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Me: Sleeping and making these little moaning sounds. It’s waking my dick up.
Dax: Let her sleep, Mase.
Me: I’m not an asshole.
Me: Okay, I am, but I know when not to be.
Dax: Practice in an hour.
I close out my messages and turn back towards the sleeping beauty in my arms. Maybe we should let her get expelled. It would get her out of here and off Daddy Asshole Emerson’s radar. But then where would she go?
She has no family. Well, she has her aunt. But not that her aunt cares about her. From what I have gathered, her aunt is not interested in being a parental figure. This school’s all she has right now. And now that she’s eighteen, her aunt would probably throw her out onto the street.
My gut churns at the thought. This is both the best and worst place for her to be. And we really haven’t made it that much better for her. We added to the problem.
And that makes me feel like shit. We did this all wrong. We assumed things about her. Honestly, we were wrong.
Fuck we need to figure out what Emerson Sr. wants with her. Fast. Because if he or our fathers find out we fought to keep her here, we’ll all be royally fucked.
I roll away, carefully sliding my arm out from under her head. She rolls over onto her other size, her beautiful round ass now facing me, and I internally groan. I want to bite into that ass of hers. Leave my mark. Fuck, she is killing me.
Saint Mason. I deserve sainthood. Fucking goddamn Saint Mason.
She’s lying on her blanket, so I head into her closet to see if she has another one to cover her up with. My eyes widen as I take in her closet. It’s pretty empty. She has an enormous walk-in closet, and what she owns takes up a small section of a corner.
Her aunt didn’t send her with any clothes? Is this all she had from when she moved here? I sort of feel bad for her. She really is out of place here. I bet you if I go into her roomie’s closet, it’s packed to the brim with clothes and shoes.
And her clothes aren’t the top designer brands like most girls here. They are typical find-them-in-your-hometown-mall-inside-of-Hot-Topic clothes. They are perfectly Phoenix.
Like a creep, I lean in and smell them. I can smell the lavender. The sweet smell of her. I adjust myself yet again. Fuck. I’m going to have to jack off in the shower before practice.
There’s blanket folded neatly in the corner of the closet, and I scoop it up. My finger hits something hard, and I lift up the blanket to see what I just jammed my finger into. There’s a loose board on her floor, not fully put back into place. I crouch down and lift the board up. Inside there’s a shoebox with skull and crossbones drawn on the outside. Yeah, this is definitely Red’s.
I lean back to quickly make sure that she is still asleep and go back to the box. My heart is beating a million miles a minute. What is she hiding in this? This has to be important for her to hide this in a hole in the back of her closet.
Maybe there are sex toys in here. Oh, please let me find a vibrator.
Removing it from the hiding spot, I open it and see that it’s stuffed with letters and trinkets. I frown. No toys. I unfold the first letter and read it.
My dearest little bird,
If you have this box, it means I had to move on from this life. And I’m so sorry. I didn’t have a choice. I tried to fight it. I tried to come up with anything other than what I found. But I failed.
Especially if you are in fact reading this.
Please know I will miss you, and your father, and I love you. I hope you didn’t see me at my weakest, and I hope you have grown strong since I’ve been gone.
Your aunt isn’t the greatest person, but she will make sure you are in a good school so that you can thrive once you graduate. I don’t want you suffering the same fate as me.
Protect what’s in here. You and I both had our doubts about your father. Pieces are missing, things don’t make sense, the story has holes. You can’t trust those you should be able to trust.
I love you, my little bird.
Fly.
Love always,
Mom