Page 19

Jordan

W hen I wake up in the morning, I’m not really surprised to find that Sutton isn’t in bed with me. I think she was awake half the night, tossing and turning beside me. I didn’t sleep much, either. I was too worried about her.

My worry only grows when I search upstairs and down, but don’t find her.

Christ, did she leave me? Decide she couldn’t do this? Just fucking…walk away in the middle of the night?

I dial her number, my throat threatening to close up on me. But she either has it turned off or she blocked me. My call goes straight to voicemail.

My hands shake as I type out a text.

Me: Where are you, princess?

I don’t think I breathe at all, praying for a response.

I don’t get one.

“Jesus Christ,” I mutter, on the verge of panicking as I toss on a pair of sweats and shove my feet into my shoes, determined to go hunt her down. To beg her not to do this if that’s what it takes. I need her to talk to me, to tell me what’s in her head.

Someone pounds on the front door while I’m hurrying down the hall. I nearly choke on a fucking sob, I’m so relieved. She didn’t just walk out. She came back.

I take the stairs two at a time, clearing the bottom landing. I damn near fall into the door as I yank it open. “Princess, you’re…”

I rear back, shocked when I don’t find her on the other side as expected.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I snarl at her brother, who is staring at me with wild eyes. He looks like shit. There are dark circles under his eyes, and his hair is a mess. He’s certainly not the same motherfucker who threatened me a little over a week ago.

“Where is my sister, you prick?” he growls, and I smell the alcohol on his breath.

“Get the fuck off my property before I drag you off.” How the fuck does he even know where I live? I just bought this place a few months ago.

“Fuck you.” He shoves me into the wall…and I fucking snap on him.

I’m so sick of him and his lies. I’m sick of every tear Sutton has shed because of him…

and every single one I know is still coming.

He’s broken so much. And for what? Jealousy?

Because he couldn’t just man the fuck up and ask me if I had a thing for his girlfriend? Or ask her if she had a thing for me?

It's so damn stupid, so senseless. He ruined everything and everyone around him, simply because he couldn’t face the possibility that she just didn’t like the guy he was turning into.

Instead of fixing himself, he destroyed everything, sending it fucking crumbling like the walls of Jericho.

But he wasn’t on some mission from God. The only person responsible for the destruction he wrought… is him.

I crank my fist back, plowing it into his jaw. His head snaps back, and he stumbles before regaining his balance. “Get the fuck off my property, Peters. I’m not fucking around with you.”

He roars a curse and charges at me, knocking me onto my ass in the foyer. He goes down with me, landing half on top of me.

“Stay away from my sister,” he snarls, taking a wild swing at me.

“You don’t get to tell me what to do,” I snap, bucking him off before elbowing him in the ribcage. I jump to my feet, spinning to face him. “You’ve already taken enough from me. You aren’t taking her again, too.”

“She’s my sister!” he shouts, swinging at me again.

I dodge it, refusing to do this shit with him now. I’ve been down that road. I know where it leads and what it costs. I won’t lose everything because of him again. “Then respect her decision, you fucking prick.”

He charges at me again, bellowing like an enraged bull.

“Stop it, Jamison!” Sutton screams from behind him, her voice shrill. “Just stop it!”

She’s here. She came back.

I barely have time to wrap my head around that before her brother comes at me again. He has no interest in hearing what she has to say right now. He’s too fucking busy blaming me for his failures. Again.

He swings at me again, and I shove him away. He damn near collides with Sutton, which has my blood boiling.

“I swear to God, if she gets hurt because you won’t settle down, I will kill you,” I growl, shoving him up against the wall with my arm across his throat.

He tries to fight me off, but I have something to fight for.

He’s already fucked up everything he had.

He’s no match for me. Just like he wasn’t back then.

Sutton stomps across the foyer like a pissed off, avenging angel, all curves and fury. Her eyes blaze as she steps up beside me, quivering with rage.

“You asshole!” she cries, jabbing her brother in the stomach with her finger. “Why are you here?” She smells the alcohol on his breath and practically chokes on her tongue. “Are you drunk right now?”

“Easy, princess,” I murmur, but she’s just as pissed as he is.

More, maybe. She doesn’t want to be calmed down or mollified.

She wants to kick his ass. Part of me wants to let her.

