Page 19 of The Sweetest Cruelty: Hudson (A Sawyer Brothers Story #1)

I kept the fact that I knew who he was to myself for now. Micah and I needed to monitor that one. Telling Harper not to do something would make her do the opposite. I hadn’t known her long, but I knew her type.

“He’s nice, actually,” she huffed, Harper’s eyes flicking to mine briefly. Did she know I knew of him, or was she expecting me to shut it down?

I remembered I’d tried that last time, and she’d yelled at me for interfering. It’s like none of us could do anything right. Hence the reason I said the girl was screwed up.

“Nice is the word you use to describe someone as dull as shit, Harper.”

“Oh, there’s nothing dull about the Creeds.”

Alarm bells went off in my head, did Harper know they were into dodgy shit and didn’t care? I glanced at Micah again, but he was on his cell phone, pretending not to listen.

Why was he ignoring me? Out of all of us, Micah always had a stash of weed at his disposal. Hopefully, he was careful who he bought his shit from.

Whatever. If I found out he’d been buying weed off those fuckers I’d nail his ass to the wall. I didn’t have an issue with Micah liking a smoke, but he needed to choose his suppliers more carefully.

“So, that’s why you’ve got a hard-on for the bowling alley. It’s all about a fucking boy.”

“So?” Harper’s cat-like eyes narrowed dangerously. Oh dear. Not good .

“So, you know what that’s called?” Phoenix was now manipulating the conversation into an area where he could cause her the most damage. If there was one thing our little foster sister craved, it was validation.

“Human nature?” she said with a shrug.

“I beg to differ, fucking desperation I would say,” my brother said nastily. On another day, I would have jumped in, but I was exhausted and still nursing my wounds after the Molly Miller shock of the century.

Harper’s nose was wrinkled, which caused her freckles to join up. “It’s not like that, he’s a friend. Boys and girls can be friends, you know. He’s a nice guy. Not that you’d know what that looks like, being a knuckle-dragging neanderthal.”

We all looked back and forth between them, Reed biting his lip to stop himself from smiling, Micah rapidly shovelling so much food in his mouth he looked like a hamster. Our little fiery sister had a point. Nix loved to throw his weight around for the girls.

The big man didn’t like her description of him one bit. Phoenix placed his elbows on the table and gave her a death stare, “Then you’re more na?ve than I thought. The only thing the boys at St. Andrew’s are interested in is the magic between your legs, baby girl.”

Nix purposefully added his nickname for her, one she hated . Harper shot to her feet, catching the tablecloth, rattling everything on the table. “You’re disgusting, and I hate you!” she yelled, her eyes clogged with tears. “Stay out of my life.”

There was a pinch of silence, and Reed omitted a nervous cough as Harper stormed from the room.

“That’s it, run away again. Fucking cry-baby,” the big guy fumed.

No one made eye contact with Nix. It was plain to see he was desperate to go after her, a muscle ticking dangerously in his jaw.

Grabbing his napkin, he dabbed his mouth, glanced towards the kitchen where Ma was and then went to stand.

“Leave it, Nix,” I mouthed. Encouraging him to stay put.

A small act of mercy for our new sister.

He rarely lost it, but Phoenix had a temper, and when he unleashed hell, you ran for the hills.

The linebacker had reduced Harper to tears regularly in such a short time.

I would have said that was fast work, but then they had a past.

Thankfully, the big guy did as I asked, albeit reluctantly. After a grunt towards the doorway Harper had escaped through, he started shovelling food into his mouth .

The silence stretched. “Save me from women and their PMS bullshit,” he muttered with his mouth full. I found it amusing that he took no blame for the fact that he was the one to push her buttons.

“Well, that went well,” Micah added into that awkward quiet.

Reed released a sigh of frustration, “Geez man, why don’t you just fuck her and get it out of your system?”

A guffaw circled the space at the ballsy comment. We were all thinking it, but saying that to Nix’s face was suicide. There was a sweepstake between my other brothers and me that Phoenix was waiting until after Harper’s sweet sixteenth. Then she’d be legal.

Nix leaned back in his seat, horrified. “She’s my sister?” His mouth and expression were at odds with each other.

I rolled my eyes. “And I’m your mother.”

We all laughed, apart from Nix, who scowled into his meal.

Ma chose that moment to return to the room, holding a serving spoon in one hand and a pan of gravy in the other. “What happened to Harper?”

My brothers and I turned and looked at Nix. He remained silent for a moment before suggesting, “Time of the month?”

Ma was the smartest woman I knew and didn’t buy it. Her face was a picture as she lowered herself into her seat. “You promised me that you’d make this work, Phoenix. That was the deal, remember?”

He shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I know and I will, I promise.”

“See that you do. It isn’t fair to the girl if this isn’t the right environment. Irrespective of your history together.”

Our brother just huffed and continued eating. Whatever was going on with Phoenix and Harper wasn’t going to end well, I could feel it.

After supper, we helped Ma wash up, and she went up for her bath, leaving me and my brothers to relax. When she was out of sight, we did what we usually did: hit the liquor cabinet and played Xbox.

As we passed around a freshly rolled blunt, I quizzed Micah on where he’d sourced his shit and he promised me it had nothing to do with the Creeds.

At around ten, I left them to it and went to my room to listen to some music .

“Night, Grandma,” Micah chuckled as he loaded the next video game .

“You guys can jerk off to GTA all night, but I have other plans.” That translated to getting myself off and listening to music.

Of course, my brothers knew me too well. “Yeah, we know. You’ve been off your game, bro. Anything to do with a teeny tiny blonde with nice tits and a good ass?”

Phoenix hit the jackpot. I had been out of sorts for the rest of the afternoon, and Molly Miller was to blame for that.

I didn’t answer them. “Night ladies. Keep it down.”

I was met with a mixture of grins and middle fingers.

Throwing myself onto my bed, I put my headphones on and stared at the ceiling, thinking of Molly Miller.

The fact that she was the principal’s daughter had been nagging at me all through dinner.

Maybe my whipped reaction to her in the library was because I was sexually frustrated.

I hadn’t had sex for a few weeks. Yeah, that must have been it.

While I was lost in thought, trying to calculate the last time I got off, my door opened, and Reed walked in. Yanking my headphones down and sitting up, I snapped. “Dude. Knocking is a thing you know?”

The fucker just smiled. “I did knock. The last thing I want to see is you jacking off to the new girl.”

Swinging my legs off the bed, I glared across at him. Unperturbed, Reed grabbed the chair tucked under my dresser, spun it around and sat on it backwards.

“Micah told me you have a hard-on for her already,” he smirked, placing his forearms on the backrest.

“What do you want Reed, because I know you’re not here to talk about pussy.” My brother remained silent, his face giving nothing away. Out of all of us, Reed was the best at hiding his emotions.

When he didn’t reply, I added. “If I’m wrong, by all means, let’s start by talking about Storm.”

That did it. His jaw started to tick. “What about her?”

“You got in her panties yet?”

Rubbing the back of his neck, Reed’s nostrils flared before he said. “No, I’m not here to talk about bitches. I’m worried about Micah.”

That got my attention. So was I. Micah had been acting shady ever since the Creed’s name came up at the dinner table.

He also appeared to be getting stoned most nights, which wasn’t clever with school the next day.

If we didn’t graduate this year, we wouldn’t have enough credits to get into college.

Reed and I spoke about Micah. We decided against chewing his ass out until we had a better understanding of where he was sourcing his gear.

I messaged my childhood friend Tommo. He’d dropped out of school last year and knew shit. He replied to say that he didn’t smoke anymore due to his girlfriend not approving. So, I knew Micah wasn’t buying from him or any of his contacts. I replied, teasing him about being wifed up.

After Reed left, I slung myself back onto my bed and lifted my headphones from my neck.

Angry rock music started to soothe my rough edges and I pushed my hand down the front of my joggers and squeezed my cock.

I then started to hatch a plan of all the ways I could mess with the principal’s hot daughter without allowing her to get to me.

My dick was like steel in my hand as I stroked myself.

I imagined her pouty lips wrapped around my cock as she took me deep.

My pathetic, lovestruck reaction to Molly Miller in the library had been fake. I hadn’t known who she was, and it felt like I’d been made to look a fool, and I didn’t allow anyone to do that to me. Not anymore.

The thought of punishing her, in several positions, caused me to blow my load within minutes.

Fuck! I grabbed a handful of tissues out of the drawer by my dresser and cleaned up.

Taking my hand off my cock, I then tucked it away in my joggers and retrieved my cell.

I had already started spreading rumours about the new girl on social media.

Cyberbullying was so easy, and little Molly had it coming.

Slut shaming was the best way to fuck with the girls as everything was about sex in high school.

The way her eyes had widened as she’d looked up at me at lunchtime had been a mixture of shock and fear, and I so got off on her fear.

Molly needed to worry about me. When I put my mind to it, I could make anyone’s life hell.

What threw more fuel onto the fire was that she had awakened that hidden part of me and made me feel . It was powerful and all-consuming and unwanted. Everyone knew that feelings made you weak.

And for that, she would have to pay the price. And then I started typing.