Page 44 of One Reckless Moment

“That wasn’t so bad, Pip,” I whispered.

“You know my dad will have more to say, and my mother has always been a sucker for a party.”

“She’ll rein him in. It’s all going to be okay, P.” I ran my hand up her along her stomach and she melted into me. We could do this as long as we did it together. We were both there in Vegas. We both signed those papers. That meant, whatever storm was waiting for us, we’d walk through it side by side.

That thought in itself made me pause. There had never been a single person I had such strong ties to. My family was never really my support system. Walker came close, but we weren’t legally binding. I was always disposable, replaceable. Paige and I were a team—at least until the end of the summer.

She leaned back and peered up at me with a soft smile—the first one I’d seen since we landed in Ashton Creek—but her smile quickly fell once we heard the screaming.

21

BETS AND BLACK EYES

PAIGE

Screams sounded from below the back deck, eliciting panic to rise in me again like bile. It was a constant roller coaster of making it through one interaction only to prepare for another. I was going to be sick by the end of this day.

We stood and listened for a second. I couldn’t make out whose voice was whose, but it didn’t truly matter. I laced my fingers into Cash’s and guided us to the stairs.

We were ripping the Band-Aid off.

The rec room was where I spent the majority of my childhood. It encompassed the rest of the bottom floor opposite of the garage. There was a fully stocked bar that my oldest brother built when he was a teenager, a pool table, and the largest sectional couch I’d ever seen. We hosted parties here, spent movie nights here, and just made endless memories in the space.

It was my safe place.

Until right now.

When we got down to the bottom level, I saw Lottie in a standoff with Axle as if she wasn’t almost a foot shorter than him. The girl was small, but she was terrifying when she got mad.

“Hear them out,” Lottie demanded as she crossed her arms, her tone lethal.

“Why should I?” Axle seethed.

“Because you owe your sister the benefit of the doubt.”

We didn’t even make it to the bottom of the stairs before Walker spotted us. He was moving so fast I thought he might walk right through the glass door.

“Motherfucker” was all he mumbled before he landed a punch right to Cash’s jaw.

I screamed as Walker’s hit took him to the ground. Cash didn’t fight back as Walker wound another fist.

“Walker!” I screamed.

“Knock this shit off!” Lottie yelled from next to me.

Reid and Axle quickly wrapped their arms around Walker and pried him off a bloody Cash.

“Jesse,” I whispered as I fell to my knees next to him, pushing his hair off his face.

He had a cut on his cheek that was definitely going to bruise, but the rest of his face seemed to be okay.

He winced as my fingers dusted over the cut on his puffy cheek.

“Get away from him, Paige.” Walker tried to lunge for Cash again, but my brothers held him back.

I stood up and stomped over to my oldest brother.

Walker Prescott was a broad man who usually communicated in a series of grunts that portrayed his emotions. Walker was not our dad’s biological son, and growing up as the black sheep of the Brooks family hardened him in a way I’d never understand.