Trouble at Brayshaw High (Brayshaw, #2)(47)

“What...” He trails off.

Captain snatches it from Royce’s open palm, and his head snaps up, eyes meeting mine.

“This is your knife, the knife you’ve been carrying around here for months?”

“Yes.”

“What the fuck does this mean?” Royce asks, cutting quick glances between the three of us.

“Your dad, yesterday wasn’t the first time I’ve seen him,” I tell them. “He goaded me in there, as if I could forget his face. He knew if he threw out the words I’ve read at least a handful of times a day since the day I first heard them, that I’d remember, but I didn’t need that. I remember his face and his voice.”

“Raven...” Captain visibly pales, his head shaking slowly.

“He was one of my mom’s clients when I was younger. Came by once a week, every week, for at least a year. The day he gave me my knife was the last day I ever saw him.” I nod at Royce, hold my hands up, and he tosses it back.

“When was that?” Royce asks.

“Eleven years ago.” I lick my lips, glancing between the three.

The timeline still makes no sense as far as how long she said he’s been paying her. “She must have pulled some shit right after that last night he was over. I won’t apologize for what she did, I refuse to do that for her, but ... I am sorry you guys lost his physical presence.”

“It’s not your fault,” Royce tells me, and I shrug.

With a frown, Cap stretches back, pulling his brass knuckles from his pocket. He leans forward and hands them to me.

Made of real silver, they’re heavy. Expensive. There’s a tiny anchor, matching the one on his knuckles printed into the side and looping through each finger slot, a thin engraving: Family runs deeper than blood.

My stomach heats and I grip the item tighter.

Royce moves closer, dropping to his knees in front of me. He pulls his hoodie over his head and flips his arm over, showing me the underside of his full sleeve.

Hidden inside the intricate design the words are blended, not to be easily seen or read, hidden there, just for him.

“I have a crest at home I used to wear around my neck, but I almost lost it once. Now, no matter what, my family is with me,” Royce tells me.

Maddoc sits forward and pulls his wallet out, sliding a key from the inner folds and handing it over.

I flip it and there it is again, imprinted perfectly along the edge.

I run my fingers across it, taking a deep breath. “What’s it open?”

“Don’t know yet, maybe nothing, just a token of sorts,” he says, pausing for a moment. “We didn’t have to accept each other once we understood we came from different parents, but we are a family in every sense of the word. We chose each other.” I look up, meeting Maddoc’s eyes.

“And now we choose you,” he vows. “He chose you.”

“He only saw me at night when I was nothing but the dope head, prostitute’s kid he had to distract with ice cream and a fucking movie. He didn’t even know me, Maddoc, or the shit I did in the daylight, even at seven years old.”

“He’s intuitive.”

When I start to shake my head, Maddoc grips it between his hands, a frown taking over his face once more. “Raven, that was not his knife,” he throws out tersely. “I have never seen that knife before. Being a Brayshaw has rules, and if an item is given to you by a Bray, it was created for you, and not to be given away. Those words are sacred. If he gave you something with them written on it, it’s because he knew, eventually, you’d be exactly where you are right now. With us.”

“He bought me from my mom for who knows what reason, because she sent him to prison. Maybe even before if that’s why he was paying her for two years before he was even arrested.”

Maddoc shakes his head. “I don’t know. His going to jail never made sense, my going to jail made no fucking sense if you think about it from our perspective. We’re Brayshaws, that doesn’t happen to us, so I knew he had some sort of plan behind it. And the one he had shocked the shit out of us. We thought maybe because he was arrested in another town that it made a difference, and that’s why he wasn’t released right away – them not knowing who he was – but learned later it wouldn’t.

“Raven, we’re not the only family like ours, there’s several of us spanning across the state line like a barrier, blocking people from coming into our worlds. We all serve a purpose, live a certain way to have the lives we do,” Maddoc says, then glances to his brothers before looking back to me. “But we will fucking find out where you fit into this. Your area is outside of our maps. I don’t even know how he found you or your mom. None of the families connected to us have business that way.”

I rub at my eyes and let out a deep breath.

The last two days have been a huge fucking information overload. My head is starting to spin.

I meet each of their stares, each a complete contrast of the last – dark brown, light blue, and jade green – but each hold the same intensity and promise.

One I chose to believe, even if it makes me a sucker in the end.

Family runs deeper than blood, and I think I might have found mine.

We all stand, and Royce and Captain both move in for a hug before disappearing inside to crash.

Maddoc grips my hand and pulls me behind him, not bothering to close the balcony doors on our way to our designated room for the night. Our door, though, he closes and locks.