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She was good for me. I thought the blonde in that house was once good for me too. When I was really someone and had the world as my playground if I wanted it. “Rip.”
Her fingers stilled, and I opened my eyes to see her frowning. “Are you saying—”
“That’s the cheerleader.” I gulped.
Harpy took in a steady breath and said, “Okay.”
“Okay?” I felt my brow shoot up as I pulled up and then helped her to her feet. I was bending to get the clipboard and pen for her, so it shocked the hell out of me when she took off.
“You sick, sonofabitch!” She shouted as she went after him, and…he ran, he dodged her, cigarette in hand, all surprise face, and laughter, but he ran, and she chased him a moment before stopping. He was like a wild dog playing with a ball. Happy? Maybe this wasn’t about me after all. She was a bit breathless and asked, “Why?”
He shook his head, “What is wrong with you? What are you talking about?”
I crossed my arms. Really, Apollo?
Harpy straightened her back, looked around, and then dusted her arm off as she said, “It’s really not a problem. You taught me how to manage these things. She’ll be in our house.”
He stiffened a bit. “Excuse me?”
“She can have a bedroom at the Bunny House, but she will work in the Junior House. You remember that I have that authority, right? And you know if you try to take it from me, you can go back to all the fun you were having because I will check right the fuck out.” She tilted her head.
“You can’t afford to—”
She laughed, and it was not a happy or funny sound. “Actually, thanks to you and my increase, in just one month, I made enough pay for the test so I can get my massage therapy license. I’m not like those other bitches, Apollo. I fuck them because I want them. I love them. I didn’t have any of this before I came to the extra-large dicks incorporated, and I can go right back to not having. You…you know the rest of this frat will go right back to fucking their way through the staff unless you want to hire a real cleaning service.” Then she laughed again and said, “And we both know you can’t do that.”
I was so fucking hard I could rip her clothes off and take her on this lawn. She didn’t mean it, but he didn’t know that. She would not go back to squalor, and I wouldn’t let her. Tituss wouldn’t let her, but I knew that she had bigger plans beyond us now. Apollo knew it, too. He wasn’t any more or less than we were. This was her world. Tituss and I tried to resist, to control it, but Harper Harington was a force of fucking nature, and we weren’t going to dick that out of her.
I got closer, put my arm around her, hand on her shoulder, and said, “Thank you. And…I don’t understand why.”
Apollo was somewhere between aggravated and impressed. I had a feeling he was testing her. He probably heard her tell me she loved me. Made more sense. He looked at me and said, “She’s family.”
I jolted. “What?” No, she was not. I would have known that. She would have been at events and other things.
“Like this one, that one doesn’t have anything to lose. Lots to gain, though.” He pulled out a mostly full pack and lit up. An exhale of smoke, he said, “Distant. That side cut ties. When I found out. I mean. She doesn’t know he’s with you. Did you know that?”
I clenched my jaw. Harpy had moved her hand up to where mine was on her shoulder, the heel of it over a bruise where I bit her to try to keep the words back only to say them any damn way. She gripped my fingers tighter. There wasn’t much of a scene this morning because most people had classes, or it was too early for them to be out and about. My older brother was one of those people who happened to be awake and heading out.
Kipper said, “Nice outfit, bro.”
Then he stopped, stiffened, and a look came over his face that I had never seen before in my life. He lit up like he…I turned, and several gears began to fall into place. Things I didn’t want to believe back then. Things that rolled up and made me ask the question to the beautiful blonde walking toward us, “Is he mine?”
She stopped, stiffened. “Who?”
I was going to slap her. Harpy held my hand and my waist. I barked out, “My son. Your son.”
She blinked, looked at Apollo, who, for all the family comfort he should have provided, seemed to watch this all unfold. He took a drag and asked, “Well? Is he?”
She looked past me to Kipper and back to me and then to Apollo and said, “I.”
She looked down. Fucking bitch. Back then, I had tried to marry her. Wanted nothing more than to be a good man. I was not a good man anymore. I was a good father, but…that was about where good ended these days. I looked at my brother, and the traitor seemed to be thinking about it. Sure, if he had said back then he was also fucking her, maybe my parents wouldn’t think he was the planet our family sun shined brightly on.
Harpy said, “The DNA test should show that. I knew a girl in high school. It means additional testing, but they distinguished between two brothers and a cousin in her case so—”
I started walking, and she came with me, so did Apollo, and I wanted to smash his face in, and depending on what he said next, I just might. My son. Not my son? No. No fucking way. Rip was mine. I…had money. I had means. I looked at Harpy. Apollo said, “I didn’t know that was going to go down like that.”
We stopped. I looked at him. She stood between us, facing me, her hand on my chest. If I hit him…she was in between us. I glared down at her. Mad she was sort of protecting him by doing this. Not sure if I could handle her picking him over me right at the moment. She said, “He’s yours. You can see it in his eyes.”
“They are her eyes.” Now I wanted to shake her.
