Page 32 of Break Me (Brayshaw High 5)

After that, I spent most of the day overanalyzing everything that happened when he was here. How he got upset when Franky put his hands on me, how my cousin acting like an ass bothered him, his little freak-out over me being outside at night alone and how he later played it down.

A smile finds my lips.

That might have been my favorite part, along with everything that followed.

I got to talk to someone that night, really talk, and about things that nobody cares to hear from me. Maybe I gave too much, but I don’t care.

It felt good and Royce... I knew he heard me. Really heard me. It was all there, in his shadowy eyes.

I decided, like I pretend the bad in my life has a purpose, Royce pretends he’s this cavalier Casanova, but in my short time with him, I recognized the truth.

Royce Brayshaw has a heart.

It might be coated in toxic candy, but it’s there.

Later that night, after the darkness came, the fog followed, and stole the stars from sight, so all that was left was me. I was sitting in the grass with a running mind I tried to clear, but with each buried thought came another, all followed with a sense of compulsion.

I felt a need and acted on it by texting a guy I had no business texting.

Royce didn’t reply, of course, but I didn’t send it for a response. I sent it because I wanted to. Because it felt right.

I pull my phone from my pocket and pull up the message again.Me: Thank you for what you did. Travis didn’t say a word.It might seem silly, thanking him when the entire situation was his fault for opening his own cocky mouth in the first place, but I don’t care.

Cocky.

Mouth.

Aaand now I’m thinking about his cock down my cousin’s throat.

“You good over there?”

I jump, my phone falling to the floor and Mac laughs, picks it up and hands it over, choosing to lean on the cabinet opposite of me.

“So.” He tips his head.

“So is this thing really going where he says, or are you throwing me out over the ocean somewhere?”

He grins. “It’s going where he says.”

I nod, and then it hits me. My eyes go wide. “Oh my god. What about all my stuff? My aunt?”

“Taken care of. Micah’s loading it as we speak. It’s about a ten-hour drive, so he’ll be in tonight sometime.”

My head tugs back. “Micah?”

Mac nods. “He was always nice to you, right? Never pulled no shit?”

“I mean... yeah. He was nice enough.”

Mac nods. “He’s gonna be staying at the boys’ home, you’ll be in the girls.”

Well, that’s unexpected.

Mac nods toward the table where a large silver platter, full-on with a matching lid, sits. It’s something you’d see in a gourmet kitchen... or a horror movie with a chopped off head tucked tight under it. “Grab something, come sit.”

And then he’s gone.

I lift the lid and a smile breaks over my face.

A dozen sprinkle donuts and a still wrapped pack of Yoo-hoos, but beside them, a small turquoise box.

I run my fingers along the outer edge, reading the note scribbled right on top.

Your cousin’s a bitch and your fix-it days are over. Time to fly.

A low chuckle leaves me, and I open it up to find a pair of sunglasses sitting inside.

I stare at them for a long moment, and then finally pull them from the box and slip them over my eyes.

“Perfect fit.”

I spin to find Royce leaning in the spot I just was, his arms crossed over his chest, eyes on me.

The perfect fit.

I take a deep breath.

Let’s hope I am too.Chapter 9Royce“A jet.” Maddoc pulls himself up on the ledge of the pool

“A badass jet.”

He licks his lips, gauging me. “You bought a jet... to get to a girl?”

I see what he’s trying to do, little fucker. “No.” I grin. “I bought a jet ‘cause I wanted it. We need a vacation and in case something happens when we take one, a way to get back quick.”

“And in case you needed to get to this girl quick.”

I glare and both my dickhead brothers grin.

“So Raven was right.” Maddoc looks from his wifey to me. “Your lonely ass drive did fuck you up.”

I splash his ass, but turn to my niece when her water shoes bump into me.

She’s lying flat on her back, little star-shaped shades on, her feet hanging over the edge of the donut-shaped raft—I bought that for her, thank you very much.

I shake the thing lightly and then steal her off of it to kiss her cheek.

“What do you think, Zoey Bear? Tell your daddy you wanna go on an airplane.”

“And fly way up in the sky?” She smiles, her hands thrown up on her head.

“Way the heck in the sky.”

She kicks to be let down and swims to Captain. “Daddy, I wanna fly!”