Reign of Brayshaw (Brayshaw High #3)

by Meagan Brandy

  I run my hands down my face, dropping my head against the tree.

  “Fucked up shit, yeah?” He takes another drag, speaking with a held breath. “I’d’ve told you to fuck off and walked if I thought for a second you’d leave her after you put me on her tail.”

  He meets my glare. “Yeah, well some shit happened after that, asshole.”

  “Oh, I know. She tried to do what she thought was best for you. Handled things quietly, out of your faces.” He swings his head toward me. “Every fucking body here knows she’s never been good at decisions, but when she moves, make no fucking mistake, she moves with you in mind.”

  “Yeah?” I snap. “Every move she makes, huh?” I mock.

  He eyes me a long moment before looking away. He flicks his cigarette before jumping to his feet. He stares at the hospital building behind us.

  “Donley mentioned a video when we were there, proof of something.” His eyes come back to mine.

  Perceptive asshole.

  He pushes from the ground, offering me a hand so I let him pull me up.

  I eye him. “I’d bet she won’t be going anywhere for a while.”

  He shakes his head, already knowing. “Then neither am I, man. And heads up, your brother’s coming.”

  I nod, looking behind him when Royce steps around the small walkway, headed right for me.

  Royce makes sure to knock his shoulder into Bishop’s as hard as fucking possible, but Bishop ignores him and makes his way back to Raven and the others.

  “I’m tired of the silence. How is it I’ve been here and don’t know shit? Tell me what the fuck’s goin’ on?” Royce demands, crossing his arms angrily.

  “She’s pregnant.”

  His brows jump, not at all expecting that. He gapes at me, and the longer he stares, the more it sets in. Tension lines his forehead.

  He steps forward, eyes hard, but he wraps his arms around me in a hard pat.

  An apology. Pity maybe, but I take it, hugging him back.

  He doesn’t say anything, but what could he say? It’s been two fucking months she’s been married to my brother.

  Were we supposed to prepare for this shit?

  “I’ve been needing to get fucked up and fucked off for a good minute, so how’s about a drink, brother?”

  “How ‘bout a few?”

  He scoffs, stepping back and we had for his SUV.

  He pulls his phone out, putting it up to his ear. “Mac money, find me a honey,” he jokes into the line. “I need a solid distraction and Maddoc needs to be put on his ass. Party pad in twenty.”

  With that, we leave the hospital, ready to forget for a little while.

  Let’s hope this time it works.

  Royce’s twenty minutes turned into an hour. We took a detour home so he could change, but I couldn’t even drag myself from the SUV.

  It’s not until we get there, we remember it was being gutted and redone.

  The spill-proof leather sofas we had against the walls are gone, replaced with larger, softer ones. The black curtains are now a light blue to match the fucking rug laying on the floor and the fake flowers sitting on the new, white kitchen table.

  There’s a small dollhouse against the west wall, a tea set alongside it, right where the beer pong table used to be.

  “Maybe we should—”

  “No,” I cut Royce off, spinning back to look out the door when the crunch of tires against gravel alerts us Mac’s here with a few more from the crew.

  He steps out first, walking straight for us while they slowly hit the trunk of his car.

  He moves in for an easy fist bump that I meet, not acknowledge my being gone but nods his head as if to say he’s glad I’m back.

  “Figured we’d start small, but I got more on wait if you’re looking for a louder night.” He glances from his carload to the two others who just pulled up behind him.

  “Nah, this is good.” Royce nods, eyes scanning around.

  Mac pulls a fresh bottle of Crown from his back pocket and holds it out for me. “This is all you, my man.”

  I don’t hesitate, but crack it open, downing a quarter of the fifth in one go.

  Mac clasps my shoulder before moving toward the group with bags in their hands. “Beer in the fridge, snacks on the table. Stay outta the rooms unless a Bray invites you to one.”

  Music blasts from inside the house and I spin to find Royce plugged in his phone.

  He gives a dry grin, shouting, “The system may be gone, but they didn’t tear down the walls, speakers are still embedded.”

