Page 60 of What I Should Have Known

He stumbled backward, crashing over a rock and slamming down into the river. Water splashed around him as his face paled.

Not a sound cracked through the air between us. Tension slithered around the cords tethering us to this world. The words hung heavy in theatmosphere, a truth shared in a way that I somehow knew shifted the sails of my life.

Grinning wickedly, I waded toward him and offered him a hand. “A week. You have a week to tell your parents before I decide what happens and how the news is broken. Don’t worry, though. I’ll protect Kat no matter what happens, I promise,” I stated, breaking the suspense coiling between us but not denying something I wondered if I’d tear free of.

A shaky hand broke the water. “That’s all I ask,” Sawyer replied and slapped his palm into mine. “She deserves better than Wyatt, so don’t fuck with her, okay?” I helped hoist him to his feet and he plunked upright in front of me, shaking the water from his waders.

I paused. “Did you not hear what I said?”

He slowly nodded, rolling his shoulders as a strange aura of confidence washed over him. “Yes, I did,” he stated. “Whatever you think you are, Kat clearly sees something different and, no hate to you, but she’s a really good judge of character, so I’m gonna trust her gut on this.”

I watched him slowly find his way toward the bank. I wasn’t sure what to think. I wasn’t sure what Kat was thinking. She’d seen more of me, learned more about me than anyone else and yet, she hadn’t run away.

“Will you let her know I’ve gone home?” I called out, finally urging my feet forward to follow.

He paused and left his back facing me. “Why can’t you tell her?”

Because she was fucking right.

I was the one getting attached, and the longer I stayed, the harder it would be for me to leave when I needed to. And starting now I neededto back away for a bit because if Wyatt was already suspicious, that could escalate things to the point where her life would be on the line.

He sighed before I had a chance to answer. “Yeah, I’ll tell her.” Then he placed a boot on the bank and sloshed out of the river.

I’d snatch Muffin without a word, without a sound, and disappear back into town before she realized I was gone. Drowning myself into figuring out who those guys with Wyatt last night were, what gang they belonged to was the first in a long list of what I needed to do to protect Kat. Because the more I knew about Wyatt and what he was involved in, the easier it would be for me to keep her out of it. But, more importantly, making myself busy, staying wrapped up in work would shelter me from the fact that with the promise I’d made Sawyer, came a weighted realization that I wanted to destroy Wyatt for selfish reasons too.

Because I wanted her. I wanted somethingrealwith her. Even if I wasn’t much better than Wyatt, I was damn sure going to try and make sure that I treated her exactly how she wanted.

For fuck’s sake.

“Tell your parents, Sawyer, before it’s too late,” I admonished once more before he disappeared entirely.

Shaking my head, I hoisted myself out of the water, accepting that what I should have known was exactly what I told her to not do—that she couldn’t get her hopes up. But I already had; already wanted someone who, at one point, certainly hated me, but now… At least now she tolerated me, kissed me, but accepted I wasn’t offering more than that.

Until now.

And she would eventually destroy me because of that, one way or another.

Chapter 20

BERNIE

Stuffing my phone into my sweatpants pocket, I bounded quietly down the carpeted stairs that spit me out into the dining room. Orange, hardwood floors, scratched from years of wear before my mom bought the house slid beneath my socks as I padded around the table and crossed between the kitchen island and cabinets along the wall. A large window at the end of the room let in bright light from the late morning sun. The rays glinted off of the newly updated granite countertops that were a little too white in my opinion for the still outdated design of the rest of the house.

“Where’s Mom?” I asked, opening the fridge and grabbing some milk.

Raiden leaned his head backward against the green couch facing the television as another set of footsteps crashed into the kitchen.

“Late for work,” our mom frantically said.

“And why is he not at school? It’s Tuesday, isn’t it?” I asked her, plopping the gallon down on the kitchen island and glancing to my left toget a better look at my brother. The worn, mahogany carpet in the family room needed a good vacuum as Matrix wagged his tail and jumped up onto the couch beside Raiden. Muffin’s barely audible paws bumped down the stairs, disappearing into the half bathroom near the front door.

“It’s a holiday. Teacher prep day or something,” he answered as Mom snatched an orange from the fruit basket on the kitchen island.

“So, if it’s a holiday, why as a teenager are you up so fucking early?”

He rolled his eyes, running a hand over his dog who panted as he laid down in Raiden’s lap. “It’s like ten in the morning, dumbass. You’re the one that slept in.”

“I wasn’t asleep.” I pushed off the counter and turned around, rifling through the cupboards to find where Mom stored the cereal boxes since they were no longer above the fridge.

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