Page 12 of Wilder
Chase squirms until I set him down, then takes off after the ball, oblivious to the tension in the air.
With his nephew halfway across the yard, Davis uses it as an opportunity to step right up to my face and hiss out, “You’re upset I didn’t call you for a little prison chat? Well, which fuckin’ excuse do you want me to make first? The one about me not wanting a knownkillerto be around my nephew? Or”—he chuckles, a nasty sneer on his face—“the one where I didn’t want you anywhere near my underage sister you’d knocked up?” He grabs my shirt in his fists, then shoves me backward.
I huff out a rough chuckle, eyeing him. Motherfucker is lucky he caught me off guard with his words because he won’t get his hands on me by surprise like that again. My chest heaves as we stare each other down. “Too bad for you, I’m in her life now. And I don’t think there’s a word you could say that would change that. She’s mine. Always has been.”
Davis steps into my space again, his mouth twisting with displeasure. “Is that why you share her with your friends?” His chest rises and falls fast as his face flushes with anger. I stare atmy ex-friend, meanness flowing freely from him, and I know in my heart things will never be the same between us. He harbors all this hate for me, and it’s simply too much to overcome. The guy is a raging lunatic. Anytime the two of us are forced to interact, things get ugly, and fast. But dammit, I wish there was a hint of my best friend that still resides inside him. I look into his eyes, and all I see is hatred. He even stood by and watched as I was sentenced to prison. Never said a word in my defense. How did I become this pariah overnight, someone so bad he wouldn’t want to have any contact with? I know my part in the accident is why I was sent away, but was me, his friend, falling for his sister such a horrific crime?
My brow arches as I study him. He’s about to blow. Quietly, I grit out, “You really want to discuss this right here?” Apparently, all it takes is an amused twitch of my lips, and Davis snaps.
“You fucker!” he shouts, throwing himself at me, all pissed off and fists swinging.
“Whoa! What the—?” Wilder dashes from the house, Beckham hot on his heels. I can’t take my eyes off Davis because I know from the experience that’s exactly when the asshole will throw a punch at my face, but I can tell my friends have quickly assessed the situation. Thank fuck they’re here because Chase darts toward us with the soccer ball. I don’t want him to understand that his uncle has gone off the damn deep end or be upset by what’s transpiring in the backyard he plays in. Wrestling with Davis, I breathe a sigh of relief when in my peripheral vision I see Beckham intercept Chase and scoop him up like he’s playing a game of airplane with him. Wilder stands at the ready, trying to judge if he should step in. “You can go inside. I’m good. If this asshole wants to go a round with me, I’m happy to take him up on it.”
Wilder shakes his head, holding up his hands. “Have at it, but I’m not leaving.” I follow the path his eyes travel to Beckham, who has just opened the patio door with a squealing Chase.
“It’s okay, little man. We’re going to have a Goldfish snack. You like those little fishy crackers, don’t ya? I saw some swimming around in the pantry.”
“Yeah!” Chase cheers and claps, and I almost laugh at his excitement, but unfortunately, Davis chooses that moment to rear back, then plow his shoulder into my sternum. It results in me stumbling a few steps, and I quickly regroup, throwing him to the wayside. He scrambles around, charging at me, and I decide to lean into it.Fuck him.I wasn’t going to hurt him, but he clearly doesn’t have the same thought. I catch him, and we tussle with each other, his swings wild where mine are controlled. Knocking him solidly on the chin, his teeth clack together. It enrages him, and he manages to clip my jaw. It’s enough to make me taste blood, which pisses me right the fuck off.
“Where’d you sleep last night, you dick?” he growls out, his breath heaving from him.
I catch Wilder’soh, shitexpression out of the corner of my eye, and I huff out an irritated chuckle. “Fuck you. You know nothing.” I stop to spit blood, then give him a feral grin, taunting. I’m sure my teeth coated in red makes me looking fuckin’ scary. I shake my head, wondering where this will stop, but I finally grit out, “Asshole, I was on the floor in Chase’s room to make sure he was protected from whatever psychos are roaming about.”
“Doesn’t make up for the years you weren’t there.” He cocks his arm and jabs, but I dodge, even as the fury builds inside me.
“Maybe I could have been more involved if I had known, fucker. So, we’re right back to the same argument. Why thefuckdidn’t you tell me?” I roar the last bit, and Davis rushes at me.We go down hard, rolling on the grass. Expletives fly as fast as our fists.
