Reign of Brayshaw (Brayshaw High #3)(13)

I tense beside her and her eyes fly to mine.

ID card. In her mind, that was all she needed to run, she said herself, without one she couldn’t get a real job or function like she wanted. This was all that was holding her back from the normal life she craved, the life she wanted before us.

Why give it to her?

“There are also emancipation papers in there,” he says and Raven’s eyes narrow. “They’ve been fast-tracked, were signed by your mother the day Maria picked you up. All you have to do is sign them, and they’ll be processed within twenty-four hours. No court needed, it’s been handled. Sign them, and you’re an adult in the eyes of the law, not that we need to worry about laws much here.”

She reaches over, grabbing my hand, and when I look back to my dad, his eyes are locked on our connection.

“I know what you’re doing, Rolland, and it won’t work,” she tells him and ever so slowly he meets her stare. “The money, whatever. I don’t even know, maybe that’s something you have to do, but the other... giving me something I’ve been searching for for years? Offering me the little taste of freedom these things provide, it’s your way of trying to mollify me. Make me think I’m in control when in your mind that couldn’t be further from the truth.

“You’ve watched us closely, and decided I won’t run, it’s the only reason you’d even consider handing me a way out. You want this to act as your confirmation, and you know what, I won’t make you wait to witness the answer.”

She meets my eyes, then Cap’s and Royce’s.

“These boys...” A quiet laugh leaves her, and she gives a small jerk of her head, her stare moving back to his. “I could never leave them, so there you go. Now you know for sure, from my own fucking mouth, they come first.”

Our dad’s jaw clenches, but not in anger, in prospect, so when he steps toward her, I stay planted at her side instead of shifting to guard her.

He nods, his feet fixed an inch from hers. “You are more than I could have imagined, Raven Brayshaw,” he admits. “But like you, I only want to protect my family, and while I understand they are now yours, they are still mine.” He frowns. “We have the same goals, Raven, I promise you this, but something your young souls have yet to face or understand is with life comes loss. With love, comes sacrifice.”

His eyes hit mine, and I can’t tell if he’s talking of his sacrifice, mine, or hers.

Maybe all three?

He holds the envelope out for me, so I take it, and he turns and walks away, calling over his shoulder, “Make her sign the papers, boys. The alternative isn’t something any of us want.”

Fuck.

Raven’s glare snaps to mine and she yanks her hand away, speaking before I can. “I don’t want it, Maddoc. Even I know money brings more problems.”

“You want to be able to care for yourself, right?”

She glares. “Yeah, myself. Not like this. This makes me feel like my mother. He gives me money and what, my taking it is me accepting my life is his?”

“Your life is mine.”

She can’t help it, and she laughs, looking away.

I step closer to her. “Sign the papers, Raven. You don’t have to touch the money if you don’t want, but it’ll be there. Keep whatever cash is in here” — I shake the envelope — “and we pretend it never happened. You have the card, you do what you want with it.”

“What if I give it all away?” she challenges.

I shrug. “I don’t give a fuck what you do with it. It’s yours. Cut the card up, hide it, mail it to your mom to blow on blow, who fucking cares. We have our own money, too, so it’s not like you’re screwing us. What you decide to do with it is on no one but you.”

She glares at the envelope. “It can’t be so simple.”

“Nothing ever is.”

“I don’t want anyone to know.”

“No one will unless it comes from your mouth.”

She huffs. “So, what, do I sign it as a Brayshaw or a Carver?”

I tear it open and pour out the contents on the coffee table. Her ID bounces from it to the ground, bottoms up. She looks from it to me.

“Let’s find out,” I tell her, bending to pick it up, but she rushes in first.

She flips it over, reading her name aloud. “Raven Carver Brayshaw.” She frowns. “My middle name is Carver?”

With a deep sigh, she reaches into her backpack for a pen and doesn’t bother reading over the forms, but blindly signs on each tallied line. She grabs the rest of the shit from the envelope and heads for the door. “Come on, I still want a coffee.”

We let her walk out and I turn to my brothers.

“Was he trying to say if she didn’t take it, it would default to the Gravens once she was given to them?” Royce asks.

“She won’t be given to them,” Cap quips.

“Probably, at least now it’ll be in her name and they won’t be able to touch it.”

“Yeah,” Royce scoffs. “If she hits him with a prenup.”

“Royce!”

Cap smacks him in the back of the head and his hands lift. “Sorry, fuck I know. I gotta stay pissed or make fuckin’ jokes, man. I don’t have an in-between. It’s either this, I fuck my way through the cheer squad, or choke everyone out with bare hands.”