Uppercut Princess (The Heights Crew #1)(39)

His words stop me. Just when I was thinking love didn’t come into the equation for Johnny at all, he says that. I let out a breath. My back heats at Johnny’s proximity. His fingers trail over me almost reverently. He’s an enigma. A riddle I bet he himself doesn’t even know how to solve.

He moves my shirt back down when the car comes to a stop. My ears ring from all the conflicting thoughts warring in my head, but some part of me understands that we’re at my apartment building. Vaguely, I hear Johnny telling me that he has to go to a business meeting. When he opens the door for me, I step out, blinking at the bright sun. I can’t even enjoy that I’m free. That the sun is shining. That the fresh air blows on my face. I can’t enjoy that I’m out in the real world because his words still bang around inside my head.

A strong, stern voice says, “I called ahead to have Brawler meet us.”

Just as Magnum says that, Brawler emerges from the front door of our building.

Johnny takes my hand again, kissing my knuckles. He just loves doing that. I tell myself not to pull away and not to get caught up in his gravitational pull again. Then I’m being led up the stairs and into my own apartment like I could never make it there myself.

I get out my key, but Brawler’s beat me to it. He has a replica of the key I’m searching for already in the lock and pushing the door open despite the fact that he’s also carrying every single bag from the clothing store in his hands. “What the fuck?”

Just how did he get his own key to my place?

Brawler ushers me in and slams the door behind us. He drops the bags of all the clothes Johnny’s bought me just inside the door.

The events of today have caught up with me. I’m boiling. I’m madder than mad. I’m fucking furious, and there’s nothing around me to take this out on because it’s all my own fault. This was my idea. This was my plan.

I was never big on self-loathing though. I scream out in frustration and slam my hands into Brawler. “Fuck you!”

The look he gives me in return could crack marble.





14





Brawler staggers back a few steps, surprise lighting his face.

“Fuck this!” I scream again.

I move forward to push him, but he grabs my arms, holding me in place.

“Don’t,” I say. Everything in me is telling me to lash out. I never wanted to be anyone’s property. Hell, that’s why I came here in the first place. Big Daddy K owned my thoughts. He owned everything. Day after day was just a running scene of how he took my parents from me. I’m doing this to stop that scene. I’m doing this to take back the narrative. To make my own scenes. I don’t know what they’ll be, but they have to be better than the two gunshots to the head, ending with my parents lying in a deserted, dank, gross, forgotten alley with blood running toward drains like water. Anything is better than that.

But why doesn’t it feel that way right now?

“You got yourself into this mess,” Brawler growls. It’s like he already knows what I’m thinking. I don’t even have to say it.

“Did I even have a choice? Fuck that. He just told me he claimed me. Could I have refused? Could I?”

I sound like a fucking crazy person. Maybe I am losing my mind.

“No,” Brawler says, his voice a low growl. “But if you were smart, you would’ve just taken the fall for that fight. You could’ve just kept on going in the background if that were the case. You didn’t have to knock Cherry out. You didn’t have to show everyone what you were made of. That’s on you.”

I had to do all that though. Brawler will never know, but I had to kick Cherry’s ass. It was the only way to endear myself to the Crew. In doing so, I just caught Johnny’s eye in a way I didn’t think I would.

Fuck me.

“You done?” Brawler asks.

I blink and finally see him. His face is flushed. He’s holding my wrists with a vice-like grip, which he immediately lets go when he sees me staring.

I take a step back. “I’m sorry.”

He takes a step back too. Shit happens when we’re next to one another. A pull. I fall back onto the armchair and let the cushions surround me.

“What the fuck happened?” he asks. Other questions simmer in his eyes too. What happened that would make me lash out like that? Why beat on him? Why not take my anger out on the person who deserves it?

Then again, Brawler knows how trapped I am. Whether he knows the reason for it or not.

I’m in, and I’m not getting out.

I eye him up and down. Brawler’s been the kindest to me so far, but can I trust him? He’s the only one who’s not in the Heights Crew, but he’s in their pocket. Is there that much of a difference?

“Listen,” Brawler says. “We’re in a world where you can’t trust people for shit, so you probably won’t trust a goddamned word that’s about to come out of my mouth, but you can trust me. I won’t run to Rocket, and I sure as fuck won’t run to Big Daddy K.”

I close my eyes. My head and my heart telling me Brawler is telling the truth, but if I fuck this up, I won’t ever get another chance like this. If they find out why I’m really here, I’ll be dead. It’s as simple as that.

“Johnny thinks he owns me,” I say.