Page 68 of Break You

My words just seemed to add fuel to the fire of his rage.

“You can say that from the privileged position of your comfortable life—the staff, the school, cars, horses, boats, vacations—all of that shit. If you’d lived the way I have, done the things I’ve had to do to survive, you wouldn’t be singing the same tune, trust me.”

I threw my head back and laughed. “I hope you mean that figuratively. In reality, I don’t trust you any more than I trust our shared sperm donor. The more I think about it, the more I realize you’re just like him. Seriously, you’re welcome to each other. I hope you both have a nice fucking life.” I didn’t think that even the dimmest of Pixie’s goon’s would have missed the heavy current of sarcasm running through my words.

“Okay, so as faulty as the logic is—and trust me, I think it’s 150 percent off-key—I can kind of see where you were going with all this ‘Thor vs Loki’ bullshit, but what’s still not making any kind of sense is what all of this has to do with my fees.”

The two of us stared Pixie down. He did the neck thing again, then looked at Rocky.

“So, like I said, I found out about Father Dearest a few years ago, and recruited the little prince, and that was kind of it. What else was I going to do as a grown ass man, start going on family picnics with the guy? Besides which, he was totally disinterested, anyway.”

“Sounds about right.”

Pixie’s eyes flicked to me, then back to Rocky.

“Then it was time for you to apply for colleges, and as far as I was concerned, you were robbed for the full ride to Heathcote, even though you had the grades and a flawless academic record. I wasn’t just going to stand by and watch your dream fall into the gutter like every other stinking thing in our lives.”

“But, Heathcote isn’t the only college in the country. I had other offers, scholarships, even. There were other places I could have gone.”

“Do you think I’m an idiot?” I hoped she wouldn’t answer. I figured he wouldn’t like the response. “I knew all that. I knew you’d make the best of wherever you ended up, and be happy, because that’s you. You pull yourself up again and again, and just get the fuck on with life, no matter what bullshit comes your way.

“I also knew that you’d worked your ass off, because you wanted to go there. It was your dream, and for once, I wanted you to get your fucking dream. I wanted you to have what you’d worked for, and what you deserved. So, I cashed in my chips with the billionaire to make it happen for you. At the end of the day, I’m your big brother, and since you wouldn’t ever take any money, because of the way it was earned, I figured this would make up for all the shit you ever had from me.”

“And what exactly did you say to the human ATM to get him to pay my full fees for four years?”

Pixie shrugged nonchalantly. “I just told him that I’d tell the world that I existed, and how he did wrong by Mom, which was ultimately the thing that fucked up her life and mine. How we were in and out of CPS, how I was on the streets, got in with the wrong people, and all because of him. The press would have eaten that shit up—would have made a great CBS special, too. I could have made a fortune from selling my story.”

“So, you blackmailed him?”

“Well if you want to look at it like that, I suppose—”

“It’s not only how I look at it, but how the law looks at it, you fucking knucklehead.”

A smile pulled at the corner of my lips. Pixie might have been tough as fuck every day of his life, and had probably done some shit that would traumatize the rest of us, but you’d better believe that when his sister was pissed off with him, he looked like a kicked puppy.

“So, let me get this straight. My entire life I’ve refused to benefit from the proceeds of drug dealing, but you, in your infinite fucking wisdom, thought that I would be okay with my education being paid for with the proceeds of extortion. Is that an accurate summation of your ‘thought’ process, you big dumb fuck?”

I could only guess by the way he was staring at his tacky designer monogrammed loafers, that the answer was yes.

Rocky

For the first time, I really understood what the phrase “blind rage” meant. I was so angry with Pete, that I momentarily couldn’t see, think, or feel. Everything went blank for a second, and when I came to, it was only the sound of flesh on flesh that alerted me to the fact that I’d slapped him around the face, but the realization wasn’t enough to prompt me to stop.

I kept flailing at him, dimly aware that he wasn’t even attempting to push me away or dodge my blows—until I was gripped from behind by a large pair of arms which clamped mine to my sides—and lifted me away. I knew instantly it was Xavier, and not just because of the erection pushing into my back. I was startled by how familiar and welcome his body was to mine.

“You’re gonna wanna learn to keep your woman in check in future—and I’m not just talking about with me. She’s a fucking handful, and she’s liable to get the both of you in trouble with that mouth of hers, so good luck.”

“Fuck you. And again, I’m not his woman, or his girl, or his girlfriend for that matter.”

“You can keep telling yourself that, but that sickening display you put us all through before says otherwise.”

Ugh. I really wished Xavier hadn’t pulled me off him. I still had plenty more sense to slap into him.

Xavier spoke from behind me, lowering his mouth to my ear, though ostensibly speaking to what I now knew to be our brother. “She most definitely is my woman, girl and girlfriend, but if you think there’s any controlling her ever, then you’re either totally deluded, more stupid than I gave you credit for, or you don’t know her half as well as you think you do.”

There was a loaded silence before Pete burst out laughing. Loud, hard, raucous peals of laughter ricocheted around the warehouse from all angles. The rest of us stared at him as though he’d lost his mind, which was a reasonable conclusion to draw under the circumstances—the circumstances in question being that he was acting like he’d lost his goddamned mind.

When Pete had regained his composure a little, he spoke again through tears of mirth. “You know, I spent all that time and energy on twisted plans for revenge on you. I shoulda just set you up with Rocky in the first place. Worse than any torture I could come up with.”

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