Page 133 of Crew Princess
He touched my shirt, tugging me behind him. “Come on.”
I resisted. “Drake, what are you doing here?”
“I just want to talk. That’s all. I’m not here to hurt you. I’m not here to threaten, to play games. It’s over, Bren. All of it is over.”
A spark shone bright from his eyes. Finally. He was here, the Drake I used to know. He’d been masked this whole time, but he was staring back at me, albeit bleakly, but he was there.
“Okay.” I heard myself agreeing. “Where?”
Torment flashed for a second. “I want you to take me to your spot. You never let me go with you, and I know you’ve taken Cross. One night. One last night.”
I still wavered. That was my spot. “Why?”
“Because I’m going to tell you everything, so you gotta give me something. You kept it from me all the time we were together. One last time, show me… Please.”
Thepleasedid me in. My throat was raw. “Fine.” I moved around him. “But I’m driving.”
I caught motion behind me. He raised his arms in the air, his head falling back. “Fine. Yes. You drive. Such a hard bargain.”
I rolled my eyes. “Guess whatever was going on really is done. You’re back to pissing me off.”
He grunted, following me out the door. “You don’t say. You’ve always pissed me off.” I caught his grin, unable to stop myself from joining him.
After we got to the woods and parked, I snuck looks at him as we walked. He was coming along quietly. Not a peep from him since we left the house, and as he fell in step behind me, his hands in his pockets, his head down, he looked amenable.
Was it that? Or was my first thought right?Defeated.
“This is it? Where you always used to disappear to?” He stepped around me, coming into my clearing. There was a bottle of whiskey hidden underneath some brush, along with a carefully wrapped blanket, but I wasn’t pulling that out. That was for Cross.
I sat down, pulling my knees up to my chest, and I waited for him to sit beside me. He did, leaving a respectable distance between us. He mirrored my position for a moment, then let his legs stretch out. He leaned back, resting on his hands behind him.
That’s when he saw. “Hollllleeee….” His mouth parted. “This is where you’d go? To watch your old house?”
I lifted a shoulder. No way was I sharing why.
He cursed under his breath, looping his hands around his knee. “I was so fucking jealous of Shaw. He knew where you went, and he never told me. That fucker.” He grunted, wincing. “I knew you two would get together the second I was out of the picture. Always too close. Wasn’t natural unless one of you is gay or you’re siblings. And you’re neither.”
“You told Race to try to date me.”
I scowled. He laughed.
“I did. Alex reported the fallout. That was awesome. It was worth it, too.” He watched me, his head tipped back. “Any way I can mess with Shaw, I’m taking it. Still. To this day. Little fuck. I never had a chance with you, not really.”
Maybe. Probably.“We were good, until you left.”
“No, we weren’t,” he said. “You just hadn’t woken up yet about Shaw. I knew you would. Me leaving wasn’t about you, but it was perfect timing. You and Cross, you guys were inevitable. I knew it. Everyone knew it. Even your crewmates. They knew it too.” He paused a beat. “And speaking of, how’d they take it? I know you guys had that ‘no dating’ rule in your crew. I’m sure they must’ve been pissed.”
I thought back to when Jordan had found us. Being mad was the last thing on his mind.
“Jordan found out the same day we took your brother to the hospital to get his stomach pumped.”
Drake’s smirk vanished. “Oh.”
Now I watched him. “Do you care?”
His nostrils flared. “Do I care that you guys saved my little brother’s life? Goddamn. What kind of monster do you actually think I am?”
Fine. Let’s get into this.
