Page 37 of Her Brother's Keeper

“You’re not in trouble, Angel. I just really didn’t like what I heard, and I need to know what’s up. I can’t fix it if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

“Nox, it’s okay, really… there’s nothing for you to fix.”

“If it makes you sad, it needs to be fixed.” She sighed heavily and it was a frustrated sound. I said, “Call me or text me when you go to bed.”

“I will,” she promised and I nodded before I realized she couldn’t see it.

“Talk to you then.”

We hung up, and I pulled on my riding gear over my scrubs, glad for the ride home, despite how fucking cold it was going to be. When I got to it, I skipped pulling up out front and rode around back, heeling down the kickstand in front of the outbuilding that housed my room. I went in and took a hot shower, pulling on some comfortable sweats. I skipped food, I just wasn’t hungry or feeling it right then.

Instead, I flopped down on my bed and waited for my phone to ring or chime. It finally did around nine-thirty. It was a text, not a call.

Maren: He’s my ex-boyfriend, Lucas. When my dad started getting sick to the point I needed to take care of him more, I broke it off with Luke. He didn’t take it well. Started some rumors about me; that I gave him the clap – which I never did. I will even go to the doctor and prove it if you need me to. Anyways, things have gotten progressively worse, the more that time goes on. There’s nothing the faculty can or will do about it except to tell me to ignore it, so I do my best. Today was a tough day. The newest rumor is that I murdered my dad, sped things along for him so I could inherit everything and that getting rid of Sage is next on my list of priorities. I’m doing everything I can to protect my brother and keep him with me and everyone is saying I’d do anything to get rid of him. That I killed my dad. As if that wasn’t bad enough, I don’t know, I guess it’s just exhausting listening to their shit. Just when I thought that they couldn’t get more evil… there you go.

I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them a few times as I worked my way through the wall of text on my phone, my blood growing hotter by the second until it very nearly boiled.

Me: He ever hurt u with more than just words?

Those three bouncing dots sure took their sweet fucking time, as I waited for her to respond.Shit, hasn’t this girl been through enough?I wondered. I mean fuck, how low can you go? Treating a girl who was losing her dad like shit because you got temporarily shut down? Fuck, as far as reasons for a break up go, that is a pretty fucking understandable one.

Maren: He was the boy I lost my virginity to before I found out he was such a selfish ass. He’s ‘accidentally’ bumped into me in the halls, knocking me off balance into lockers and things, but other than that… no. He hasn’t put his hands on me. As for the hurt me with more than just words? He’s the boy I lost my virginity to. My first love and all of that. So I guess, yeah. Who am I kidding? It all hurts. It all hurts a lot. I hate going to school, which sucks because I love learning. I lost the one place that made things bearable before my dad died, then I lost my dad and it’s everything I have left in me to hold on to what I have left that’s dear. My brother, my home… I thought that was going to be it for me, you know? And then you showed up, and I’m scared if you knew just how monumentally screwed up things are in my world that you’ll leave. Too much drama, you know?

I sighed sharply. “Fuck!” I uttered out loud and decided I needed to get one thing straight with her, right this minute.

Me: Here’s the deal, Maren. I’m sure that u noticed but I’m a grown ass, fuckin man. U got more shit going on than most grown fuckin women twice ur age. That being said, I ain’t going nowhere – because I’m a *grown ass fucking man* and grown men handle their shit, and when they find a woman of quality? They don’t make shit worse for her – they make it better which is just what I’m gonna do. Am I crystal fuckin’ clear?

Those dots remained maddeningly absent for a really long time. I watched the little message below what I just sent read ‘read’ for a long time and I pictured her, laying in her bed, that dark hair of hers splashed across the pillow, her smooth skin lit with the blue glow of her screen as she read and reread the message I just sent and I couldn’t help it. I popped a serious fucking boner at the thought. Finally, those damn dots started their shimmy and their shake across the bottom corner of my screen, but only after I’d had to wake up my phone twice.

Maren: I don’t know what to say except I think I love you for so many things right now. For listening to me. For coming to the rescue as much as you have and even for things that I didn’t even think I needed rescuing from until you were there to do it. Lucas is an ass. He’s a little boy, and annoying, but I can handle it. It’s only for a few more months until I graduate, anyways. It will be okay.

I let out a breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.

Me: Maren, Angel, u just don’t get how this works, baby. I’m here to take care of u, and part of that means I’m here to protect u from asshats like this.

Maren: That’s sweet, Nox. Really, but there isn’t anything anyone can do. There just isn’t.

I smiled and I knew it wasn’t one hundred percent nice. I sat up and typed back quickly, thumbs flying across the screen.

Me: U forget something, Angel. There isn’t anything anyone can do that follows citizen rules. I’m not your average citizen. Just give me the kid’s name and I’ll handle it.

Maren: You won’t hurt him will you?

Me: Club’s rule is ‘no women, no children’ he’s a minor, so no – I won’t hurt him.

Maren: Then how would you get him to stop?

Me: U leave that to me.

I waited for a long time and finally grew a little impatient.

Me: U want it to stop, don’t u?

Maren: Lucas Triggs

Me: Thank you.

Maren: Be careful, his dad is a piece of work… When I dated Lucas, I kind of wondered how he could be so sweet when his dad, well, wasn’t. Now I know better.

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