Be My Brayshaw (Brayshaw High #4)(61)

“My father was gracious enough to take pity on her, an outcast Graven maid, before and after her pregnancy, gave her a home when she had nothing, and still she took me, separating me from my dad and my brothers like you were separated from her and with no care for anyone else’s feelings but herself. I know he spent weeks searching so he could bring me back home, where I belonged, with my family, and instead of killing her like he easily could have, he let her live.”

Her brows draw in.

“Unlike you, Raven came to me, to us as a whole, like a true Brayshaw would, and shared what she learned, what she knew I’d not only want to hear but need to know. She understands loyalty isn’t always easy.”

“Yet you looked so surprised to learn Maria was my mother.”

“Not surprised she was your mom, Victoria. Surprised you knew she was. Maria made it seem like you had no fucking clue. She acted as if you were out roaming, not connected to her and none the fucking wiser.”

Victoria says nothing, her eyes remaining just as hard as she tips her head back, drowning herself in more liquor.

I dart over, yanking it from her and grip her wrist. “What the hell is the matter with you?”

“Apple juice,” she seethes.

I tense and she uses that second to tear her arms free.

She pushes to her feet, walks around me, all eyes following her as she picks up the bottle we were drinking from and sniffs.

She nods, setting it down and looking across the four of us, arms out at her sides, only to let them fall with a hard slap to her thighs. “So what was the plan here, exactly? Get me drunk while you pretend to drink, obviously, but what was to follow that?”

Anger.

Pure, heated bitterness blisters in her eyes.

She’s completely closed off, a girl I’ve never seen, don’t know or understand stands in front of us.

Suddenly I regret everything that’s just taken place, want to wish and wash it away and I want it to take the black look she gives me with it, and I have no clue why, nothing even happened.

She drank, we didn’t.

Why does this upset her?

Why do I care?

A trick she called it, from her own act.

What fucking act?

“Tell them, Victoria,” Raven suddenly whispers.

Reluctantly, I pull my eyes from Vee to glance at Raven.

Her shoulders have fallen, eyes are sloped around the edges.

There is no pity, but regret, pain.

Understanding?

“Tell us what, RaeRae?” Royce sits forward, leaning on his forearms.

“What wasn’t mine to share,” Raven adds.

My eyes move back to Victoria.

She focuses on the floor, cheeks clenching as she works her jaw over. Tension builds across her forehead, but then she draws her shoulders up, her head jerking slightly before it’s gone.

She stands to her full height, her features smooth as fucking butter.

“You guys think I haven’t earned the right to be here, well you haven’t earned the right for a trip down memory lane. You’re sitting here for a reason, so get to the fucking point.”

Shock has my eyes widening, and while this from anyone else would warrant a nasty reaction, my brothers laugh and fuck me if I don’t give a slow chuckle myself.

She tries, but cracks the slightest bit, hiding it by licking those lips.

She looks across to the four of us.

“Lemme get us started off since this shit got off track,” Royce says. He leans forward, removing the lid from the crystal bowl in the middle of the table and picks up what’s inside.

He looks at Victoria and lifts his hand.

Slipped between his two fingers is a small piece of paper.

Her face falls instantly.

“Oh shit,” she gasps.

Yeah, oh shit is right.





Victoria





Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

“Ah, so the little liar recognizes this, then.” Royce sits back, cocking his head.

This, in part, is what I’ve been waiting for, but I wanted Captain to ask me directly. There’s no getting around it now.

The truth is all that’s left.

Still, with nerves running through me, I delay.

My eyes move to Captain. “You went through my things.”

“That should have been a given,” he replies.

It was.

“Didn’t think anything of it, at first,” Captain admits, an almost imperceptible hint of hope threaded in his tone. “But once it clicked, it all clicked.”

Not all of it or this conversation would have started much differently and without the game before it.

I look to Captain, at the strain around his eyes, and my pulse hammers against my temples. Everything will set in and quickly, he’s only had a moment to wrap his mind around what this actually means, after all, it was just a bit ago my lips were wrapped around him.

I’d been waiting for this, so why do I suddenly feel as if I’m not ready for it?

I don’t know why I ask myself this, the answer is clear.

He’s giving himself to me in small pieces, and I don’t want him to take any back, but I said I’d tell the truth if asked directly, and I will.

“All those times I thought you had eyes on Chloe or Mac, I was wrong,” Cap says. “It was Tisha you were staring at. You knew she was getting beat. You knew she wrote for the school paper and knew what Jason drove. You bought a toy car and newspaper, tore off the corner and waited for an opportunity to place it in front of us.”