  With a nod, I take another swig, stepping to the side as the carloads file in.

  Chloe pauses in front of me, eyeing me from head to toe. “Looking rough, Brayshaw.”

  “Lookin’ good, Carpo.”

  Her lip twitches and she shakes her head. “Yikes,” she teases. “You’re really in bad shape if you’re complimenting me. Take it easy on the whiskey, huh?”

  With a glare, I down the rest of the bottle, tossing it to the side without looking. “What whiskey?”

  She frowns. “Suit yourself, but from the looks of it.” She glances toward Royce who tosses back two shots of something dark, chasing them with a fresh popped Pacifico. “There won’t be anyone to sweep your ass off the floor tonight.”

  I kick off the wall, leaving her standing there to join Royce in the kitchen.

  Within minutes, I’m feeling good, listening to updates Mac gives about the school. Laughing at nothing, swaying to the music from my seat.

  A while later, Royce stumbles into the living room and starts dancing with a couple girls, leaving the spot beside me open for anyone to take.

  And a dark-haired blur is quick too.

  She’s subtle, I’ll give her that as she shifts closer, but the second her hand touches my arm, it’s snatched up by another.

  She’s spun around, and tossed against the wall with a hard thud, gaining the attention of several people in the room.

  Mac looks from me to the girl, but I only move my eyes.

  “Get the fuck outta here before I put you through this window.”

  “Who the hell are you?”

  “Gatekeeper, bitch.”

  Victoria.

  I roll my eyes, pushing to my feet, but stumble over them, and fall against the wall.

  With a light growl, she slips under my arms, snapping at someone, “A little help, here?”

  Next thing, I know Mac is under my other arm.

  My body’s moving, but I can’t feel my legs and everything in front of me is fuzzy. Only if I blink real fucking hard, can I see.

  I slump, but then I’m jostled again, and we keep forward.

  Then the song changes on the system, my spine straightens, my feet planting firmly into the ugly ass carpet.

  The stupid fucking song she was listening to in the hall that day comes on, and I jerk around, reaching for the phone. I grip it right as the chorus hits and starts fucking screaming about not wanting to live for nothing, but that’s exactly what this life is for me now.

  Nothing.

  What purpose can I serve without her? Who am I without her?

  No fucking one.

  A burst of drunken strength hits, and I tear it from the wall, sending a loud screech through the room, before I spin and chuck it at the TV, leaving a gaping hole in the center of it, before tearing the TV from its mounts completely.

  People gasp and fly out the door, but I don’t give a fuck.

  I grab the empty beer bottles lining the fireplace and chuck them at the walls, reveling in the crashing sound that follows. Somehow, I manage to lift the coffee table that was pushed against the side wall and slam it against the stupid fucking kiddie tea set, ready and set for three.

  Him and her. Mine.

  She’s mine.

  I don’t know how I get there, but next thing I know I’m on my knees in the grass out front, not an ounce of strength left. A scream echoes in the trees around me – my voice.

 
I lay out, looking up at the stars, but they quickly become nothing but a blur before everything goes black.

  Fucking birds.

  Their piercing chirps are enough to send my head kicking, and my eyes begin to peel open. I blink a few times, freezing when I turn my head, and find Raven sleeping on the bare grass beside me.

  My chest starts to ache instantly, my heart pounding a hundred times harder than my head ever could, even after a fifth of whiskey to the dome.

  I wanna move to my side, to stare at her better, reach out to see if I’m trippin’ on more than liquor, but I don’t dare move and chance waking her. If she wakes, she might leave.

  She was right, so fucking right. Love made me weak, but only for her.

  I don’t want to let him keep you, baby.

  My eyes fly to hers right as a tear rolls over the hump of her nose.

  She pulls her lips in and more come.

  “Why you here?” I rasp.

  “You asked me to be,” she whispers back.

  I frown and finally her eyes open, meeting mine.

  They’re bloodshot from lack of sleep, meek and flightless – not Raven.

  “I asked you to come to me?”

  She nods.

  “And you did?”

  “Always will.”

