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I move over to where Z still resides by the bar and pour my own. “I watched her tonight, she did seem to be on edge with him, and let’s not forget the sling on the plane,” I comment, trying to back Ash up as a hundred different questions go to war in my mind.
“Maybe she just likes it rough,” Zaiden grunts with a glint in his eye. I wonder how rough he was with her, he’s not exactly known for being gentle with his hook ups.
Hudson appears to agree with him but he says aloud, “She has been acting a little weird though, nothing like the Brielle we knew so well.”
“What did she say when you asked her about it?”
Ashton frowns. “She denied it of course, but it’s not like I expected her to admit anything, but we all know what a fucking snake Carson is.”
I never imagined Brielle to fall for someone like him, but what if she didn’t fall, what if she was pushed?
“Why are we even debating this?” Zaiden blurts. “Let’s just take him out of the picture for good, make all our troubles go away.”
I roll my eyes. “Yeah because that worked out so well for us the last time.”
Thoughts of the night we never discuss cloud over us and it’s only then Ashton adds, “She did say if we made a move against Carson it would kill her and she would never forgive us.”
“What, so we do nothing?” Hudson sneers.
“Fuck that!” Zaiden outrages. “I’d rather have her hate me and keep her safe, than do nothing knowing she could be getting hurt.”
Ashton and Hudson nod in agreement as the wheels in my head keep turning until I say, “So we come up with a plan.” All eyes turn to me. “We keep an eye on Brielle, and temporarily remove Carson from the situation until we can find out the truth.”
They all nod in agreement and I feel the ties of our brotherhood wrapping around us like they have so many times before. All of us would kill and die for her, we have already proven that, so if someone is hurting our girl, we won’t stand for it. We need to stop fucking around with bets and get to the bottom of what’s going on.
It’s time to play a new game and our first opponent is Carson Crawford.
ChapterThirty-Seven
“Please tell me you have something,”I beg Shelby as I collapse into my bed.
Who knew a weekend back home could be so exhausting? Between my parents’ nagging, Carson’s charade, Vanessa’s questions, and Ashton’s godforsaken tongue, I’m wrung the fuck out.
Especially over that last one.
My cheeks heat furiously as I think about the way he felt between my thighs. I’ve never been quite so lost in a moment, quite so ready to give up everything. He almost had me. But if they knew everything that has been happening, there would be no tempering their beasts. A few bruises and some speculation and Ashton was ready to kill Carson. If they knew about the video, the abuse, the way he’s touched me? They wouldn’t think twice about burning his body to nothing but ashes and dust.
They underestimate him though. They call him a snake, but they don’t realize just how true those words are. He’s vile and slick, waiting in the grass for the perfect moment to strike, and strike he did. But he never would have sunk his fangs into my flesh without a backup plan. He will have some type of insurance that even if he drops dead, we all go down with him. I wasn’t sure of that at first, but I know Carson better now than I ever thought I would. I would bet my life on the fact he does. I guess I kind of am.
Gambling with my life and safety.
Yeah, I made the right call not telling Ashton. All it would have done is make a bigger mess.
“Shelby?” I ask again, sitting up in my bed. It isn’t like her to ignore me.
“Huh? Yeah, sorry.” She waves me off, still not giving me an answer. I cock my head and wrap my arms around the stuffed llama she gave me. I don’t like the look of intent concentration on her face.
“Were you able to do it?” I ask, scared to hear her answer now that she isn’t excited to hand over the goods like she has been every other time. She’s successfully hacked into Carson’s computer multiple times in order to leave the paper trail I had planned, but she hasn’t had enough uninterrupted time to download everything I wanted from his computer.
Wiping the video from his files won’t be enough, but it’ll be a good starting point.
She finally turns to look at me and swallows thickly. “Yeah. I was able to get copies of his calendar, emails, files, notes, photos, and everything in his cloud.” That should all be good news. That was everything I could think of besides his text messages that would be helpful. “I even found a dummy email account he was using and downloaded some data from it. It’s actually the one I had been using for the trail you wanted me to leave.”
I nod, waiting for the other shoe to drop. “This all sounds like good news?”
She nods but wavers as she draws her lower lip between her teeth. “It’s just…I just…” She groans, balling her fists to her eyes. Fear strikes through me. Did she find the video? Is she ready to cut ties? Oh fuck, does she think Carson is right to do everything he’s doing to us?
“I found something,” she finally spits out. I stay silent, my nails digging little crescents into the palms of my hands as I wait for her to continue. “It’s the biggest folder he has,” she continues, swallowing. “By like a lot. Like there must be thousands and thousands of pictures stored in there.”
