Page 79 of Bound by Wreckage
“Not gonna sugar coat it for ya. So yeah, we’re pissed. Pissed that my boy didn’t call his brothers and get them to back them up.”
I cut her off, needing her to hear me. “That was my fault too. I begged him not to, and Ishouldn’t have done that either.”
“He told me that, but we at Ravage stand by one another through thick and thin. Know you haven’t had that, so you wouldn’t know. That’s on Nox’s shoulders, not yours.”
“If I wouldn’t have called him to come and get me, none of this would’ve happened.”
Princess gets up from the picnic table and makes her way over to me. My heart stays steadyand my breaths calm. No matter what she does to me, it will never match the pain inside of me.
“I’ve raised my boys into men. Men who protect. Men who follow their gut. Men who respect. If my boy wouldn’t have come and got you out of that shithole when you called, I would’ve beat the shit out of him. But Nox being Nox, he did. He took you away from that hell. What he should’ve done wasbring you here, but went a different way. That’s on him, not you.”
“It is on me, Princess. I’m sorry, but I need to go.” Her words cut through me, slicing me deep. All of it. Nox doesn’t need to take the fall for my actions. I just need to get out of here and get to the park.
“My boy cares about you. Deeply. And you takin’ off in the dead of night isn’t going to help him. He haswork that needs to be done right now because Dagger needs justice. You runnin’ out is going to take his focus away.” She pauses and this time when she stares at me, it feels as if she’s pulling every emotion out of me. That’s when I see it. She gets me. Gets why I’m leaving. What I’m going to do once I get out of here. She sees me down to my blackened soul. I say nothing.
“That isn’t goingto solve a damn thing. You think being here is gonna crush Nox? No, youleavingis going to crush him. This shit right now is deep. So deep my boys are gonna be sinkin’ for a while. You leavin’ is gonna add to that, and I can’t let that happen.”
I lose it. Not in an angry, screaming, going after her way, but in a completely and totally emotional way never to recover way. Tears fall frommy eyes as sobs rack my body, filling the dark sky. My knees give out, landing on the hard ground. All the pain comes pouring out of me and onto the cold damp with dew ground.
I’ve been broken more times that I can count, but this right here—this is the worst. The kind that you can’t come back from. That sears you inside and pulls you down, suffocating you until your last breath.
Arms wrap around me, and my body tenses. Compassionate touches for me have been far and few between. Sharon loved giving it, and I got used to her. But Princess?
Looking over my shoulder, her face is very close to mine as she parks her ass on the ground beside me. “Why?” I ask, not really knowing what I’m looking for, but needing something to grasp on to.
“Because once you’re at yourlowest, the only way to go is up from here.”
I’m not sure I can do that. Especially if Nox looks at me the way he did before.
