Page 30 of Did They Break You

“And now that Cort here has decided he can’t stay away, we need to set up some ground rules.”

I feel her swallow, but she picks her head up, staring right back at Chase.

“Why are you here?” she asks quietly, and I loosen my hold on her throat so I can hear her better.

Chase smiles. “I think she’s asking you, Cort,” he says, flicking his gaze to me.

I don’t answer her. Instead, I think about her cheering at every game. How my little brother would tell me afterward that the short girl with the blonde hair and the pawprint on her cheek was the cutest one. Remi was the only one who had the pawprint. Maya thought it was tacky and she told the rest of the team not to do it.

“Yeah,”I always agreed with Tristan.“She is.”

Then another memory flashes.

Tristan in a hospital bed.

An angry, red wound.

My stomach churns.

“Anyway,” Chase continues, sliding his hands into the pockets of his khakis, “you stay the fuck away from him.” There’s a hard edge to his words and Remi starts to tremble again. “And he’ll stay away from you, and we’ll all live happily ever fucking after.” He snarls the last words as he glares at her, not once looking away.

“Seriously, Remi,” Brinklin adds from beside Chase. He rakes a hand over his close-cut hair, drops it back by his side. “He doesn’t want to cause any problems.Wedon’t want any problems. We just?—”

“Why does it matter to you, Brinklin?” she demands, and I feel her lurch forward, trying to step closer to them.

Don’t be stupid Remi.

I haul her back, my fingers splaying over the soft material of her hoodie.

“You don’t even go here, unless you all idiotically transferred,” she continues, twisting her head to look at Storm, too. He arches a brow but doesn’t say anything. “You all get together so you could intimidate me?” she demands.

“Remi,” I warn her quietly, and she tries to twist in my arms, but I hold her tighter, afraid to let her go.

“What?” she snaps. “What makes you think I want anything to do with any of you? I want this to disappear just as much, if not more, than you do.”

My pulse pounds loud in my ears.Then why the fuck did you ever even go to the fucking cops?

Brinklin looks down at the ground, and I watch his throat bob as he swallows. “Remi, I’ve heard about your dad.”

I feel her stiffen against me. She even steps back into me, and my dick grows hard at how close she is, but I wait, wondering what she’ll say to that.

“He’s not my dad,” she spits out.

Chase laughs. “Daddy issues, Remi?” he sneers.

I’m not even sure what happened to her real dad. I know her mom is buried in that cemetery in Aben, which is why I’d spot her out there sometimes, all alone in the graveyard like a psycho. A psycho hidden with blonde hair and soft-spoken words.

I liked that about her.

“Just leave us out of your personal shit, and we’ll leave you out of ours,” Brinklin continues, meeting my gaze, his jaw ticking.

“Let me go,” she hisses, her voice full of venom.

I glance at Storm, still just watching us. He shrugs.

I release Remi, and she stumbles forward a step, only to have Chase yank her by her hair.

She whimpers as he drags her forward, and I tense, my hands curled into fists at my side.

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