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The abuse, the neglect… everything is his fault, and there is nothing, no amount of money, that can change any of it.
“You all ready for the game tomorrow night?” Conner asks as if he’s got no cares in the world as I drop down into our passenger seat.
I envy him. I wish I didn’t care. I wish I could forget our past so easily. I wish I could forget the lies and betrayal that ended with us having to live here. I wish I didn’t want to destroy James every time I look at him for what he did to me. But more than all that, right now, I wish I didn’t care what had Hadley all tied up in knots earlier. She’s his fault too. If he’d never dragged us here, we’d never ha
ve met, and she wouldn’t be trying to dig inside me to discover who I really am. She has no idea yet that even if she manages it that she’ll find something so poisonous that she’ll probably regret it for the rest of her life.
“Something like that,” I mutter in response to his question.
“You guys don’t need Bexley.”
“When the fuck did I ever say that we needed that motherfucker?”
Conner winces at my tone, holding one hand up in defense.
Both he and Ace have been walking on eggshells around me since the truth came out, and I fucking hate it. I hate being treated like the baby of the family, when the truth of it is that I’m only minutes younger than him, and the pair of us are only a year younger than Ace. It’s a fucking joke. All of it.
“So you think Aaron has what it takes to lead you all the way?” he asks, making me think of that meeting with Coach I totally spaced out on earlier.
Turns out Aaron, our second string QB, was announced as Bexley’s replacement. It’s all anyone’s talked about all day, and every time I’ve looked at him, I swear his head’s swollen with all the attention. He seems like a good guy. I mean, I haven’t really spoken to him—I haven’t really spoken to anyone since I arrived here—but he’s certainly no Bexley, of that I’m pretty confident. Although, he is friends with Hayden, and he was Bexley’s bitch boy, so…
I completely miss the ride home, along with anything else that Conner might say to me. I’m too lost in my own head. It’s where I seem to disappear more often than not these days.
It’s safe in there though. No one can say or do anything I don’t like which might have me falling off the ledge I feel like I’m currently walking along, just waiting to drop at any moment.
My cell vibrates in my pocket as we pull up to the house.
“I need to get this,” I say to Conner, not even pulling it from my pants to see who it is. I already know. And it really says something that I’m more willing to answer right now than I am to go inside and spend the evening with my family.
“Sure.” He disappears inside and I wait until he’s long out of ear shot before I swipe my screen and connect the call.
“Yeah,” I grunt.
“Cole, my boy. I was starting to think you were avoiding me,” Donny says with a fake laugh.
“Nope, just laying low.” I turn my back on the house and stare out at the calm waters in the distance.
“Well, you did good. It seems that maybe I was after the wrong Jagger boy all this time.”
“I’m done now. You did me a favor, I came good on mine. It’s over.”
He chuckles, the sound making my blood run cold. “If you really believe that, then you’re stupider than everyone thinks, Jagger. We’re just getting started. I’ve got a job coming up for you. I’ll call you when it’s ready. And, Cole? Answer your fucking phone. I’d hate to send Bruce out again to finish off a Jagger. Properly, this time.”
My teeth grind and my lips purse. “I didn’t agree to this. You told me one job, one job and you’d cut Ace loose.”
“Yeah well, you did such a good one that I changed my mind. That’s what happens when you dance with the devil, boy.”
“You’re going to fucking regret this,” I seethe, my fingers tightening on my cell until I worry it’s going to shatter.
He laughs again, and it stirs up the darkness within me until it’s about to erupt. “You’ve got a lot to learn, little one.”
“Fuck you, you condescending pri—” The beep from my cell alerts me to the fact that he cut the call.
“Motherfucker,” I bellow into the silence around me. I tip my head back and suck in a few deep breaths in the hope it’ll help calm me enough for what I’ve got to do next.
“Ah, here he is,” Ellen sings as I wait for her to walk through the doorway from the dining room, where she must be serving up tonight’s dinner.
I nod at her and her eyes soften in concern. It’s a look I don’t need or want, but for some reason she never seems to get the message.