  “What if I asked you to leave him?” I study her. “Would you?”

  “Am I sick if I say yes?” she whispers back instantly.

  My eyes slam shut.

  Fuck.

  “You were hoping for a different answer.”

  “I don’t know, Raven. I don’t know anything anymore.”

  She’s quiet a moment before she says, “You wouldn’t do it, would you? You wouldn’t ask me to?”

  I force my eyes back to hers, and the weight of a ton of bricks settle over me. She stares, completely vulnerable, eyes bare in every way and locked on mine.

  Pleading without words.

  “Stop, Raven,” I rasp, pushing myself into a sitting position, taking a second to shake off the dizziness that follows.

  “Stop what?”

  “Stop looking at me like that.”

  “Like what?”

  I shake my head, looking everywhere but at her. “You know like what,” I whisper. “I’m not strong enough to say no to you.”

  “Maybe I don’t want you to be.”

  “That’s not fair.”

  “None of this is fucking fair!” She shoots to a sitting position.

  “You don’t have to do this,” I mumble. “I already lost, but—”

  “Lost?” Angry, her eyes slice to mine as she speaks through clenched teeth. “What did you lose here, huh?” she spits, shoving at me angrily. “You not only cut me at the fucking ankles, you left me there to bleed, too,” she rumbles. “You gave me an ultimatum that I didn’t even have to think on. Choose him, save your family – the only family I have ever known – fucking done, Maddoc!” she shouts. “It’s not my fault you pussed out and ran off like a little bitch at the first fucking sting!”

  “First sting?” I gape at her. “Are you for real right now?” I push even closer. “You think standing there, asking you to be with my brother, that giving you away when all I’ve said was I’d never, that you were mine no matter what, didn’t fucking burn me, Raven? Because it did. I’d have welcomed a knife to the fucking side over that, over any of this, any day, all fucking day.”

  “Yeah well, my mother got one in hers instead!” she shouts, dropping her arms to her side and looking off. She pulls her lips between her teeth a moment before her head snaps my way.

  “I legitimately think I’m dying inside, Maddoc, and it’s like every second of every day I grow closer to emptiness. I look at him and guilt consumes me. I think of you and pain sends me fucking reeling. I look in the mirror and pure hatred stares back. I’m weak, I’m tired, I’m—”

  “Pregnant,” I cut her off with a sharp tone. I snap my head toward her, and she frowns. “You. Are. Pregnant.”

  “I didn’t do this on purpose.” Her brows meet at the center. “You think I know what to do with a kid, because I don’t. Or that I wanted one, because that would be a no, too. I’ve never even held a baby before. This was an accident,” she grates. “I wasn’t even supposed to be able to—”

  A laugh bubbles out of me, but there isn’t an ounce of humor in it. I jump to my feet, ignoring the pounding of my head.

  “Is this supposed to make it better, Raven? The story of how you accidentally got pregnant, and it wasn’t part of the fucking newlywed plan?” I shake my head, glaring at her. “You two must have been real fucking busy if I fucked you, for months, skin to fucking skin, over and over again, and you didn’t have so much as a damn scare, and here you are, married to him for what? A few days before he was in a coma and boom, baby fucking Captain is on the way?”

  Her head jerks back.

  “Or maybe you were on birth control when we were together, and stopped once you were a married fucking female, yeah?”

  Her eyes fall to the grass, and slowly she pushes to her feet. When they come back to mine, she blinks several times as she backs away. “Maddoc...” she whispers all staggered like, shaking her head slowly. “Wow.”

  Her shoulders fall, and she looks away. Her lips start to tremble, but then as if she’s resigned herself to her thoughts, she stands taller, wipes her hands down her sweats and steps around me, only to freeze once she’s at my back.

  “You’ve got it all figured out, huh, Big Man.”

  “Sorry you couldn’t hide it from me like your mother hid you from the brothers she destroyed. Like mother like daughter, huh?”

  Her chocked laugh serves as a bullet to the heart. “Wow.”

  Neither of us turn around, and not a word’s spoken after that.

