Page 9 of Charming Cruel Boys

“Can’t wait,” I mutter sarcastically and George barks a laugh while Sara flips me off lovingly.

6

Knight

Afterschool,Igostraight to football practice. It’s hell week, since half the team was away on vacation this summer, so Coach Saxon is really putting us through it. Pain ricochets up my left side as I get tackled to the ground. I grunt as my body collides with the turf and a heavy motherfucker lands on top of me.Ah, sweet bliss.Football is about the only time I can let all my aggression out and not get reprimanded for it.

I started playing in middle school and never looked back. I feel like myself on the field, even when my whole life is turning to shit. And it looks better to tackle some asshole out here than it does if I start throwing punches in the school hallway.

“Sorry, man. You okay?” Sawyer asks as he hops to his feet and offers me his hand.

Taking it, I say, “Yeah, all good.” I shake out my muscles and get in position to run the play again. I can handle the physical pain. I can get tackled on the football field time and time again, head home bloodied and bruised, and still be ready to go again the next day.

It’s the pain inside me that I can’t seem to escape. The daily torment that never lets up. Losing my dad and the shit that happened before that...

Shaking my head to clear my demons, I get ready for the ball. If I don’t focus on practice right now, my mind will wander to the fucking bomb Mom dropped Monday night.I had no idea she was seeing anyone. It’s like spitting on Dad’s grave. If I ever get married, it’ll be to a woman who brings me to my knees. Nobody else will ever compare. The thought of losing that kind of love and just… moving on? Fuck no. I don’t buy that shit. Makes me real suspicious, but when I tried talking to Mom about myvery strongopinions of getting married to Charles fucking Williams, she shut me right the hell down.

I thought we were free and clear of the Williams family. I tried to keep Duke away from Remi. A girl I wanted more than air for years, since the first day of high school, suddenly turning into one of the biggest threats to my family. I’ve done everything I could to keep my brother’s hatred for her strong. But now we’re moving in, supposed to play big happy family, and I don’t know what will happen. My stomach sours at the thought of living under their roof. Anything could go wrong.

Practice ends long before I can get all my stress out. Guess I’ll have to find another route for the night.

***

Stumbling in through the front door, I try to kick off my boots quietly but end up tripping over myself and banging my shoulder into the wall. “Fuck,” I hiss.

A light turns on in the hallway and my brother’s blurry image storms toward me. “What the hell are you doing, Knight?” he whisper-shouts at me.

“Fuck off,” I slur, trying to push him out of the way.

“Jesus Christ, you’re hammered. You smell like a dirty bar.” Duke shakes his head at me, raking his fingers through his hair. “I’ve been waiting up for you. It’s the middle of the night. Where have you been?”

“You’re not my father, so it’s none of your business.” Laughter bubbles up in my throat as a memory swims to the surface. “Hey, you know who said that to me today?”

Duke clutches onto my shirt when I sway backward. “No, who?”he asks in a tight voice.

“Your little Remi. I tell you I got math with her? Well, I do. Sat right next to her today. She smells like flowers and sunshine,” I mumble as my stomach churns again.

Duke’s muscles tense and he inhales a shaky breath. I expect him to fight, tell me he doesn’t want to hear about her, but he takes me by surprise. “Yeah, she does,” he whispers. “Remiissunshine. I just can’t seem to get through the clouds anymore.”

Shit, he’s got that dreamy lilt to his voice. The one I’m all too familiar with because he would come home nearly every night last summer and brag about how great she is.Not good.Everything I’ve done to keep him safe is wasted if I can’t keep them apart.

Patting his back, I lean into his hold. “You’re better off without her, brother. She never looked back, not once. If a girl only sticks around during the good times and dips as soon as you need her, she’s not the one.”

“I know,” Duke agrees, nodding solemnly. “I just wish I knew what happened between us. What I did wrong.”

Guilt eats at me, the truth sitting right on the tip of my tongue. I swallow it back down, though. It’s better this way. If Duke found out that I blocked Remi on his phone and then changed the number saved under her name in his contacts, that she probably tried countless times to reach him, then he’d kill me. If he knew I put my hands on her the morning after Dad died... I don’t even want to think about it. It’d ruin us, and I need my brother more than anything.Duke and Mom are all I have left.

“Take me to bed. I’m about to pass out,” I order, changing the subject before he gets any ideas.

“Hold some of your own goddamn weight then. You’re fucking heavy,” Duke grumbles.

I laugh and try my best to support myself without crashing into the walls. Together, we make it down the hall, and I sink down face-first into my black cotton sheets.

The last thought I have before my brain shuts off is haunting.

I have to keep us away from the Williams family.

No matter what it takes.

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