Reign of Brayshaw (Brayshaw High #3)(86)

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?”

I whip around as she opens her door.

She stands there, leaning over the edge of her door frame. “You could use a shower. I have plenty of those. Daddy’s home today, too, but only for a little while. Guess there’s some sort of... meeting happening today. Called by a Graven, no less.” She lifts a brow, pushes a button and the top to her convertible rolls down. She steps in, standing above the window. “What do you say, Brayshaw? You coming or not?”

I slide in the passenger seat, but before we can pull away, Royce is whipping in behind us, blocking our exit.

Captain throws his door open and jumps out, storming toward me.

He bends, getting in my face, anger radiating off every inch of him to the point his entire body is shaking.

“Never in my fucking life, would I turn my back on you. Never would I take from you, or step on your toes, or do any damn thing that would destroy who we are and the bonds we have. You’re my fucking brother, Maddoc. My brother.”

Captain clenches his teeth, plants his hands on the side of the Corvette and brings his eyes level with mine.

“I never. Fucking. Touched her.” He swallows, pushing off the car and walking backward. “Not fucking once.”





I spot his reflection in the window before I hear a sound, and my eyes fly to his.

“What are you thinking about?”

“How I never should have punched Victoria the day my mom showed that first time.”

Captain drops onto the free swing to my right, staring at me in the long slider at the back of the girls’ Bray house.

“If I hadn’t, I never would have moved into the house and put everyone on high alert.”

“It wouldn’t have changed anything, Raven,” he speaks quietly. “This was all meant to happen.”

I shake my head, looking to him. “All of it?”

He eyes me a minute, before looking away again. “I knew Donley wouldn’t turn down the idea of having a power couple who loved each other over Collins and a forced bride, so I put an impossible decision down, forced both your hands. Ultimately, this is all my fault.”