“Oh! Oh my god! Stop!” Katrina’s voice is like a bucket of ice water being dumped over my head, memories of younger versions of ourselves in similar situations flooding my head, but unfortunately, it doesn’t stop Davis from trying to hit me. “Why aren’t you breaking this up?” She’s clearly addressing Wilder, though I’m focused on a struggling Davis who isn’t nearly as good on the ground as I am.
“Ma’am, no offense, but this was a long time coming.” I hear the approval in his voice as I slug Davis in the gut.
“Fuck,” he groans, gasping as air leaves his lungs.
I notice Rich motioning to his wife that she should take the kid inside as he’s gawking open-mouthed at the action. He’s the same young boy I’d seen in the family photo framed on Rich’s desk. She quickly corrals him and hurries into the house while Rich disappears from view. He’s not leaving, though. I assume he’s making his way from his backyard to ours and he’ll be here in three. Two. One.
And there he is, having let himself in through the gate at the side of the house. I don’t know what he thinks he’ll be able to do, and I sure as fuck can’t pay him much attention as I’ve finally maneuvered Davis into a headlock. “Fucking jailbird, get off me,” he wheezes, thrashing against me. He’ll figure out soon enough that his efforts will be for nothing. I’ve got him from behind, my legs locked around his torso with my elbow hooked at his neck. Slowly increasing pressure, I begin to close off his airway.
He tries to elbow me, to no avail. Finally, he taps at my arm, and the garbled sounds futilely coming from his mouth are likely words, but I don’t give a shit at the moment what he’s trying to say. Taking pity on him, I release my hold and shove him off me as Katrina comes into view, joining Rich. Her eyes are wide asshe takes in the two of us. We’re sweaty and dirty, and I wouldn’t give a fuck if he wanted to go a few more rounds. I’d happily show Davis who he’s dealing with.
But the jackass doesn’t seem up for it. He lies on the ground, desperately dragging in huge gulps of air.
I stand up, bracing my hands on my hips and facing my former foster parents. People I thought were always going to be there for me… until they weren’t. Their appearance isn’t helping a single fucking bit.
“What if Chase had seen the two of you fighting like this?” Rich takes a deep breath, then shakes his head, glancing at the house. Beckham peers through the window, but Echo, Chase, and Kara are out of sight.
I point at Davis, swiping the back of my hand over my forehead. “Talk to him about that. Chase and I were kicking a soccer ball untildickhead, here, decided to stick his nose in it and tell me how he feels about me being aroundmyson.”
My former foster parents exchange a look, but I no longer know them well enough to be certain what they’re thinking. Katrina hesitantly steps forward, reaching out to me as if she’s going to wipe my face. As if she’s going to act motherly toward me. “Royal, you’re bleeding.”
My heart clenches hard. Unable to handle the past hurts that are being dragged kicking and screaming to the surface, I take a step back, touching my tongue to the split in my lip where the warm blood oozes out, the metallic taste sharp in my mouth. “I’ll be fine.”
Seeing them again— I can’t.
“Honestly, what do you care?” I spit. “You want to know what a lot of the argument was about? The fact thatno onetold me I had a kid. Not Echo, not Davis, and certainly not the two of you. The people who were acting as my parents. I thought—” I clamp my mouth shut for a moment. It fuckin’ stings worse thanmy mouth does right now. “You didn’t even have the decency to help me during the trial. What the fuck was up with that? Would you have abandoned a biological child the same way?” I shake my head and back up another step. Fucked if I’ll allow them to see any more of the scars they’ve left me to deal with. It feels like bearing my soul to people who didn’t give a shit. If they weren’t there to help then, they sure as fuck don’t have the right to see me lose it now.
Rich sighs heavily, seeing the effect my words are having on his wife. He puts a hand on her shoulder, drawing her close. Reaching a hand up, Katrina delicately touches a few fingers to the corner of one eye. “Royal, we felt so guilty about how everything went down, we didn’t think you’d want to hear from us.”
“You could have made one little phone call to tell me the Maddens had moved away.” I pin a hard stare on both of them. “Go ahead, tell me you didn’t know Echo had a baby. Explain why I was getting no communication fromanyone.I was alone.” Those last words are so fucking painful, I wish I could take them back. That’s impossible, and I realize as soon as I let them leave my mouth that they were like bullets to the hearts of these two people standing before me.
