AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“My family is fucking loaded, Laken. We didn’t need your money, so I put it away for him.” My expression must show my trust is low, so he conceals his shaky laugh with a headshake. “What happened to you, man? You used to be cool.”
If I was still seventeen, his comment might have stung. It doesn’t have the same effect after spending ten years in prison for something I didn’t do. “I grew up. Something you need to do quick fucking smart if you don’t want to face the same cruel lesson I did.”
Knox’s back is up in an instant. “Are you threatening me?”
“How was anything I said a threat?” I watch him like a hawk before reminding him what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. “I’m trying to stop you from falling through the cracks again because I won’t be there to pick up the pieces this time, Knox. I’m not giving you another ten years of my life.”
“You’re trying to help me?” When I nod, he laughs. “Then why did you fuck my girl? Why steal the only sliver of hope I had for a good life?”
The angst in his tone makes me feel like a dog, but it won’t stop me from standing up for myself as I should have a decade ago. “I didn’t know she was your girl then.” It seems as if tonight is the night for purging when I add, “I’m not even sure she’s your girl now.”
Knox glares at me as if he hates me. “Because you’re an expert on relationships?”
“Because I remember Cecile’s tears when she begged you to stop telling everyone you had slept together. You almost ruined her, Knox. Her father sent her to boarding school.”
“Because she was whoring herself out!” he shouts, his voice reverberating. “Just like Nicole did when you came waltzing back into town like you owned the place.” He bangs his fist on the desk. “She wasmygirl. I saw her first, and then you went and fucking ruined everything good about her. I loved her… I still fucking do, but youstoleher from me. Youstoleher from your best friend.”
“That wasn’t my intention. I would have never touched her if I had known how you felt.” When he hears my lie as readily as I do, I continue to try to pull the wool over his eyes. “Why do you think I fought so hard to stay away from her?”
“You say that like there’s a possibility she’d pick you over me.” With his ego beaten, he comes out swinging. “She doesn’t want you, Laken. Not now or back then. She merely wanted to get back at me for the pregnancy scare.”
My words are strained through a stiff jaw. “How the fuck could that be when you said she didn’t know about that the night we hooked up?”
I don’t mention this morning. Although I want to rub something more potent than salt into Knox’s wounds, I’m not a man who airs his dirty laundry for the world to see.
I also won’t talk badly about Nicole like that. If she wants Knox to know we hooked up more than once, she can tell him.
“I lied when I told you she was clueless.” He looks me dead set in the eyes. “But that shouldn’t shock you, should it? That’s all I am to you. One lie after another.”
“I never said that. Don’t put words in my mouth.”
“I saw the disgust on your face when you walked in on Candy sucking my dick.” He scrubs at his jaw before spitting out words like venom. “Or was it hope that you’ll have the chance to fuck my girl again when she exacts her revenge on the first perv she finds?” He rubs his hands together like he found a pot of gold under the rainbow. “That’s not a bad idea. Force you together and get another guaranteed top-ten hit. With how fast a rival snatched up the first song you co-wrote, you’ll pay back the fifty K you owe me in no time.” His eyes are mocking when he locks them with mine. “What do you say, Laken? Want to take my whore for another ride?”
I’m over his desk and pummeling my fist into his face before any words past whore slip from his mouth. “Shut your fucking mouth before I force it to be wired shut.”
I hit him for the second time and am swinging for the third, when my brother’s frantic plea fills my ear. “Stop, Laken. Stop! We’re family. We’re meant to hug each other. We’re not meant to hurt each other.” He wraps his arms around me and yanks me back just as Nicole, Dallas, and a handful of the crew return from the rooftop. “I don’t want to lose my family. I don’t want to go through that again.”
The joy Nicole’s face hasn’t been without for a second today is wiped clean when River’s sobs reach her ears at the same time her eyes find Knox sprawled on the floor, bleeding and bruised.
Her words are slow and confused. “What’s going on?”
“This maniac attacked me.” As Knox wipes at the smear of blood dribbling from his brow, he stands. “I came down to make sure everything was ready for you to call it a night, and I found him rummaging through my office drawers.”
“You’re a fucking liar.”
He adjusts his position to block me from Nicole’s view. “He’s crazy, Nicole. Deranged. He attacked me without warning.”
I portray the man he’s making out I am when he gets within touching distance of Nicole. My trust is hellishly low, so I don’t want him anywhere near her. “If you touch a single hair on her head, I will bury you where you stand.”
Knox doesn’t flinch at the callousness of my tone because he is the only person in the world who knows for certain I am not a murderer.
That title belongs to him.
I simply took the rap for him when his father convinced me there was no way I could take care of River without his family’s help. He said River would be placed in an assisted living facility within a month of Knox handing himself in because without Knox whispering in his ear, the numerous reports he’d concealed about our mother’s abandonment would have reached the desk of Child Services years earlier.
His story was as convincing as the one his family lawyer spun when he said I’d be out in less than six months and the recipient of a hefty college grant for both River and me.
I’ve not seen a single dime.
