Page 66 of Be My Brayshaw (Brayshaw High 4)

Suddenly I regret everything that’s just taken place, want to wish and wash it away and I want it to take the black look she gives me with it, and I have no clue why, nothing even happened.

She drank, we didn’t.

Why does this upset her?

Why do I care?

A trick she called it, from her own act.

What fucking act?

“Tell them, Victoria,” Raven suddenly whispers.

Reluctantly, I pull my eyes from Vee to glance at Raven.

Her shoulders have fallen, eyes are sloped around the edges.

There is no pity, but regret, pain.

Understanding?

“Tell us what, RaeRae?” Royce sits forward, leaning on his forearms.

“What wasn’t mine to share,” Raven adds.

My eyes move back to Victoria.

She focuses on the floor, cheeks clenching as she works her jaw over. Tension builds across her forehead, but then she draws her shoulders up, her head jerking slightly before it’s gone.

She stands to her full height, her features smooth as fucking butter.

“You guys think I haven’t earned the right to be here, well you haven’t earned the right for a trip down memory lane. You’re sitting here for a reason, so get to the fucking point.”

Shock has my eyes widening, and while this from anyone else would warrant a nasty reaction, my brothers laugh and fuck me if I don’t give a slow chuckle myself.

She tries, but cracks the slightest bit, hiding it by licking those lips.

She looks across to the four of us.

“Lemme get us started off since this shit got off track,” Royce says. He leans forward, removing the lid from the crystal bowl in the middle of the table and picks up what’s inside.

He looks at Victoria and lifts his hand.

Slipped between his two fingers is a small piece of paper.

Her face falls instantly.

“Oh shit,” she gasps.

Yeah, oh shit is right.VictoriaOh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

“Ah, so the little liar recognizes this, then.” Royce sits back, cocking his head.

This, in part, is what I’ve been waiting for, but I wanted Captain to ask me directly. There’s no getting around it now.

The truth is all that’s left.

Still, with nerves running through me, I delay.

My eyes move to Captain. “You went through my things.”

“That should have been a given,” he replies.

It was.

“Didn’t think anything of it, at first,” Captain admits, an almost imperceptible hint of hope threaded in his tone. “But once it clicked, it all clicked.”

Not all of it or this conversation would have started much differently and without the game before it.

I look to Captain, at the strain around his eyes, and my pulse hammers against my temples. Everything will set in and quickly, he’s only had a moment to wrap his mind around what this actually means, after all, it was just a bit ago my lips were wrapped around him.

I’d been waiting for this, so why do I suddenly feel as if I’m not ready for it?

I don’t know why I ask myself this, the answer is clear.

He’s giving himself to me in small pieces, and I don’t want him to take any back, but I said I’d tell the truth if asked directly, and I will.

“All those times I thought you had eyes on Chloe or Mac, I was wrong,” Cap says. “It was Tisha you were staring at. You knew she was getting beat. You knew she wrote for the school paper and knew what Jason drove. You bought a toy car and newspaper, tore off the corner and waited for an opportunity to place it in front of us.”

I run my tongue along the backs of my teeth, not denying a thing.

Cap’s eyes bore into mine, and I see him working through this as he speaks the words aloud. Tension builds across his face and he licks his lips.

“The town, our people.” Captain’s eyes slide to his brothers, who clearly haven’t moved beyond this moment either. “Issues of all kinds used to go through head of security, shared with us only after things were handled so we stayed aware, but out of the trouble. Until we got to Brayshaw High. We were ready for more, wanted more, and all of a sudden little hints and tips were being dropped left and right. We were able to take control by being a step ahead.”

I swallow as Royce says, “People started to come to us because of it.”

“No...” Captain disagrees, his tone low, an achingly obvious sting of realization and single thread of awe, feared hope, burns in his eyes, now solely locked with mine. His brows furrow as he takes a step closer. “No... right?” he whispers.

My heart hammers in my chest.

Go on, Cap.

“The girls being treated wrong at school, the women abused by their husbands, daughters ruined by their fathers, the assholes abusing their power in our name.” Captain turns his head to his brothers, waiting until the last second to take his eyes from me, and only for the briefest of a glance. “I’d go as far as to say helping those people, our people, is how we earned the respect when at first it was given to us because of who we were.”