Page 154 of Did They Break You

It’s not easy, facing the fact you might’ve been the monster. And I still don’t know what the hell really went down. It’s all so fucking gray. But in the end, when it was all said and done, she was crying.

And that means something.

It should’ve meant more then.

“That’s all kind of beside the point,” Storm points out, glancing down at his lap, running his palms over his thighs. “The point, right now, is that Chase McGowan is waiting in this cabin with Maya Bell and they’re going todemandthat you stop seeing her.”

I laugh at that, running my hand along my jaw. “I don’t really take too kindly to demands.”

Storm turns to stare at me. “This time, you might want to pretend you do.”

My pulse picks up speed, and I can feel it pumping in a vein in my neck. “Why the fuck would I do that?”

“Because they’ve spoken to your mom, Cortland. And with Chase’s dad, your mom, and Maya’s word, they could fuck you over a hundred different ways.” Brinklin speaks those words, but I keep staring at Storm. “They could fuckherover a hundred different ways.”

“They won’t touch her.”

Storm smiles. “You’re delusional.”

“And you two are fucking hilarious, thinking I give afuckwhat anyone in that house has to say to me, especially Chase.” I reach for the door of the truck, pulling it open, cool fall air rushing in. “I’m going to go inside, I’m going to get Maya the fuck out of my house, and I’m going to beat the fuck out of Chase if he so much asbreathesRemi’s name.”

Maya runsup to me as soon as I walk in the door, and I’m ready for her.

I hold up a hand, keeping her away from me as Storm and Brinklin walk in behind me, flanking me. Just like in high school.

“Maya, you gotta go.”

She’s clearly drunk, stumbling closer in only a beige bra and black shorts, her hair a mess around her face, sticking to her lip gloss.

I hear Chase’s obnoxious laugh down the hall, and a second later, he appears, clutching a beer can in hand. He adjusts the hat on his head, grinning at me, then jerking his chin toward Maya.

“I figured you wouldn’t mind. Thought we could allsharetonight,” he says, and he rubs a fist over his eye.

Maya comes closer, and I smell her floral perfume.

I keep my hand up. “Get your shit, and get out of my house,” I tell her.

She sticks out her bottom lip, coming ever closer, and Chase takes a drink. “Don’t be an ass, Cort, she gives good head, man.”

I ignore him, my eyes on Maya’s red-rimmed blue ones.

Another step, and her chest is against my palm, still held out in front of me.

Another step,and she’s reaching for my neck, her hands wrapped around me, but she doesn’t dig her nails in like Remi. She tries to pull me closer to her, still pouting. “Baby, let me touch you,” she whispers.

“Maya, step back,” I tell her calmly, used to her drunk bullshit. When I was in Texas, she did the same thing. Drunken video messages where she was all about me when she was alone near the end of the night, and if I didn’t appease her, the next morning she’d scream at me through texts.

“Cort,” she whines, yanking my hand down.

My blood runs hot, and I want to shove her. “Maya, seriously, get the fuck off of?—”

She lunges at me, knocking me back against the door because I don’t expect it. My hands come to her hips, and she’s pinning me to the door, her mouth trailing around my neck, making my skin crawl.

If Remi saw this, she’d lose her mind.

And right now, what Remi thinksmatters.

I shove Maya back, off of me.

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