Page 36 of Break Me (Brayshaw High 5)

“Sounds like a loyal move,” Victoria throws out and I pin her with a glare.

“Don’t start your shit.”

She laughs, hopping onto Captain’s back. “Just saying.”

“Well, don’t and don’t try to get this girl... it won’t work.”

“Why not?” Victoria wonders.

“Just trust me, the girl’s off.”

“Off how?” Raven drops into the chair next to Zoey, accepting the half-chewed piece of jerky she holds out for her. “Like she eats chips with a fork off or she’d cut your junk off in your sleep and convince you later she did it because she loves you off?”

“The fuck, RaeRae?” I chuckle, but a small shudder shoots through my body and I cup my traumatized cock.

“Come on, Ponyboy, give us something,” Raven pushes.

“Fuck you want me to say?” I lift my hands with a laugh. “She laughs when she should be scared, jokes when she should be mad, and—”

“So she’s Royce-proof?” Victoria interrupts me, making Raven laugh.

“Girl, quit playin’!” I shout, backing up to escape being caged between Bonnie and Bonnie. “All I said is she’s off. Meet her, talk to her, scare the piss out of her, I don’t care, then decide for your fuckin’ selves.”

“On that note... I say we have some fun.” Raven wiggles her brows.

I laugh, grabbing my phone from the chair when it rings.

I answer and put it to my ear. “Talk to me, MacMoney?”

“We got a problem,” he fires off.

My pulse kicks up, my shoulder muscles stretching.

My brothers sense it and step closer with tight expressions. I put the call on speaker.

“Talk to us.”

“That fight rumor that was going ‘round about a fight?” he leads. “It happened.”

My blood instantly heats.

“Who?” Maddoc asks.

“Coach Von.”

We look to each other. “For real?”

“Yup. He got his ass whooped and whooped good, couple of his players found him in the dugout on the baseball field. The new scoreboard was busted too, but that was off camera. I’ll send the pictures now, it was clearly a fucking bat and there’s busted up Mickey’s bottles out here too. Even a fucking lime.”

“Damn, bro.”

“That’s not all...” He trails off.

“Come on, Mac.” Captain glares.

“He says he don’t know who it was, that he didn’t see him coming, but I already pulled it up and watched it on camera.”

Raven frowns. “He lied.”

“You can’t see the guy’s face, but you can see them argue for a minute before he gets his ass handed to him.”

“So not only did he see the person, he knows them. Why lie?”

He sighs. “Don’t know yet.”

“There’s a reason.” Victoria begins pacing and we all look to her.

The thing about Victoria is she’s a little secret seeker, sees what others don’t, finishes the puzzle when she’s only got half the pieces... most of the time.

Mac adds, “Yeah, like there’s a reason Coach Von didn’t fight back.”

Our eyes fly between one another.

“Not even a single hit?”

“Nope.”

“Motherfucker.”

Maddoc’s jaw tightens. “He knew we’d find out and go looking.”

“And we’d pause on the first person with a mark on him. Whoever it was has something on the guy.”

“Fuck,” Mac hisses.

Tension tightens my chest. “What is it?”

“The equipment container lock was cut. Looks like some shit’s missing, but I need to get the lights on to be sure.”

“Someone’s fuckin’ bold.”

“Almost too bold,” Victoria wonders out loud, looking to us. “They went after the coach, the scoreboard, and the gear? He says he doesn’t know who it was, but didn’t fight back and someone was careful enough not to be in view of the camera but left beer bottles behind?”

“We’re missing something...”

She nods. “If it was a bat that was used on the board, but not on the coach, then we need to start with someone on the team. Starting pitcher or star hitter maybe?”

Maddoc nods. “Lucky for us, it happens to be the same fucking person.”

Raven leans back. “Scope him tomorrow, invite him to party tomorrow night.”

Everyone nods and there we are.

We’ll bring the mouse to the mouse hunt.Chapter 10RoyceMicah makes it up the steps of the girls home right as a group of them push out of the door. They pause at the sight of him, but he’s not used to these kinds of girls. They don’t smile and gawk at the good-looking fucker, they shoulder right past him and down the road they go.

Raven and Victoria laugh at the offended look on his face, but we just shake our heads.

He’ll learn quick enough.

They’ll be plenty of the trust fund girls at the school who will fall at the sight of him, but it won’t be these ones.

Last night, Mac let us know when Micah got in, so me, my brothers, and the girls came down to meet him while giving him his first task.

A plan I’m about to cancel when the girl is the last one to make it out of the house and her smile goes straight to Micah, it’s tight-lipped, but it’s there. When he leans in to give her a hug, she accepts, a familiar manila folder hanging from her hand—her Brayshaw High paperwork.