Page 19 of Revenge (Elite of Elmwood 3)

Chapter Six

My phone buzzed seconds after I slid the Jeep into a parking spot outside of Lazy Ray’s, a bar and pizza joint that wasn’t too far from the Academy. The tears had dried up, but that empty aching feeling lingered inside my gut, and I was glad that I decided to hunt for a part-time job after revealing my family’s deep dark secret. It was fucking weird. I didn’t know what to call them anymore. Just who were Eaton and Angie to me now? Was I expected to stop referring to them as my mom and dad? Was it okay to still refer to them as family? Or at least Easton, because let's be real, I’d stopped thinking of Angie that way long before I found out she wasn’t my mother.

Maybe I should hit a bookstore on the way home and see if there were any books on infant kidnap victims. But really, I probably should ask for professional help. Kenna had. There was no shame in asking for help, so why did I only joke about it? Why didn’t I seek out ways to cope with all this stress and shit in my life?

What I needed right now was a fucking distraction. My mind went immediately to Brock. Not the type of distraction I had in mind, but Brock and sex seemed to always come together right when the other person needed to forget the fucking world.

Turning off the engine, I reached for my phone in the cup holder. It rang before my fingers even touched it. Brock’s name splashed over the screen.

This was what I was talking about. It was like he knew. How fucking eerie.

I hit the button to accept the call, putting it on speaker. “What do you want, Taylor?” I answered. A part of me was annoyed with him. It was irrational to be jealous that he spent most of the day hovering over Kenna, but if I was being honest with myself, which was what I was trying to do, I had been jealous. I’d seen him for a total of five minutes. Not that I needed all his attention all day, but sometimes it felt like I had more of a relationship with Micah or Fynn than I did with Brock—at least at school.

“Where are you?” his deep, sexy voice asked from the other end of the phone, sending a flutter of butterflies whirling inside my belly.

A glance at the dash told me that his football practice after school had ended forty minutes ago. I lifted my gaze and stared at the now hiring sign that sat in the window of Lazy Ray’s. “I went to see my dad,” I replied.

“Grayson told me. You shouldn’t have gone alone.” He sounded irritated.

“I’m fine. Anyway, weren’t you busy with Kenna? How is she?” I quickly added, to cover up how jealous that first question sounded. Brock and I hadn’t had much time to talk during school today, and I understood why. Grayson was his friend. So was Kenna. It was only obvious he would protect them, this being Kenna’s first day back.

I’m sure by the end of the week, things would mellow and return to a semblance of normal. Then again, the only normal I’d known at the Academy was chaos. I’m not sure that was where I wanted to return. It would be nice for once if things quieted down. I’d even take boring for a while.

But that didn’t seem to be likely. Not with Ava and Carter still at school, and now Kenna back…

If only I could shake this weird feeling in the pit of my stomach that something horrible was on the horizon. I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know when it would strike. Only that it was coming.

He didn’t say anything for a moment, like he was dissecting my every word and analyzing my voice. I’d bet Angie’s stash of vodka bottles that Brock was smiling on the other end of the line. “I don’t want to talk about your sister,” he finally said.

My lips twitched at the annoyed bossiness of his tone. “Okay. Is this your way of telling me that you miss me?”

“I want to see you,” he stated.

“I can’t. I’m busy. I have homework and shit.”

“Firefly,” he growled. “If you are that busy, then why are you sitting in front of a shithole pizza pub in Grayson’s Jeep?”

How the fuck?

I whirled my gaze over my shoulder, staring out the window, and then to the other side, looking for Brock’s SUV. There was no Land Rover in sight. Other than the Jeep, only a handful of cars were in the parking lot. It was still early for the dinner rush, not that this place had people lining up to get inside. My eyes narrowed on a sleek Town Car with completely blacked-out windows. It looked like something the FBI would drive, or a private investigator. “Are you fucking having me tailed?”

“You can’t be surprised. Not after all the shit you get into.” He didn’t deny it. The man had no shame.

I rolled my eyes. “What. The. Actual. Hell, Taylor. Girlfriend or not, you don’t get to spy on me just because you feel like it. I don’t like being followed.”

“And I don’t like seeing you covered in bruises. Deal with it,” he barked back.

I huffed. “You’re impossible.” As soon as we hung up, I had every intention of going over to whomever Brock had hired and telling them to get lost. “I’m still busy.”

“Come over,” he ordered.

“I can’t,” I insisted, sticking to my original plan. I needed money, which meant I needed a job, even a sucky one in a run-down pizza bar.

“Fine, then I’ll come over.”

God, he was relentless. “Brock,” I groaned. “I can’t just bring a guy over to the Edwards’. It would be too weird.”

“I’m not just any guy,” he reminded me. “I practically grew up at their house. You have your own room, don’t you? Grayson told me Liana was helping you decorate it.”

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