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"Briar, sit down," Sofie insists, her cheeks reddening while everyone watches in fascinated horror at the drama playing out at the table. "You’re causing a scene."
"A scene?" Briar barks out a laugh. "No, this isn’t a scene, but I can cause one if you really want me to, Sofie."
Her gaze pierces into her mom, and for a second, I swear I’m almost proud of her. And jealous for having the ability to tell her mom to fuck off.
"Briar—" Dad starts, and her glare cuts to him.
"No. Absolutely not. You can take your money, and your house, and your fucking degree. You can shove it where the sun doesn’t shine. You willnotdictate my life to me."
Without another word, she storms from the room, like a hurricane leaving a deathly quiet in its wake.
I press my lips together to stop the smile that wants to form.
Chase turns to glare at me and slams his hand down on the table. "Travis, fix this. Right fucking now. You had one job!"
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes at him, I nod. “I told you it wouldn’t go well, springing it on her like this.” I take the napkin from my lap, wipe at my mouth and throw it on the table, nodding to each of the boys. “Let’s go clean up their mess, shall we?”
* * *
"This is seriously fucked up," Asher seethes. He’s been on a rampage since we came down to the basement half an hour ago. I’ve barely said two words since we came down here, because I know he and Sawyer are going to be almost as pissed at Cole and me as Briar will be when she finds out just how long I’ve known about all of this.
I don’t know why I didn’t tell them. We don’t usually hide anything from each other, but this…
Yeah, even I knew it was shitty.
At first, I agreed because I didn’t have a choice and Briar was a nameless, faceless girl who meant nothing to me. It’s easy to be the asshole when you’re not invested. Just ask my dad. He is the ruler of Dickville. He is Asshole Supreme.
Once I realized who she was, I tried to talk my dad out of his and Theo’s stupid fucking plan, but it’s like shouting at a brick wall. Absolutely fucking useless.
Fi and Hellion have just been lying down, watching Asher pace while Sawyer sits with the puppies.
"Our parents have all lost their goddamn minds," Sawyer grumbles. "Did you see those airheads that Mom thinks are just perfect for us? Gag me on a dick, because no."
I can’t help but smile at his ridiculousness. "Since when is anyone in our world of their right mind?" I counter.
"That doesn’t make any of this any better." Asher crouches down and grabs a handful of his hair, taking his glasses off and pinching the bridge of his nose. "We need to find her. She’s already dealing with Serena’s death, Penn being MIA, Crawford being an absolute dick," he pauses, looking directly at me. "Which is entirely your fault and you need to fix it, just FYI. And she’s still fucked up about her mom’s pregnancy, even though she’s pretending she isn’t, and now this. Why aren’t you angrier? Did you know?"
Cole opens his mouth to speak when the door to the basement opens and Tobias appears.
"Sir, it seems Briar took the Porsche. The tracking has her back at the campus."
I nod at him, letting out a deep breath.
At least she didn’t run.
Well, not yet anyway.
"Thanks, T. What would I do without you?"
He grins at me widely. "Do your own tracking, sir?"
Sawyer snorts a laugh behind me. "Good one, T."
Tobias winks at me and I let out my first laugh of the evening. "Thank you, T. What's happening upstairs?"
"You don’t want to know, sir. Trust me. Let me know if you need anything else."
I shudder at the thought of what could be going on up there. Some things really should be kept under wraps.