Christ, she’s sexy as hell right now, wearing one of my t-shirts tied up around her waist and a tiny pair of shorts, rage crackling around her. But I won’t let her be hurt.

Once upon a time, I never would have believed Jamison could hurt her. But he proved me wrong. Over and over again. Some wounds hurt more than physical blows. Some damage heals a helluva lot slower than bruises. And some doesn’t heal at all. It just scabs over, breaking and bleeding again and again.

That’s what he did to her. Hell, it’s what he did to me, too.

It’d be so easy to keep hating him for it.

It’s what he deserves. But…it’s not what either of us deserves.

We did our time in hell. We paid for our misplaced trust and kept secrets.

I don’t want to keep paying for the rest of my life.

I don’t want those wounds to keep festering and bleeding.

And I damn sure don’t want it for her, either.

“He’s only with you to piss me off, Sutton,” Jamison growls at her. “Why can’t you see that?”

“Because it’s bullshit.” I release him with a growl and wrap an arm around her waist, pulling her out of the way just in case he decides he isn’t done trying to fight yet. “I’m in love with her, the same way I’ve always been in love with her.”

“Right,” he snorts.

I shake my head at him, irritated. “Christ, man. You were so wrapped up in your own little delusions that you didn’t see what was right in front of your face.

And I tried like hell to keep my distance back then because I knew she was too fucking young for me.

I tried to ignore the way I felt out of respect for you and our friendship, but you killed that friendship the minute you did what you did.

I don’t owe you a fucking thing anymore, certainly not a justification for why I’m with your sister. ”

“Neither do I,” Sutton says, leaning into me. “You’ve done enough damage, Jamison. I don’t know how I’m ever supposed to forgive you for it.”

For the first time, he actually looks nervous. Afraid, even. “He told you.”

“Yeah, I told her,” I say, willing to own my shit even if he can’t.

“Because you hate me,” he says as if I’m just proving him right.

“No, because I’m fucking done hating you,” I say. “I spent years hating you, but I’m just fucking done with it now. I don’t give a shit about you. I stopped giving a shit the minute I realized who you really are. I care about her. She matters to me.”

“Then why wait until now to tell her? If you cared so goddamn much, why not tell her long ago and run off into the sunset together?” he sneers.

“I didn’t want her to spend the rest of her life knowing what you were capable of,” I mutter.

“I wanted her to go on believing that the brother she idolized was worthy of it. But I’m done making decisions for her, man.

I won’t have this shit hanging over us for, pulling us apart, the rest of our lives.

You took everything from me that mattered once.

I’m not letting you do it again by keeping my fucking mouth shut when it matters now. ”

“You didn’t just ruin his life,” Sutton whispers.

“You ruined mine, too, Jamison. I believed you. I trusted you. And the whole thing was a lie. I spent years thinking he was in love with Vanessa. I never got over it. I never moved on. I was just…broken. Do you have any idea how it feels to wake up every single day and feel like you’re in hell?

To feel like you have nothing and no one?

You did that to me because you took everyone from me. ”

He hangs his head, not saying anything.

“And Vanessa?” Sutton growls at him, jabbing him in the stomach again.

“How could you?” she cries quietly. “That girl loved you. She would have done anything for you! And you recorded her and showed your teammates?” She stares at her brother like she’s seeing him for the first time and doesn’t like what she’s seeing at all.

“You destroyed her, and this whole time, you let me believe she shut me out because she was in love with your best friend. How am I ever supposed to look at you the same again? How am I supposed to forgive you?”

Jamison stumbles back against the wall, his face paling. Neither of us tries to help him as he slowly slides down it, landing on his ass with his head in his hands. “I’m sorry,” he whispers, his big body shuddering. “Christ, I fucking hate myself for what I did.”

“Good,” I grunt, not willing to take it easy on him. Fuck that. “You should hate yourself for what you did. It should haunt you.”

“You think I don’t know that?” he asks, staring up at me through bleary eyes.

“You think it doesn’t eat at me? I couldn’t fucking keep lying to her, so I told her what I’d done.

She walked out on me. Threatened to go to the police if I ever came near her again.

” His gaze flickers to Sutton. “Said she’d tell you what I did if I even thought about contacting her. ”

“I wish she had told me,” Sutton says quietly.

“I never wanted you to know. I never wanted you to look at me like you are right now.”