nothing like you, polar opposite, in fact.”

  I glance behind me, taking in Raven’s long, sleek, jet black hair with purple-colored strips, and stony gray eyes. Even her skin tone is different, a lighter, creaminess, a contra
st of her curved, pink lips.

  Victoria is more bronze-toned, a flawless summer tan she carries all year long, dark eyes and plumper lips, like she keeps them constantly pursed.

  Their styles, though, are slightly similar—thick black liner stays on their eyes and they both sway toward a hood-like rocker chick with a wild side, but where Raven screams recklessness, Victoria’s straight cynicism.

  Raven doesn’t think, she acts, and Victoria forever has something working through her mind.

  Raven laughs. “That’s because I was cursed to look like my mom, may the devil keep her soul burning in Hell.”

  I scoff, shifting to face her better.

  It was only months ago she dumped her mother’s ashes in the creek out at our family cabin, giving the vile woman a familiar place to rest, even though Raven didn’t even think she deserved one.

  “You been thinking about her?” I ask, my eyes falling to her stomach.

  She shrugs, a slight frown taking over as she focuses on the flower stencil covering Zoey’s wall. “If worrying I’ll suck as bad as she did at the whole mothering thing counts, then yeah.” A heavy sigh leaves her. “With every couple blinks,” she admits.

  “What’s Maddoc say?”

  “How I’m not her and would never allow myself to be.”

  “He’s right.”

  Raven scowl deepens. “She was a drug addict, Cap. I smoke weed, or did before I got knocked up. She sold her body for quick cash, I let people beat on mine for the same.”

  “You didn’t let people beat on you.” I shake my head. “You found a way to take care of yourself, got in a ring and earned some money with your fists by winning. That’s nowhere near the same thing.”

  Her lips pinch and she gives a jerky nod.

  “Trust me, Brayshaw, you’ll be more than she ever could have.”

  She looks to me with a small smile. “Or die trying.”

  No doubt in my mind she’d do exactly that.

  We eye each other, and with each passing second, her features soften.

  She tilts her head, always knowing when I have something to say, but will never force it from me.

  I ask her what’s been on my mind. “Why do you think our dad did this for her, why hide a Graven with the girls in the group home?”

  She nods as if she was expecting this question at some point, proving me right when she speaks.

  “I worked this shit out in my head so many times,” she admits. “I thought for sure it was to keep an eye on her, track trouble, you know?” She takes a deep breath. “But now that I know he’s not a total dickhead,” she says, making me chuckle. “I think he wanted to give her a chance in hell at a life.” She looks my way. “Who the hell knows what it was really like for her before this place. You saw the scars on her stomach, same as me. We can’t even pretend to know how she got ‘em.”

  My lips flatten at the mention of the markings on Victoria’s skin, something we were never meant to see but did when her shirt was torn without her knowledge a few months back, giving my brothers, myself, and Raven an accidental clear view of the markings carved into her. She never offered an explanation and we never asked for one.

  I’ve turned over every possibility in my head, but in our world, it could be the result of a million things. My thoughts could be tame compared to her reality, not that I have any way of fucking knowing.

  “I think she has a lot to tell,” Raven says.

  “Then why the fuck hasn’t she?”

  A soft chuckle leaves her, and she shoves to her feet. “Asks the guy who shares his life with us, but his deepest thoughts with a paper and pen.”

  I frown, pushing from the windowsill to stand in front of her.

  “Why hasn’t she?” she teases as she pats my chest, her gray eyes meeting mine. “How about, why would she? She might be living in a big fancy mansion, but with space doesn’t come comfort for girls like us, and we’ve given her none.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means we’re fucked up rejects, and we know it. In case we ever start to forget, society is always game, set, and ready to remind us. We’re well aware the dangers hope can bring, so... we have none.”

  With that, she moves toward the door, and my gaze follows, knowing she’ll pause to add something before she walks out.

  She does.

  Her hand plants on the doorframe as she shifts her body sideways to look at me. “Trust is normally a two-way street, Cap, but in our case it’s a four-lane, one-way highway. Imagine being on the outside of that.”

  “You were, at first.”

  “And I made mistakes.”

  “You made selfless choices.”

  “I made reckless decisions.”

  “For us,” I stress.

  Raven shrugs. “Who’s to say she didn’t do the same? Your dad brought her here, put her in the safety of your group home, on your property, in your town. Maybe she felt a sense of loyalty without realizing it. Or maybe she does and admitting is the hard part. All she knew of Brayshaw was the man she was raised with. Can’t be easy to suddenly hurt for one Brayshaw when not long ago you wanted to hurt another.”

