AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Rex opened the door the second I got onto the porch. “Hey!” He feigned excitement. “How’s it going, little bro?”
“Fuck you, Rex.” I pushed past my brother and into the smoke-filled house. There were two lines of white powder on a tray on the table, which caught my eye as Rex and Dad laughed at me. “How did you know I was away with Riven?”
“I can’t believe he left Betsy home alone all weekend, can you?” Dad asked Rex conversationally. “He’s overprotective, though I don’t know what he has to worry about.”
The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Was that a threat, or just them trying to show they were in control? Neither answer would surprise me.
“Leave Riven and Betsy alone.” Every syllable I’d spoken had been sharp enough to cut.
“Or what? Are you threatening us?” Rex asked. “Dad told you to keep an eye on him, yet you haven’t given us one fucking thing the whole time. And you’re going away like boyfriends or something.”
Because we were. Or at least I wanted to be. I wanted everything with Riven, and while I wouldn’t tell them that, I couldn’t deny it to myself any longer.
“What’s your problem?” I ran a hand through my hair. Dad was sitting on the couch, looking at me, and Rex was standing with his arms crossed, also staring at me. “Leave them the fuck alone. He already did Rex’s time. He went to prison for you. There’s nothing he can do to hurt you now. It’s not like he’s going to go tell them he lied when he said he did it. It would still be three against one.” But then that wasn’t what this was really about, was it? They wanted Riven to still be under their thumb. They wanted to be able to use him more in the future if they could, and they wanted to know he would keep quiet.
“Looks like Riven has a big mouth,” Dad said coldly, highlighting my mistake. Shit. I wasn’t supposed to know. No one was supposed to know.
“He didn’t tell me.”
“How the hell do we know he’s not talking to other people or about other shit?” Rex bellowed, which was another good point. Riven probably knew things, even if it was shit from a long time ago that he could open his mouth about. He wouldn’t because that’s not how he worked, but he could if he wanted to.
“Because he wouldn’t do that, you dumbass. It was your big-ass mouth. I got here early that day you told me to watch him. You guys were talking, and I could hear you, so I hid on the side of the house and listened.”
My dad’s face changed three shades of red. “You need to be careful, son, or you’re going to get yourself in trouble.”
“Because I don’t already know half the shit you guys do? There’s coke on the table right now. Rex sells drugs for you. I’m not a fucking idiot.”
Dad shoved to his feet, hands fisted. He knew I had knowledge of all that, but it wasn’t something that was discussed. It definitely wasn’t something I put out there like I just had. People didn’t talk to my dad like that. I didn’t talk to him like that, and as much as I didn’t regret it, it was a mistake.
And there was more I knew too.
“Be careful, Parrish,” Dad warned again. “Remember who your family is.”
Was he for real? “It sure as hell isn’t the two of you!” My chest tightened, the words hard to hold back. “You don’t give a shit about me. You never did, and if I had it my way, Riven would tell the whole fucking world what Rex did. And I’d back him up too.”
I was too focused on my dad to consider Rex, which was my second mistake besides letting my emotions get the best of me and saying the shit I had. Rex lunged at me, his body colliding with mine and knocking me into the coffee table, which broke beneath our weight.
He was on top of me, sitting on my stomach, fist pulled back. Pain shot through my face when he punched me, then again and again, before I was able to roll us. I threw the next swing, connecting with Rex’s face, then his stomach before he bucked me off, managed to get to his feet, and kicked me in the gut. It felt like a damn explosion went off inside me.
Rex pulled me to my feet, another fist to the stomach and one to the face. I stumbled backward before gaining my balance and running at him, hitting him in his middle and tackling him to the ground again.
I didn’t know how many punches we’d thrown, but enough to make the pain in my fists rival that of the rest of my body, when Dad grabbed me from behind and pulled me off Rex.
