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“Not necessary at all,” I respond, uninterested in her gossip session. Rumors are close to never true.
“If you don’t like people assuming you’re easy, maybe you should stop responding to things like you do.”
I slap my pencil on the table and look up at her. “I could swear up and down I wasn’t, argue with every person who accused and still get nowhere. I’m not going to waste my breath on judgy assholes. People are gonna believe what they want, period. No point in trying to change a perception that’s engraved already.”
“So you let everyone else win?”
“No. They lose, like you did just now.”
When her forehead creases I keep going.
“Your entire purpose with all that was to try and get a rise out of me. You wanted me to push or fight back and you didn’t get it. Therefore, I win.”
She rolls her eyes, going back to her work.
And just like I expected, she starts rambling not five minutes later.
“The boys aren’t actually brothers, but they might as well be. Were raised together since they were infants, by Maybell herself, on this property even.”
I try to keep writing but she hooked me, and her sneer tells me she knows it.
She glances around to make sure nobody is listening before turning back to me. “Their dads were all best friends, grew up together, same society and power bullshit – the Brays of their time. The moms, though, they were nomads. Not from any of the elite families. Money hungry whores maybe, who knows.” She gives a nasty grin. “You know all about that.”
“Fuck you. And what do you mean elite families?”
She gawks at me. “The Gravens and the Brayshaws, the founding families of this town.” Her brows lift and when I give a small shrug, she shakes her head. “Do you pay attention to anything around here?”
“I guess not. I just thought they hated each other. Fucked each other’s girls or something.” No need to mention what Vienna told me. She likely already knows.
“They do hate each other, but the Gravens and Brayshaws were partners, in the beginning. But then the Brayshaws brought in another family.”
She holds my stare and I guess.
“Maddoc’s family?”
“Yep, none of the boys are Brayshaw by blood, but his family was the first to be pulled in. Then, over time, followed the other two boys' families, ‘course it was before any of them were born. Anyway, after adding the three, suddenly the Brayshaws had a four-tier empire. The families were pinned against each other and the town was divided, people took sides.”
“Sounds a little out there...” I trail off, unsure if she’s feeding me garbage for fun.
“You have no idea. Here’s where it gets twisted. Supposedly, they all were out on some backend job together where things went wrong, and they were shot at. One guy was killed instantly, but Maddoc’s dad was able to get Royce and Captain’s dads out before they were killed, too, only for them to die at the hospital later.”
“Damn.”
Victoria nods.
I eye her. “How do you know this?”
“Maybell has a book, a journal-like thing and some files, from Roland – that’s Maddoc’s dad’s name. He explains it all in there, some newspaper articles and stuff. He gave it to her when the last blood Brayshaw died and he took over. That’s when this property became his and he moved Maybell and the boys in. Supposedly, he was with them every day the first couple of years with her help, but I guess it was too much and his thug life won out over the daddy role. He became a sporadic parent after that. Anyway, guess he thought she might need to give them answers one day and probably didn’t expect to be alive long enough to give them himself.”
“You’ve read it?”
“No, but others who are gone now did and passed on the information. I don’t ever want to see it. If I do, I’m involved if they ever find out we snooped.”
“Do they know?”
“According to Maybell’s notes, she told them when they were twelve. Nobody talks about it. I doubt anyone outside of the few of us here know, and none of us are dumb enough to spread rumors outside these walls. It’s just something we share with the older girls here since they live on the property.”
“They live on the property?” My head pulls back.
“God, you are dumb.” She eyes me. “Behind the house, the dirt road they’re always on? That leads to their place. Soon as they hit high school, Maybell moved up here, left them back there on their own. Doubt it’s legal, but nobody here is gonna question or exploit them. This is the safest place many of us have ever been. All I know is Maybell gets a monthly check on top of all the state funding for us.”