  Unease lines my throat, the thought having never crossed my mind.

  Victoria had no clue what it meant to be Brayshaw, all she knew was what Mero told her, taught her.

  Raven is right, that’s a hell of a change in mindset.

  “If she’s serious about her place here, she’ll talk to us eventually, and she knows what follows once she does. We hide nothing from each other.” The corner of her mouth lifts into a grin. “Other than the saucy stuff.”

  A chuckle leaves me, and she laughs, walking out.

  I drop onto Zoey’s bed, knowing damn well Raven is right.

  Both of us aware I won’t ask what I want to know—that would make it easy on her.

  She wants to stay, she needs to be brave.

  She needs to come to me.

  She—

  “Daddy!” Zoey yells from the media room. “Hu-mon!”

  “Yeah, Daddy, come on or Imma press play without your word!” Royce’s shout follows hers.

  I chuckle, grab Zoey’s blanket like I came in here to do before getting distracted, and head to watch a movie with my brother and my little girl.

  * * *

  As soon as I step out of Zoey’s room, Royce is at the top of the stairs.

  I nod my chin in question, a frown following.

  He jerks his head, indicating for me to follow him.

  In the living room, Raven sits on the couch, Maddoc right beside her with a hand on her thigh.

  There’s no sign of Victoria. She might have gone to her room while I was putting Zoey to bed—anything to avoid passing me in the hall.

  “What’s goin’ on?”

  Royce sets a Hot Wheel on the coffee table, a little blue sports car.

  “That’s not Zoey’s,” I say what they already know. “Where’d you find it?”

  “After the movie, I went for some playtime. It was on my hood when I came outta Tracy Parks’ pool house.” He wiggles his eyebrows. “Don’t worry, didn’t tell her when we were coming back to campus, not even when she came at me with some good ass incentive.”

  Raven chuckles and Maddoc flicks a glare her way.

  “It was just the toy?” I ask, knowing he’s already filled the other two in while I was busy with Zoey.

  Royce nods. “Sitting on a torn piece of blank paper.” He tosses it down. “So I wouldn’t hunt the fucker down for scratchin’ my shit, I’m guessin’.”

  Raven leans forward, picking up the item and inspecting it. “This is how people tell you when someone’s fucking up and shit needs fixing? They drop puzzle pieces and make you work for it?”

  “They trust us to read between the lines.”

  “And,” Royce adds. “We figure it’s ‘cause nobody wants to be a rat.”

  Raven’s lip twitches. “Now that makes sense.”

  Maddoc frowns. “We
haven’t heard shit in a minute, nothing more than the petty bull Mac handled on campus while we were gone,” he says.

  Mac is one of the few we can depend on. He’s been doing work for us for several years now, but only recently slipped in as our go-to man. Before that, though, he was a trusted friend.

  “Day Royce goes out, suddenly there’s shit going down?” Maddoc leads.

  “It’s not like people are allowed here,” Raven says, looking his way. “Maybe it was the first chance they had.”

  I eye Maddoc, and while his brows dip lower, he doesn’t say anything, looking to the car in Raven’s hand instead.

  She passes it over and his gaze meets mine. “Only one blue sports car I can think of.”

  “Jason Rowe.”

  He nods, looking to Royce.

  “Who the hell is that?” Raven’s head tugs back.

  She looks to Maddoc, her eyes narrowing slightly when a hint of a smirk finds his lips.

  Royce chuckles, catching her attention. “’Member a few weeks after you got to the Bray house? When that guy asked to go to our Stop Light party and you showed up in green when Madman told you to wear red?” She smiles wide. “The night Maddoc wigged out and laid claim on your ass… and puss?”

  She laughs, pulling her feet up on the cushion. “It went down a little different, but yeah. I remember.”

  “That was Jason, dick bag, Rowe from our basketball team.”

  “You don’t like him?”

  “Come on, RaeRae,” he teases. “We don’t like anyone.”

  “Right.” She grins, dropping back with a yawn. “So, what now?”

  “Season ended a few months back,” I say, glancing to Royce, knowing they’re thinking the same thing.

  His phone is already in his hand. “I’ll call Mac.”

  Maddoc turns to Raven with a grin. “Time we get the boys together for a game.”

  “Yeah—” I cut myself off when my spine shoots straight, and not a second later, the reason reveals herself.

  “Zoey will love that.”

  Our heads jerk in the direction Victoria’s interruption comes from.