Hothouse Flower (Calloway Sisters #2)

by Krista Ritchie

“Daisy,” I tell her. “Go to your sisters.” “Ryke—” “Fucking go,” I growl.

I don’t know what this is about. Maybe our father. Maybe Daisy. Maybe something else. Maybe all of the above. I have a laundry list of bad fucking deeds with good intentions.

“You wanna talk about it?” His voice is full of pain. “I gave you a million fucking chances to talk about it,” he sneers. “I’m so done talking to you.” His fist flies and hits my jaw hard. I go down when his knee drives into my stomach. I cough roughly.

“Lo, stop!” Daisy screams. I turn my head, and my heart pitches to my throat. She’s running towards us, but Connor is faster and stronger. He picks her up while she thrashes in his arms. My eyes soften in thanks. I barely produce that look of gratitude before Lo punches my face again. I turn my head and spit blood onto the dirt.

He knows this fight was going to happen sooner or later. It’s finally arrived, and the agony tears at my chest. Not physical pain. Even as his third swing connects with my jaw—I can take those hits.

It’s the torment in my little brother’s eyes. It’s the way he’s looking at me—like I betrayed him. Like I ruined his life. Like I ripped up his fucking soul. I didn’t want to hurt anyone. I didn’t mean to cause him more misery. You should have left him alone.

But he would have been drunk! He would still be fucking drinking if I didn’t walk into his life. I shook him as hard as I could back then. I brought him to rehab. I talked to him nearly every night during his ninety day recover...

“Hit me,” he sneers. I shake my head, my fingers digging into the red dirt, trying to form fists. Stop, Ryke. I could so easily stand up and beat the hell out of him. And he’ll let me. It’s what he wants. He’s asking for that pain. It’s like at that Halloween party when I first saw him three years ago.

He’s begging to feel something more than these emotions, suffocating with this torment. He’s asking for me to replace this fucking torture. And right now, I can’t feed into that illness. I can’t.

“Come on,” he sneers, his eyes reddening with rage and sorrow. Tears welling. “I’ve seen you beat the shit out of guys twice the size of me. I know you want to punch me.” He steps towards me. “Fight back!” I pick...

He shoves me in the chest. I raise my hands. “Lo—” He punches me again. I stumble backwards but keep my balance this time. Daisy wails in the background. “STOP IT!” She’s crying. Lily is crying. I even think Rose may ...

Lo points at me. “You’re a goddamn coward.” Now he’s starting to sound like our father. ...

“What do you want me to say?” I growl. “I’m fucking scared?” I point at my chest. “I’m fucking scared, Lo!” My eyes burn with this horrible fucking pain. Fucking hell. “I’m so fucking scared they’re going to manipulate me into loving them when all I want to do is forget!”

“What’d they fucking do to you?!” Lo screams. “I lived with our dad. You sat in your pearly white fucking mansion with a mom who loved you!” I shake my head. This isn’t going to solve anything. My chest rises and falls.

“Tell me!” Lo yells. “Tell me how you had it so fucking bad, Ryke. What’d he do to you? Did he smack the back of your head when you got a C on a math test? Did he scream in your face when you were benched for a little league game?” He near...

I shake my head again. I’m not the victim like Lo. There’ll be no good in explaining myself. It’ll just be more shit on top of shit. Lo pushes me in the chest again and this time something snaps and I respond, pushing bac...

“I’m not fucking fighting you!” I scream. But he doesn’t listen. He charges again, and when he tries to push me over, I shove him down to the ground. I’m stronger than him. I’m older than him. I’m the best an...

I pin him down on his back, my hands on his wrists and my knee digging into his ribs. “I don’t wan...

His eyes redden further. “You spend so much of your fucking time trying to save me,” he says, “and you don’t ...

Something more stops me from defending Jonathan Hale, something so raw that it hurts to touch. I’m forced to confront these emotions again because I returned to this life. I could have left it all behind like I planned to. If I had done nothing three years ago, if I had left Lo at that Halloween party, I would have never revisited this hate. I’d never meet these feelings that I had shelved away.

“He chose you,” I say. “He chose his bastard kid over me and my mom, and I fucking lied for him my entire life. I hid my identity for him. I had no mom in public because I was Meadows and she was Sara Hale. I had no fucking dad to show for. I saved his reputation, and he buried me six feet in the fucking ground every single day he chose you over me, every day he paraded you around and shoved me aside. I couldn’t breathe I was so fucking angry.”

I lift my body off of his, but I can’t stand. Too emotionally exhausted, I sink to my knees, drained and weak. My face throbs, positive that he’s given me more than a couple of bruises.

“I just wish you could love me more than you hate him,” Lo tells me. It’s the most honest thing he’s ever said. He turns his head and looks at me, eyes filled with tears. “Is that even fucking possible?”

I’m just like my mother. I’m turning into her, trying to hurt Jonathan every way I can, and in the end, the people I care about are hit in the crossfire.

I hate him for things he did to me, for the things he does to you.” Lo shakes his head and sits up. He wipes his face with his shirt and his eyes turn cold again. “Jesus Christ,” he laughs a bitter fucking laugh. “You don’t get it. I deserved every word he said to me. You didn’t know me in prep school, Ryke. I was a fucking shit. I was terrible.” I glower. “Don’t ever fucking tell me that you deserved it. No one deserves to be beat down every fucking day.”

