Break Me (Brayshaw, #5)

by Meagan Brandy

“Does she?” She raises a brow.

I lick my lips, meeting Victoria’s brown eyes. “Is it weird if I can’t remember when she didn’t?” Victoria smiles, shaking her head. “Not even a little bit.”

She’s fucking stunning. And perfect. Happy. Can I keep her that way? I’ll kill myself trying.

She’s not someone who should ever be forgotten.

Baby girl, you’re mine.

“Um, my daddy said Rora needs to move in his room ‘cause you’re gonna need hers soon.” My eyes fly to Captain’s when he starts busting up laughing, and a low cursed ‘Jesus’ leaves Victoria. Captain grins, grabbing his daughter. “Zo, we talked about this. We don’t blurt out everything we hear when we’re pretending to be asleep, remember?” “But I like her, and Rora said no.” Zoey pouts.

“Oh, I know!” Zoey shouts, bouncing on the trampoline and drawing our eyes back to her. She looks from me to Brielle. “You can share with Uncle Bro and when he sneaks me out of my room to watch movies at bedtime, you can come with us!”

Captain’s glare flies to mine and I widen my eyes. “Zo, you’re droppin’ secrets, girl.”

“Business, huh, Royce?” Victoria teases. I flip her off with a smirk. Fuck business. That’s my baby.

My brows furrow. “Grading papers?”

“It has to be me.” His glare is sharp and instant. “What has to be you?” “To get the proof.” His head tips slightly and then his eyes bug and a hollow, short laugh escapes him. “No. Fuck to the motherfuckin’ no.”

“He asked you to grade papers after school on your first day here.”

“He won’t suspect you, will he?” I shake my head no. “And you’ll be there before anything bad happens.”

“You’ve got this, Tink. Tell us what to do.”

Royce: I’m watching. Go.

People see me run by, but nothing registers, all I hear is her soft voice calling me, wondering where I am and why I’m not there like I told her I would be. I stood there, right in front of her, looked her in her eyes and she trusted my word.

I refuse to paint her world black when she’s only begun to see the shades of the summer sun.

She jumps up and dashes for me, but she bumps into a desk and stumbles a bit, catching herself on the chair.

“You’re a fool if you think I’m the only one who wants her,” he pants in a low gurgle, swallowing and choking on his own blood. “That there is isn’t someone else out there waiting, watching.”

I intend to approach them from the side, get Royce’s eyes to fall on me to bring him back to life, but two steps away, my condition takes control of me. My vision clouds, darkens, and then it’s gone.

Not a second later, my foot slides the wrong way, and I fall into something hard, whipping backward and slamming onto my back a second later, my skull bouncing hard against the floor. It hurts, stings, but only for a second and then... nothing.

I need to open my eyes.

I open my eyes, but nothing is there. I try again. And again. No. No, no no.

My hands fly up, moving over my eyelids and I blink, feeling my eyelashes flick across my skin swiftly. They’re open. A sharp cry slips out. “No.”

My eyes are open, but I can’t see. Blackness is all there is.

This is the longest it’s stayed black.

I went in there to protect my girl from harm, and I’m the motherfucker who ended up hurting her.

I hit her. Square across the temple when I wound my hand back, and my fucking god... she fell.

No he didn’t

So, I walk away, into the hall where my family stands with wide, worried eyes, but I don’t pause beside them, and they don’t dare to try to stop me. But she does. My name is whispered from behind, and it’s a song that sears my soul.

It’s the softest, gentlest voice, the calm I don’t possess but desperately need, crave, and want. I feel it tugging at my insides, allowing the smallest bit of air into my throat, reviving my lungs. Breathing life into a fuckin’ zombie.

My girl, my baby, fuck. She stands in the doorway, leaning on it for support because I’m offering her none. She reaches for me... but I don’t reach back.

I wonder how much it would take to convince myself I’m not in love with the girl I have to let go? That I haven’t loved her since before I realized it. That pushing my baby away isn’t about to fuck me? Wreck me? Fucking break me? Because it is.

One person, that’s all I wanted. One person I could wake up and smile at, who would smile at me, truly happy to see me. I needed to see happiness, to catalog it, in case there came a time I couldn’t see at all. Not in case, when.

Never let fear hold you back, baby girl. Ever.

He stalks toward me, his chest puffed high, but his shoulders, they’re drawn up tight. And he’s angry. So damn angry. It’s fear that’s caused it, and he has no idea what to do with it.

He’s a fraud in his own skin. He’s going to make this hurt. I can see it in his lonely, broken boy eyes. I guess this is where it all falls apart.

“Your hand did some damage.”

My palm flies to my ribs, holding them in place, fighting the sting, soothing the ache. I plant my fucking feet, steel my trembling jaw, and force myself to spin, to face my demon head-on—the marking on my girl’s left temple. My shoulders fall, the weakness in me showing itself to the one girl I wish I was strong for. “B—” “I only said that to get your attention,” she rushes out. “I... lost my sight. ”

“Is that supposed to mean something to me?” “I’m trying to tell you this wasn’t your fault. I’m going blind, Royce. I blacked out,” she whispers,

Bass said she’d fall into darkness in our world. Did he mean it literally and I was too much of a dick to realize this?

Will she really lose her ability to see when she’s spent the last four years seeing nothing at all? Four years wasted. Her spirit dimming with her sight.

“This wasn’t your fault,” she affirms. “But the hurt that followed when I watched you walk away, that was.” Cause I’m a piece of shit.

“You say this shit, tell your little lies, like I’m supposed to care. Newsflash. I don’t. Not about how you feel, not about what you’re going through, not about you.”

“I should take you right here, right now, give you a little goodbye present so I can send you on your way. We both know I don’t have to like you to fuck you.” “No,” she whispers, her hand coming up to touch my chest, but I jerk away. “You don’t, but you would have to love me to take my virginity like you did, because Royce Brayshaw doesn’t touch virgins otherwise.”

My Brielle. My baby. She can never be mine. I’ll destroy her. Proof is the angry red mark staring back at me.

“Call me a fool,” I whisper hatefully. “‘Cause what a rookie mistake that was. Now look at you, standing here expecting more, like you’re special. Like you weren’t just a body to be played with, for me to fuck the second I decided I wanted to... and you gave, didn’t you? Right when I said go, just like the rest of them.”

She runs her tongue over her teeth, flicking her eyes away to conceal her hurt briefly only to bring them right back. Pure agony burns in my gut, melts my de...

I want to tell her that I didn’t fuck her, that I worship her body, want to treat it like a fucking temple, bring her as close to the stars as I can, knowing how much she loves the sight of them. How I want to set us both aflame, over and over and over again. And then do it again, but I can’t say any of that...

Realize that girls rope me in because they want to fuck me, ‘cause I’m the disposable asshole who can make them feel good for a night or two, but that’s it. They keep Cap. They want Maddoc, they settle for me. Nobody wan...

Do what you do best, Royce. Push, but you better push fucking hard, ‘cause if she comes to you, it’s over. Settl...