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Shaw
My parents were home by noon, thanks to a chartered jet. But they obviously hadn’t slept, and the murderous look on my mother’s face was enough to scare just about anyone.
I sat on the couch in the living room, still a little hungover. On the other end of the couch sat my brother, with an ice pack to his face. I’d heard Aunt Emmie on the phone with someone not long after she’d arrived at Violet’s house early that morning. She’d gone ballistic and then left with Uncle Nik. It had been hours before she’d returned and told me it was time to go home.
I hadn’t wanted to leave Vi, but I knew better than to argue with her. Especially when she looked like she was one smartass comment away from losing her shit and eviscerating everything—and everyone—in her path. I walked into my house with her and found my brother’s face almost unrecognizable.
His left eye was swollen closed, there were stitches in his cheek, and his lips were split open in several places. Cannon groaned with every shallow breath he took, and I couldn’t help smirking at him. “Remington Sawyer do that to you?” I’d taunted, figuring Violet’s friend had gone back to the party and fucked him up. I knew Remington had a thing for my best friend, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if he’d been the one to pound my douchebag brother into the massive bruise he currently was.
“No,” he’d grunted in my general direction without lifting his gaze, but he didn’t elaborate.
That only confused me. If it wasn’t Remington, then I didn’t know who else could have beaten the hell out of him. Luca was in Alabama, and Lyric had been with us all night, trying to soothe Violet because she was so upset.
I was still worried about her. Vi wasn’t one to let anyone see her emotional. She bottled things up when she knew others would get upset if she showed her feelings, which told me just how out of it she was. And it made me want to throw a few more punches at my brother for hurting her so badly.
As Mom paced back and forth in front of us, I debated just leaning over and throwing a punch at Cannon’s right eye to make it match the left one. But Mom must have read the intent on my face because she paused and glared down at me. “Keep your damn hands to yourself, Bradshaw Harper Cage,” she seethed. “There will be no more bodily harm from either of you today.”
“Yes, ma’am,” I muttered as I folded my hands together in my lap and lowered my gaze to the coffee table that separated us from her.
A few feet away, Dad stood with a mug of strong coffee in his hands. He was drinking it silently as he kept his eyes focused solely on Cannon. The anger and disappointment I saw in his hazel eyes made my heart squeeze because I knew he was feeling those same emotions toward me as well.
Mom went back to pacing, and with each step she took, the entire house seemed to swell with her tension. Cannon seemed in too much pain to feel it, but I was almost suffocating on it.
“Shaw,” she gritted out my name, and I hastily lifted my eyes to her face.
I gulped. “Yes, ma’am?”
“You’re grounded for the next month. No car. Nothing. You don’t leave these four walls unless it’s for school or work. And only then if your dad or I can accompany you.”
I nodded quickly. “Yes, ma’am. I understand.”
“Now, go upstairs. No television or phone. The only time you can have your cell is when you go to school, and only then because I’ll be making sure your ass is where it’s supposed to be.” She tilted her chin toward the stairs. “Go.”
I jumped to my feet and practically ran up the steps, but instead of going straight to my room, I stopped just out of sight so I could listen to what she would say to my brother.
There was a long silence, but I could still feel her anger, even from where I was standing on the second floor. Almost a full minute passed before she spoke. “Go to your fucking room, Shaw!”
Jerking in reaction to her harsh tone, I made a run for my bedroom before she decided to lengthen my grounding. I wanted to know what they were saying to Cannon, what his punishment would be, but not enough to turn Mom’s wrath on myself even more than it already was.
Once the door was closed behind me, I stripped off my clothes and walked into my bathroom. I hadn’t gotten any sleep after Uncle Shane and Lyric had woken me up at two that morning. I felt sticky and exhausted, so I took a long shower and then crawled into bed dressed in my favorite pajamas, intending to go straight to sleep.
But as I pulled the covers up over my legs, I heard a knock on my door. Before I could ask who it was, Cannon pushed it open and stepped over the threshold.
“Get out,” I growled.
“I…” He swallowed hard, and I noticed his fingers were trembling. “I wanted to say I’m sorry…for calling you a slut.”
&nbs
p; “Apology not accepted,” I told him coldly. “Get out.”
“Shaw, please. I… Fuck, I don’t know what came over me last night. I’ll regret it for the rest of my life. I know I hurt you—”
“What you said to me isn’t the problem, dumbass. You put your hands on Violet.” I jumped out of bed and stomped toward him. “Violet. The girl who has been like our little sister her entire life. If you can do that to her, then what’s stopping you from doing it to other girls?”
He lowered his head in shame. “I’m sorry,” he rasped out. “It will never happen again. I swear.”
“I don’t want to hear your worthless words right now, Can. Just go away. I’m tired of looking at you.” I turned to go back to my bed, putting him out of my mind so I could hopefully get some sleep.