  She walks away, a car door opening and closing as soon as her footsteps stop.

  The front door creaks, and my eyes move toward the porch.

  Bass steps out, glaring at me as he passes, and not a minute later, the car peels out.

  Right as my head hangs, another set of feet slide into view.

  “You’re a fucking idiot, you know that.”

  My head snaps up, eyes wide when I find Captain standing there, a hard glare etched across his face.

  “Open your eyes, Maddoc.”

  “My eyes are open, Cap.” I throw my hands out. “I’m accepting what is.”

  “By forgetting who we are,” he growls.

  “What does that even mean, brother?”

  “If you have to ask, maybe this is for the best.” He steps toward me, Royce at his back. “I asked you to trust me. You said you did.”

  “Guess I didn’t think you’d be so ready and willing, not to mention quick, but maybe I was blind, brother. Maybe I saw this coming all along. This why you wouldn’t kiss her at the cabin? Afraid you couldn’t let go once you had a taste?”

  His right hook slams across my face, and my head snaps to the side, blood flying from my lip, but I don’t even wince.

  I know that hurt him more than me, he wasn’t even supposed to leave the hospital yet.

  He bumps past me, using the same shoulder he was shot in without so much as a grimace leaving him.

  Royce stops in front of me in a flash. “I should knock your fucking teeth out,” he forces past clenched teeth, but then his eyes slope and he looks off.

  “Go for it, brother.” I spit blood on the ground, but it lands on my shoes instead. “Bet they’re nice and loose for you now.”

  His jaw ticks and he glares after Captain, but hisses to me, “Why agree to come back if you planned to forget everything we stand for?”

  With that, he walks away, the roar of an engine and the dust from smoked tires engulfing me in the next second.

  I hang my head in my hands and plant my ass on the porch steps.

  “You know,” comes from behind me, and I hang my head. “I used to think you were the smart one.”

  I groan, extending my legs and
glance over my shoulder at her. “Why you still here?”

  She shrugs, pushing off the frame. “Mac likes to pretend he’s not mine when the sun hits, so we do this little dance. He takes off when he thinks I’m sleeping, and I pretend I am so he gets his clean escape.”

  My brows raise, doubting her. “You and Mac?”

  She nods, dropping beside me. “Trust me. No one is more shocked than me. He’s so far from my type, or so I thought.”

  I shake my head. “What do you want, Chloe? I’m not in the mood.”

  “No, you’re just having a pity party for one.”

  I glare at her but she only stares.

  “You know Raven has never met my dad,” she says. “Weird right, him being head of security, you’d think she’d have been introduced to him long ago.”

  “Chloe,” I grate, sliding my eyes to hers.

  “Couple weeks ago, Daddy was dusting off his old black suit,” she says. “The one he wore at our first communion. Remember that?”

  “That was a spectacle.”

  She nods, wrapping her arms around her legs. “Yep. All to trap the bad guys, another day in the land of Brayshaw, right?”

  “If you have a point, find it. I’m not in the fuckin’ mood.”

  Her eyes shift between mine a moment and then she seems to ignore me. “He asked me to fix his tie, I asked him why he was wearing it and he said something interesting...” She trails off.

  My eyes narrow.

  “He said ‘almost, honey, almost.’”

  I glare at her, pushing to my feet. “I don’t have time for this shit.”

  “Know what he said when I asked him if he was aware Rolland was released from prison? ‘Almost, honey, almost.’”

  I spin around to face her, and she pushes to her feet.

  “And when Raven first got here, and I asked him why I couldn’t get rid of her, why you guys flocked to her?” Her brows lift as her lips purse. “‘Almost, honey, almost.’ Every time something revolves around Brayshaw and he doesn’t want to or can’t share it’s the same line.”

  I step toward her. “Chloe...”

  “He’s really holding on to the whole ‘not until I graduate’ thing.”

  “Chloe.”

  She eyes me. “The very next day, Collins Graven sneaks in the student body office, locks himself and Leo inside and does what? Rocks our Brayshaw High world.” She lifts a knowing brow and pushes past me. “Strange, right?”