Page 65 of Break You

“I needed to get even.”

“You screwed him over. He got even—I presume. Then, you needed to get even on the getting even, and this shit’s been going on for years?” Pissed off didn’t even begin to cover her current mood.

“Yeah, basically. I wasn’t about to take a beating like that and not fight back—no matter how long it took to get even. But, I’m smarter than him, so I knew it wasn’t just going to be a matter of letting fists do the talking. There’s always a heftier goon, or a bigger gun, so I decided to try a different route and hit him where it would really hurt. They say a woman will always be even the strongest man’s Achilles heel, but I knew he didn’t date or anything like that, so when I found out he had a sister it was the perfect solution.”

“So, let me get this straight. You wanted revenge, and I was just collateral damage?” Rocky coaxed angrily.

“At first, yeah.”

“So, all of this shit. The Swan Club, the cars, the ‘kidnapping’, all of it…” She let the sentence die in her throat, as she held back tears.

“Was about him, not you. I wanted you scared, and haunted, and hunted. I wanted to break you to get to him, because I knew that short of taking him out, it was going to be my best shot at taking him down.”

She turned her attention back to her brother. “And you knew about this, and said, and did nothing?”

“I was working on it on my side, you know that. But you said you didn’t want me to do anything on your end, so I left it.”

“Bullcrap. First of all, you didn’t tell me what the hell was really going on, and second, your solution was to have these fucking knuckleheads follow me around campus, about as discreet as a vagina in a monastery. I already stand out for all the wrong reasons at that place. With these guys sniffing around, I might as well have hung a sign around my neck saying ‘hood rat’,” she spat out angrily.

“I warned him off. More than once. I would have made good on my promise, too. I always do. You know that better than anyone, Baby Girl.” It struck me how his whole demeanor—body language, tone, everything changed when he spoke to her.

“What promise?”

“I told him I’d kill him if he didn’t leave you alone—and I wasn’t just talking about the harassment.”

“And what about me?” She turned to me again. “Where did I fit in all this scheming?”

“Like you said, you were just a means to an end. Until you weren’t.”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

“You know what it means.”

“Actually, no I don’t. Because, I’m the only one in this heap of bullshit, who, until a few minutes ago, was completely in the dark, while you two assholes have been playing puppet master with my fucking life.”

Rocky

This was an actual nightmare. Worse than a nightmare. Worse than thinking I was going to die falling off the top of a building, or half drowning in a pool, or being stalked and played with, like a mouse being toyed with by an invisible cat. Worse than thinking my brother was in mortal danger.

“It means, Angry Girl...” He started to walk toward me. “...I thought I could fuck you, and fuck with you, and not give it a second thought. It means I thought I could keep you at arm’s length, like I have most people in my life and have you stay there. It means I thought I could watch you fall to your knees, and then walk away without looking back. It means I thought I could break you and not feel anything. It means I was wrong.”

I didn’t know what to think or feel. But as I stood between the two men, who, in their own ways, had each betrayed me, rage built within me.

“Listen, I’ve had enough of fucking riddles to last me a lifetime, and I’m fast losing patience with both of you morons, so you’d better start talking straight, before I walk out the door on the both of you.”

He raised his hands to rake through his hair—setting Pete’s henchmen off again—and sighed big.

“It means that no matter what I thought I was doing, and why I thought I was doing it, this thing between us was never going to be something we could turn our backs on. It means that the first time we locked eyes, at Trinity Hall, both angry and in combat mode, it was a done deal, no matter how much we both tried to deny it, or avoid it, or smother it. It means you were mine from the start, Angry Girl.”

He stepped closer still, reaching out to stroke my face. I flinched—not because I didn’t want him to touch me, but because I hated how much I did. All of the guns in the room were raised once again.

“Touch her again, and I’ll put a bullet between your eyes myself.”

“Calm down P, I got this.” It was only half true, but nothing was going to be helped by my brother blowing Xavier’s head off. “None of that is true. It’s all in your mind. We fucked each other raw because we’re great in bed together, that’s all. It’s just chemical. Animal magnetism. Chemistry.”

Pete let out a strangled groan behind me.

“It’s all true. Have you been with another guy since me?” He searched my face. I stared past him, deadpan.

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