We argue about this all the time. But I have to get it through his thick fucking skull. I lean forward and grab his face between both my hands. “Stop defending him. Not to me, okay?”

She’s smiling as she kisses me, which pulls her long, deep reddened scar. Her fucking scar—it’s all over the news. Her parents are going to find out about her face from a fucking tabloid. Dammit! My jaw locks and I throw the phone back to Lo with more aggression than I intended.

“It’s serious.” “So serious that you shared it with everyone.” “Because I knew you were going to jump down my fucking throat!”

Anger catapults me to my fucking feet. He stands with me, both of us breathing heavily again. Round fucking two.

“If you cared about her,” he says, pointing a finger at me, “then you wouldn’t be sneaking around like you’re doing something wrong!” “Fuck you!” I ...

I’m so fucking screwed. The betrayal flashes in his eyes all over again. I force down this emotion that threatens to rise and overtake me.

Lo glares. “Your cock finally got the best of you, didn’t it?” He’s the worst devil on my fucking shoulder. And I love him. “She turned eighteen and you could finally stick it in—” “No,” I growl. “It wasn’t fucking like that!”

“I should leave you alone in this desert,” Lo sneers. “I am kicking myself right now, for every time I let you near her, for ever...

“You don’t know what you’re fucking talking about.” I think about all the times she was alone and afraid and hurt, and I was the one who was fucking there. No one else was around. He had his own shit to deal with, so why the fuck do I ...

“I don’t know what I’m talking about?” He rubs his lips and grimaces. “How long, Ryke? Tell me that, how fucking long have you liked her more than just a fri...

“FOR YEARS!” I scream, veins protruding in my arms, my face reddening, unleashing this thing held captive inside of me. I step towards him. “Is that what you want to hear?! Years, Lo.” He clenches his teeth so hard. “You’re lying?” He didn’t want to believe it. He wanted to be wrong. “I’m not,” I say, hot tears burning my fucking eyes.

“I have been so fucking attracted to that girl. And I never planned on doing a fucking thing about it. I never was going to try. And I tried…” I point at him. “I tried so fucking hard not thinking about her like that. It was wrong. I knew it was fucking wrong. I suppressed everything as much as I could.”

“Then why not stay away from her?” Lo retorts. “Why not put a hundred fucking feet between you and Daisy? You flirted with her every day, Ryke. You became her friend.”

“Then what was it fucking like?!” Lo shouts. And I explode. “I FUCKING LOVE HER!” I scream, my heart thrashing in my ribs. His mouth falls, his brows furrowing in confusion the longer he scrutinizes my features. I feel like he’s clawing at my insides for answers. Here they are.

“I fell in fucking love with her. It hurt to be away from Daisy. It hurt to watch her with other guys. Everything fucking hurt, and I didn’t want to live with that pain anymore. I fucking couldn’t.” I inhale deeply. “I can’t tell you when it became unbearable, but it did.”

“I’ve known her for over two years,” I tell him. “I’ve spent so much fucking time with her, Lo. We’ve been through a lot together, so yes, I fell in love with her.” Lo glances back at Daisy, and I follow his gaze. She’s crying in Lily’s shoulder while she hugs her close. My heart tears open again, and I have to restrain myself from walking over there and consoling her.

When I force my attention back to my brother, I realize he’s been studying me watching her. He doesn’t say anything, but I will.

“You can leave me here,” I say, “but I’ll find a way back. I can’t leave her, and I won’t leave you, no matter how hard you fucking push me out.” He needs me. He knows he needs me. And I want to be a part of his life. I don’t want to return to the lonely one I had built, with relationships as surface lev...

And then he pauses. Turns around and waits for me to join him. It’s a peace offering. I see it in his face, the way a shred of guilt flickers in his eyes, still accompanied by a swirling rage. It’s enough for me. I walk forward and join him. He starts moving again when I’m by his side. Just like that.

I’ve been taking the days as they come. Kind of awkward. No, mostly awkward. I glance at Ryke next to me, faint bruises on his cheek and jaw.

We’ve all kept to ourselves since the fight, and this is really the first time we’ve sat down as a group.

And tension pulls from each couple. Lily and Lo huddled on one end. Rose and Connor in the middle. Ryke and I—we’re across from his brother and my sister, in direct line of Lo’s sharpened cheekbones and narrowed eyes.

Our six person dynamic has definitely changed. Ryke’s arm is around my waist, and we’re so close that our legs meld together beneath the table.

She opens her mouth, and Connor covers her lips with his hand. “It’s his birthday,” he reminds her. “Be nice.” Her eyes flash cold. Connor drops his hand, and she stays quiet. For seven seconds. “Get over it, Loren. They’re fucking. His dick is going in her—” Connor is fast, his hand flying back over her mouth. “Rose!” Lily says with wide eyes, her face red.

“I don’t know,” I quip. “I’m lost on that last part.” I look up at Ryke. “Where does the guy’s dick go?” He stares down at me with raised brows and dark eyes. I swear he smiles, or almost smiles. I’ll take it.