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“Okay… okay I get it,” I shut him down before he adds my fuck up to the list.
“I want Danny,” the girl sobs, she seems to be coming around.
“Jesus, Nyx, I ain’t got the patience for this.” I rub my hand over my face and try to think of a solution.
“It’s okay, I can sit with her tonight, make sure nothing happens to her.” He pulls out a cigarette. “Then in the morning I’ll explain everything to Prez. He’ll understand why I did it. I did it for Ella. He would have done the same.” Nyx draws hard at his smoke after he’s gone through his plan.
My brother makes it easy to forget that it ain’t just Ella that’s had a lot to go through the last six months. The kid’s had to grow up fast. And although I know he wouldn’t change a thing about his life, it ain’t been easy for him to get here.
“I got this,” I hear the words before I’ve thought them through in my head. “Get Marilyn to give you and Tac a ride back to the studio. And get some rest. We’ll deal with this when you got a ring on your old lady's finger.” I toss him the keys to my truck.
“I want Danny.” The girl’s becoming much more alert. She even looks like she might find some fucking fight. So I quickly open one of the drawers from the table and pull out some rope. Tying her to the chair so she can’t move.
“Brax, I can’t leave you to deal with this. This is my fuck up. I should have checked in more with Danny. I thought because I didn’t hear from him that he’d got her straight. I don’t know, reunited her with her parents or some shit. I guess I didn’t really think at all. And then when he called me earlier today and told me she’d relapsed and he had to get out of town, I didn’t know what to do.”
“I want Danny. Get him back here.” The girl’s demands interrupt Nyx’s rambling.
“Shut up,” I turn my attention to her.
“Brax, she may have done some shit, but she means something to my girl. Ella thinks she's traveling Europe with her folks. It’s the only reason she hasn’t been in contact with her. We gotta help her get clean. She’s the only thing Ella’s got from her past that she’d want to keep.”
“If you don’t call Danny back here right now, I swear to god I will shoot up again,” the girl threatens, and I ignore her, grabbing the roll of gaffer tape off the table and ripping off a strip with my teeth. I slam it over the bitch’s mouth and grab her by her shoulders.
“You won’t be shootin’ up shit, not with your arms tied down.”
I look back up at my brother, whose eyes are red rimmed and swollen with concern.
“Get out of here. Get some sleep and we’ll deal with this tomorrow.”
“Brax.” Nyx comes at me, his strong arms crushing around my shoulders. “You know, you’re getting better at this whole big brother thing, right?” he tells me, before I shove him off.
“You owe me. Now fuck off before I change my mind.”
I wait for him to leave before I pull out my phone and call Maddy.
“Helloooo,” she answers, sounding tipsy. She, Ella and Gracie are all drinking in Jessie’s cabin tonight. Some kinda bachelorette thing that Gracie got real excited about.
“You mind putting Gracie on the phone?” I ask looking at the mess of the girl in front of me, I can’t help feeling sorry for her. Addiction is cruel. It strips all the good out of your soul and leaves you empty. I know, because I’m addicted to hate. It’s the reason I’d never be able to keep a girl like Gracie.
“Hey, hot stuff,” Gracie comes to the phone sounding like she’s had enough to drink herself. And when I imagine her sassy little smile, it makes me wish I was going home to her tonight.
“Listen, I’m not gonna be home tonight. Something came up and I gotta take care of it.”
There’s a long pause on the other end of the phone, and I wonder what she’s thinking. Whatever it is it ain’t gonna be accurate.
“What kinda something?” she asks suspiciously.
“I can’t tell ya, Gracie,” I close my eyes and sigh in frustration. I won’t burden her with this, especially while she’s with Ella.
“So you're not coming back to the cabin and you're not gonna tell me why?” The disappointment in her tone feels like hot pins digging into my skin.
“I can’t—” The phone goes dead on me and I wanna throw the fucking thing at the wall.
I stand over the girl who’s struggling against her restraints, there’s fire instead of tears in her eyes now. Her hate directed at me, which is good. That hate is what’s gonna get her through a real tough fucking night.
“You’re in for a rough ride, I’m not sympathetic and I got zero tolerance. But when I get given a job, I see it through. And I don’t care how much suffering it’s gonna take. You're gonna get clean,” I promise.
Brax never came home last night and despite my heart feeling torn right down the middle, I have to put on a brave face.
