Page 96 of Suck This

“Who cleans this shit up?” he asked.

I shrugged. “I think we have housekeepers.”

He looked at me like I was nuts. “You think?”

I nodded.

“How do they get here? Because I’ve not seen any housekeepers yet. I see the girls, Fox’s, cleaning the kitchen. What I don’t see, though, is any housekeepers.” He walked to the side wall where there was a wall of mirrors and stared at himself. “I’m already gaining weight. I need some sort of workout routine, and every person I’ve asked refuses to spar with me.”

“Ask your sister,” I suggested.

He looked at me.

“Have you seen my sister throw a punch?” he asked.

“No.” I shook my head. “But she’s a vampire now. One that has super-duper control, like you said, and a lot of time on her hands. Teach her how to fight.”

His mouth dropped open.

“Would you let me punch my sister?” he questioned me.

The thought of him punching Acadia in any way had my fangs descending.

“That’s what I thought.” Corbin laughed. “But I will teach her how to fight. Though, I suggest you help her with that, too. There’s only so much that the hardheaded woman listens to from me. We get more out of it if Nash is the one to teach her. When she was sixteen, the only person that was able to teach her how to drive without pulling their hair out was Nash. Not even my mother could help her.”

My mouth twitched.

“When she was in the hospital after the accident…” He cleared his throat. “It was bad. We couldn’t get her to snap out of it at all. Nash, however, figured out how to get through the wall she put up, and brought her out of that dark, bottomless pit she was in. Got her back on her feet. To school. I’ve always just been an irritation to her.”

The moment that those words came out of Corbin’s mouth, I realized that I’d never asked her about the child. How she’d lost it.

“She’s never told you about the baby, has she?”

I shook my head. Not because I didn’t know, but because it was none of his business whether she told me or not.

Corbin nodded once, assuming what he would. “Yeah. That sounds like her. I think she might tell you, though.” He looked at me with concern filling his eyes. “You might be the one and only person that might understand her pain at this point.”

With that, he left, but not without giving me a look that was clear and precise.

Don’t hurt her, it said.

I grimaced.

The problem with not hurting her? That wasn’t possible. I’d already hurt her. I just hadn’t meant to.