Page 45 of Study Games

16

JAX

My waking hours merged into a semblance of starlight and rising suns one after the other. By the time we pulled up in front of my father's house – the ostentatious Romanesque mansion was never what I ever considered a home – I stared at the line of European pasta rockets through likely bloodshot eyes.

Crush didn't look much better than me, sleeping sitting up on the drive from the east to the west of the state after an already sleepless night. He gestured to me in a slightly defeated motion.

“We’re here,” he said in a monotone.

“We are.” I held my breath and killed the ignition, flexing stiff hands on the leather steering wheel. Behind us, Cooper and Valen groaned as they woke up from my driving stint, cramped in the backseat.

I shoved my way out of the sports car while Crush unfolded himself with a too-easy grace I envied, still feeling everyone of my bruises.

“Let's get this done. Then we can fuck home,” Valen muttered from the backseat.

Neither of them commented for the entire drive about the scent of my blood soaked into the seat. The in itself spoke about the seriousness of this mission.

I should’ve snorted my derision. But the chances of any of us walking out of this unscathed with my father and control was unlikely.

How he would memorize each emotion I couldn't control flitting across my face before I learned to kill them the way I killed the car seconds ago. Become the blank, unaffected toy, unplayed with unless I gave him something he wanted. Something to punish me for what I gave away.

I learned early in life to give my father what he expected from me, not my real truths. And then I could get on with doing whatever I wanted in my life. He thought he’d won, and then he left me the fuck alone.

An echo of the precious sentiment a moment before.

“Let's do it.” I kicked the door to the coupe shut.

Crush groaned on the opposite side of the car. “Gentle,” he revoked me.

“I'll get you a new one.”

“I like this one,” he protested. “I don't go around graffiting shit like you usually do, destroying stuff.”

I braced my arms over the top of his car, coming up just below nipple level with my teeth bared, unsure where the fresh burst energy came from. Pain split along my spine, and I wondered how many stitches I just busted with that move. The back of my mouth tasted metallic but I didn't get a fresh surge of blood, just manic energy. I didn't waste it on the wrong person.

“I don't care if I'm going alone. One of us will need the police or an ambulance before I'm done.”

His shoulders settled into a straight line as he considered me with a strategic outlook. “Him or you?”

THe tension in my back relaxed. This is not my enemy.

“Jury’s still out.”

I led the way stiffly up the path, my body aching with every step in every muscle group. The twins really had worked their stresses out on my body. I was just glad they hadn't gotten their hands on Waverly.

Who knew what that would've looked like after the way I saw Cash playing with her like she was their personal toy on an unboxing video. Actually, I had a fine idea of what that sort of punishment in their eyes might look like.

Instead, she had been sold to the worst of the worst.

What does that make me?

Swallowing hard at the thought of her seated beside my father at his debaucherous table and determined to ensure I got to him before he took her, I concentrated on putting one foot in front of the other as I approached the doors. Golden and guilt like they’d been pulled straight from some eighties’ porn flick.

I didn't look at either side of the waiting doormen to push open the display of wealth and power that was my father all over.

Except for me. I could never understand his need for control over everything around him.

Hopefully I was the wildcard at her back, but freeing her would cost me a whole lot more than two hundred thousand.

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