Reign of Brayshaw (Brayshaw High #3)(73)

There’s a soft grunt followed by a crash at my feet and suddenly I’m falling to the ground, but a pair of strong arms break my fall just as my ass scrapes the gravel. I’m lifted, cradled.

The sounds surrounding me continue to pierce my ears, but I have no strength to open my eyes or mouth.

“Where the fuck have you been?!” Bass shouts. “How could you—”

“Not the time, Bishop,” Royce growls. “Just get in the fucking car!”

“What about these two?” he shouts. “They could come after her again.”

“Leo’s out cold, the girl can find her own fucking way back. We’ll deal with them later.”

My body bounces slightly with each step before it stops, so the arms around me tighten, pulling me closer.

Rough facial hair scratches against my cheek before warm air hits my ear. “I’ve got you.”

My entire body breaks out in goosebumps.

Maddoc.

“You can hear me, can’t you, baby?” He keeps going and even though my eyes won’t open, the tremble of my lips serves as his answer. “I’m so sorry. I promise you, I will never leave you again.” His thumb slides across it.

His words and the way in which they find my skin, both warm and laced with a hint of last night’s whiskey, don’t settle me as they should. A heavy pressure builds against my chest, forcing the air from my lungs.

“She’s... she’s not breathing,” he panics. “She’s not fucking breathing!”

I try to inhale, but nothing comes of it.

“Fuck it, I’m calling an ambulance!” Royce says.

In the next moment, the voices join my sight and I pass out completely.





I drop my head against the wall, directly across from the door they wheeled her through.

The paramedic cut her top off, and there was bruising, both fresh and fading, but there was no damage they could see, so as soon as we got her here, got her up to the Bray Wing this time around, they took her straight back for some testing.

“I never should have fucking left her here today.” Royce kicks the wall with the heel of his shoe, knocking his head against it with a hard thud. His eyes slice to mine, straight fuckin’ anger for me, but his worry for her is what has my throat closing.

“Why do we keep finding ourselves here, brother?” He swallows. “What if she cracks? What if she flips the fuck out, crying and breaking shit.” He licks his lips, bending on his knees in front of me.

“She won’t.”

“How do you know?” His tone begins to shift, rage boiling to the surface. “You don’t know what’s happened and you’ve got Bishop tailing her like a little bitch, doubt his ass would fill us in on anything fucking extra.”

“He wouldn’t.”

Royce scoffs, looking away.

“Bass is more like her than we are. We know her better, yeah, but he understands her in a different way.” I admit what I hate most about him. “He’ll be whatever she needs him to be. He’ll read her mood and say what she needs to hear.”

“You trust him to lead her?”

“I trust him to allow her to lead him.” I look away. “I would have cut his nuts weeks ago if I didn’t.”

“Yeah, well, try being the one she left behind while he walked fucking beside her. He’s gonna pay for it, even if it was demanded of him by you.” Royce kicks off the wall, banging on the damn door in the next second. “I want to see her.”

“Royce, stop.”

“Man, fuck you!” He spins around, shoving me in the chest. “Fuck. You! You haven’t been here, you don’t know the half of the shit she’s been through since the day you ran off!” he shouts at the top of his lungs.

The nurse ducks from what Royce said was Captain’s room, disappearing through a door at the other end of the hall while Victoria and Bishop appear at the end of it, both not bothering to hide the fact that they’re watching, probably enjoying this shit.

Royce is too hopped up to notice. “She was fucked. I mean straight the fuck up, all-around fucked,” he snaps. “I’d have sworn after all the shit the last few weeks, it couldn’t possibly get any worse. Wrong.”

“What happened?”

“Man, fuck you! I’m not gonna make this shit easy on you. You left, and not just her, you left us all. Captain almost fucking died, he could have, they both fucking could have and who knows, maybe I’d have never fucking found you! You wouldn’t even know!”

“I wouldn’t have stayed gone forever.”

“No, just after the funerals and after this place fucking fell apart. If Raven hadn’t flipped out and I hadn’t asked if she needed her music, I never would have known you had the iPod to even think to use the Find Me app on it.” He scowls. “You didn’t have to see Captain’s fucking face when he woke up after being out of it for over two fucking weeks and we had to tell him his brother abandoned his family like a weak little bitch!”

“I was weak!” I shout back, throwing my hands out.

“Yeah, you fucking were!” Royce booms. “Did you even stop to think how he fucking felt? You know Captain, Maddoc. You know every second he was with her he felt guilt in his fucking bones. He was doing something you agreed to, helping us all, helping her, and he felt guilt for that. You leaving only made it worse. You confirmed, in his mind he had a reason to feel like he betrayed you, something he would die before doing, you pathetic piece of shit!”