Page 26 of Revived
Sully takes my hand and gently pulls me across the bench seat until I'm sitting in the middle of Flynn's beat up old pickup, leaning my head on Sully's shoulder. I press my hand to his heart and feel the way it’s fighting to slow back to a normal rhythm.
“Your heart is beating so fast.”
“I was only told you were here and the cops were called. I had no idea what to expect. You scare the shit out of me on the best days. I thought something happened to you. It takes some time to come down from that. Speaking of, why was Mac the one to call me? Why didn't you?"
I never told Sully what happened back when we were seventeen. My stalker attempted to take me and when I got away beaten and bruised, it was Mac that I called. Mac's always been a genius, and I knew if I wanted something handled and handled quietly that I should go to him. The Byrnes have always treated me like family, so when I called him in the middle of the night to come get me from bumfucked New Jersey, he just tracked my phone and he and Dec came to get me. No questions asked. They’ve never spoken of it again, and the only reason Dec came is because he was with Mac at the time.
I told Sully and the others that I was hurt by one of my Papa’s rivals and ditched school for a few days. Actually one of those days Sully and Flynn skipped with me and got in huge trouble. They knew about the guy who left me notes and flowers. Sometimes jewelry or gifts. They knew that towards the end he seemed to become more and more unhinged, but they never knew the extent of it.
That was about the time that they closed ranks, and the seven of us stopped hanging out with anyone who wasn't us. Don't get me wrong, the guys still hooked up and partied like normal, but I wasn't allowedto do any of that. I hated it. It made me feel like a spoiled child kept in a glass tower. But once Mac took care of my little stalker issue, things quieted down, and by the time I went to college, things were back to normal for the most part. The guys relaxed, and I was able to have a normal life again. That is until now.
"Because Mac supposedlytook careof the issue when we were seniors in high school. I've gone the past seven years thinking that he was dead. Apparently, he was just in hiding."
We pull into Sully's driveway. He puts the truck in park before turning and giving me all of his attention. "I'm sorry, what? You're sure Mac said he killed him? Elle, if Mac told you that, then the guy’s dead. No question. He doesn't half ass that stuff."
"Well, obviously he isn't. I don't know what you want me to say. But it's him again. I know it. I can feel it in my bones." I snap. I'm not trying to be a bitch, I'm just scared.
He doesn't take offense like so many others would. Instead, he pulls me into his lap and holds me tight.
"We're going to figure this out, Boo. Together. I'm not leaving you to deal with this alone."
When he presses his face into my hair and kisses the crown of my head, I feel how serious he is all the way to the tip of my toes. We're going to figure this out together.
***
"Elle, stop it! Don't you dare change, that outfit's perfect." Addy exclaims from the group facetime call on my phone.
I look down at my tight medium wash jeans and fitted light blue shirt, trying to figure out what's so "perfect" about this outfit. I look back to my phone, confusion marring my face until Kenz chimes in to clear things up for me.
"She means you look hot in that. It's simple, but in the best way. Your boobs look fantastic, and the jeans are tight enough to have every man drooling over your ass. You're going to look great." She smiles brightly.
Addy, Kenz, and I are meeting down at the local bar, 'The Den." It's truly a small town bar with good drinks, a dance floor, pool tables, and rival families. That's something I don't play into. The whole Brasher and Brooks feud is something that's been going on for generations apparently. I stay out of it though, because I'm an implant. No matter how hard Steel Brasher has tried to convince me and the guys to side with them, we refuse. When you come from families like ours, feuds mean something entirely different than harmless jokes and drunken smack talk.
The Den is supposed to be neutral territory for everyone. Plus, since objectively, all the men from both families are hot as hell, it's not a bad place to hang around, at least that's what they say. Only one man catches my attention, even if I've been avoiding him for the past six days.
Sully kissed me goodnight after taking me home from the gym that night. After shutting and locking the door like he told me to, I went to bed and swore to put some distance between us so I could think. I've been short answering his texts and dodging him at every turn all week. I know, I know, it's a shitty thing to do. But I have this theory that because we startedkissingand stuff,as his older brothers so eloquently put it, that it's the reason my stalker came back. If we stop, maybe he'll stop too. So I'm going out tonight with my girls and forgettingall about the man with the seafoam eyes that's had me in knots since we were kids.
An hour later Addy, Kenz, and I are sitting at a table in the bar on the ‘Brooks side’. Don't judge us, it was the first available place to sit. Three guys that we now know as River, Atlas, and Reed Brooks sit with us and try their hand at flirting. If I wasn't immediately put off by their weird nature names, them telling us that their sister's names are Willow, Sage, Magnolia, and Hazel sure did it.
They're hot, but not as hot as Sully. River, who's been talking to me the most, is tall, but not as tall as Sully. His whiskey eyes are gorgeous, but they aren't the seafoam that stops my heart from beating. He has a close cut beard. Admittedly, it's kind of sexy… But you guessed it, it's not as sexy as Sully's smooth and strong jawline.
"Anyway, that's how the feud between the Brooks' and the Brasher's started." River tells me.
I zoned out for most of that, but don't worry, I made sure I was listening when I was told the Brasher children, now adults, all have metal names. Not metal as in 'super cool', but as in their names, if I remember correctly, are Sterling, Golden, Tin, Copper, Nickel, and Steel. No, I'm not joking.
"Oh, that's really interesting." I batted my eyelashes at him like I was listening to a word he said.
"Yeah, it's small town stupid stuff to most, but it's a rivalry that's been instilled in us since childhood. Do you have anything like that where you're from?"
Do I have rivalries like his in New Jersey? God, Jersey would dismember these guys before spitting them out.
"Nope, can't say that we do." I'm about to excuse myself to go call X or Knox to save me when a heavy arm drapes over my shoulder.
My body instantly locks up, and I look up into a face that's kind of familiar but not familiar enough to relax.
"River."
"Steel." River grits out. "You lost? Seems you forgot that's your side of the bar." He tilts his head to the left like Steel's lost.
