Break Me (Brayshaw High #5)(9)
I slip my glasses from my face, slide them in the front pocket and continue to class with a limp as heavy as my sigh.
Another day in is a day closer to the out.
Why is it getting harder and harder to remember this?
Chapter 3
Royce
I bite into my burrito, finally looking at Mac who has been waiting for my attention, and he doesn’t miss his chance.
“Burrito cold?” he teases, food half-chewed in his mouth.
I laugh. “Fuck off. This bitch is hitting the spot, even at nine in the morning. Ask what you wanna ask, dick.”
He grins, digging his fries out of the bag. “What’d Bass Bishop do to push you into coming all the way out here to pay his baby sister a visit?”
“The motherfucker crossed a line when he forgot his place.” I shrug. “We hired him to keep the assholes in the group home in line at the school, run bets, and bring in fighters at the warehouses. He had no business mixing himself into deeper-rooted Brayshaw business.”
“You mean with Raven?” he asks about one of the newest members of my family.
The one and only person I’d give my all to, should she ask me for it, my brother’s new wife, and the last remaining bloodline of the Brayshaw name.
Everyone knows my brothers and I were adopted into the reigning family of our town as infants, mine and Captain’s fathers having died for the name not long before that, and Maddoc’s the one left in control. Maddoc’s dad became ours, and since then, we’ve earned our place. Raven just happens to be a larger piece of the puzzle we didn’t know was missing.
I nod. “When Raven showed up at our group home, we knew as much about her as we do the rest of them, little to nothing, but enough. She was in no way a part of us yet, so we gave no fucks about her friendship with Bishop, but once things changed, we told him to stay away. The fucker didn’t. He had her fighting in our rings, helped her run from us when she felt she had to protect us, allowed her to get herself into trouble and didn’t tell us. We could have lost her, and it would have been his head if we had.”
“That’s a lot to risk for a guy like him,” Mac eases. “Came empty-handed, had nothing but what he earned under your name.”
I know what he’s trying to say, and I get it.
Bishop showed loyalty to Raven, same as he did us since the day he set foot on our grounds, and I’m supposed to respect him for that. For helping one of us when she needed it, for having her back when we weren’t there to do it, no questions asked, no consequence too big.
But I can’t.
To be real, I don’t hate the fucker. I can’t lie and say I didn’t think he would keep my sister-in-law safe, because I did. But it wasn’t his place, it was mine.
Maddoc was fucked-up, Cap was laid up, and all that was left was me.
And then he stepped in again, pissed me off and now I want to piss him off, and what better way to do that than play with the sister he thinks is out of reach?
No one is out of my reach.
Am I being a bitch? Don’t know or care.
Sister for a sister makes sense to me.
Maybe that’s twisted, maybe I’m twisted, but I never claimed to be the sane one, that’s Captain.
Maddoc is the angry alpha, and me, I’m the fuckin’ wild one.
The time bomb.
Unpredictable and admittedly, unhinged.
I see things a little different, through a haze of rage most of the time, and yeah, I hold a grudge like a champ.
But I’d like someone to come to me, tell me how the fuck I’m supposed to respect someone who would risk himself like that, for a girl he hardly knows, yet ditches his own fucking sister without a blink?
I know better than anyone blood doesn’t count, me and my brothers share none, but Bass loves her. That’s why he sent her away, to protect her from the big bad fucking wolves, right? From the darkness he said she’ll fall into, and claims she’s not meant for?
The punk didn’t even have the balls to tell her straight-up he made that choice. That he’s the one who felt it was better for her.
Fuck him.
He wants to step into my family, insert himself where he’s not wanted. Touché, motherfucker.
Consider me inserted.
Brielle will know me and she’ll know me fucking well.
“We’re not waiting out here all day, are we?” He smirks.
“Nah, my man.” My eyes slide to the red double doors Brielle disappeared through. “We’re not.”
Brielle
With a water bottle in hand, I follow the flow of students out into the quad, only for my feet to cement themselves moments later.
Is it possible to have a nightmare during the day... when you’re wide awake?
The view in front of me screams yes, yes, it is.
Royce stands in the center of the basketball court, passing a ball between his loosely planted feet with ease, shoulders strong, but in a careless kind of way, head tipped back and to the side the slightest bit—cocky and carefree. Assertive.
An unquestionable alpha.
I follow his line of sight to the group of five guys standing closer to the left side of the hoop, all with a different question written across their faces, and my stomach twists.
These guys, they aren’t simply school randoms. They’re the starting five on the team, and Royce must have straight-up walked into the middle of their game, claimed their ball as his own, and they’re not happy about it.