Gold (All that Glitters #2)(22)

“Now, Bryna, that’s enough! You’re going to be there for three more years. I’ll come next time.”

“Sure you will.” She ground her teeth together. “Why can’t someone else take care of Celia? What is even wrong with her?”

He hesitated. “We’re not sure yet. I didn’t want to scare you, but she has to get some tests taken.”

“What kind of tests?”

“We want to make sure everything is okay. Try not to worry about it.”

“Okay,” she said flippantly. “So, you’re still not going to come then? Not at all?”

“I can’t, Bryna, but I’m sending Pace in my place. He has some exciting news for you.”

“Don’t bother,” Bryna growled. “I hate Pace, and you know it.”

Her father sighed heavily on the phone. “He is coming up there for recruitment anyway. He doesn’t even have to stay with you, if you don’t want him to, but try to show him around.”

“He can’t go here, Daddy! You have to convince him to go somewhere else,” she said, nearly hysterical.

“He’s my son now, Bryna. He’ll be a Gambler if I can help it. It’s where he wants to go, just like you, and you’re not going to stop him. Do you understand me?”

“He’s your son?” She nearly gagged. “I can’t even right now. That’s seriously disturbing.”

“Bryna—”

“You know what? Forget it. I’m sorry I’m just realizing that your new family is so much more important than your old family.”

“Honey, you’re overreacting. There would be serious implications for me if I left right now. I hate disappointing you, but you will always be my baby girl,” her father said.

“Okay.” She clearly wasn’t getting into his head. The whole thing infuriated her. “Well, the parade is starting. So…bye.”

“Bye, sweetheart.”

She hung up the phone, even more pissed off than when she had been talking to her dad. How dare he! With everything going on in her life, she had really been looking forward to spending some quality time with him, but no, he couldn’t even manage that.

“Hey! Who was that?” Stacia asked, bounding over to Bryna.

“No one. Doesn’t matter. Are you ready to go?” Bryna threw her phone into her pocket, stripped out of her jacket, tossed it on the back of the truck, and retrieved her poms.

“Yeah. Totally.”

But it did matter, and Bryna couldn’t let it go.

It only got worse when Pace showed up at her condo later that night.

“Hey, sis,” he said.

He barreled inside, passing her, and she considered leaving to avoid him, but she couldn’t even stay with Andrew, who was holed up in some hotel.

“Don’t call me that,” she spat.

“Don’t tell me you’re not excited that I’m in town,” he said as if he didn’t know she hated him. “You’re going to have to get used to it because I have a feeling that I’m going to be here a whole lot more come January.”

Bryna’s face paled. “What do you mean?”

“Coach Galloway got the approval today. I’ll officially be an LV State football player in January. I’ll graduate high school a semester early and start classes in the spring. I won’t get to play for this season, but I’ll start practices.”

She rested her hand on the couch to keep herself upright. “You’re…moving to Las Vegas in two months?”

“Yeah. Dad said I could stay here until I got my own place.”

Pace’s smirk was so broad that she thought she might be sick. He was really serious.

“You cannot stay in my condo.”

“Technically, it’s Dad’s condo, so—”

“Stop calling him that! He’s not your dad!” she shrieked.

Pace dropped his bag in the middle of the living room and kicked back on the couch. He crossed his arms and stared up at her in a leering way she definitely couldn’t miss.

“Keep yelling all you want, Bri. I like it when you yell.”

Bryna’s grip on the couch tightened as she kept from screaming in rage. “Just stay away from me and my friends.”

“What? Think I know things about you that others don’t? How many people know about senior year, Bri? How many know about Jude?”

She shuddered. “Leave him out of this. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, I think I do.”

“Even if you did,” she ground out, “senior year is long over, and I’m already tired of having you around again.”

She stomped upstairs, trying to convince herself that she wasn’t fleeing her sleazy stepbrother. This weekend couldn’t possibly get any worse.

The next morning was a dry seventy-five degrees, and Bryna was cheering on the sidelines at the game. She could see Pace standing next to the team on the sidelines, and it infuriated her all the more. He hadn’t even wanted to come to LV State until he knew she was interested in attending. Last year, he had made it his personal mission to try to ruin her life, and she was not looking forward to his reappearance since nothing had changed between them. He still wanted to torment her and also get in her pants. She wanted to get away from the reminder of what her father had done.