AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He won’t even be with me, I think bitterly.
I glare at the horizon as I cross from the public beaches to the private ones. Technically, I’m not supposed to be on other people’s property, but there’s an unspoken agreement within our neighborhood that it’s okay. Everyone is usually at work during the week, anyway.
Chewing on my cheek, I wonder if Brady will be home when I arrive, but I get my answer moments later. He’s sitting in the sand, directly in my path, close to the water but far enough away that it can’t touch him. I don’t think I ever remember him going in.
It makes sense, though. He can’t control the water and he probably hates that.
From fifty feet away, I can already tell he’s tense and ready for a fight. But I don’t have to play to his emotions anymore. The gig is up. The guys know, and there’s no reason for me to tiptoe around him.
There’s also no reason for me to talk to him.
Pretending he doesn’t exist is hard. It’s like denying the sun. Impossible. His gaze burns as it falls on me, and I avoid making eye contact. Five more feet, and I can veer to the left and head inside.
My heart flutters in my chest like a caged butterfly. Trapped but too stupid to realize there’s no escape.
“Please,” he says before I can walk around him.
A word I’m not sure he’s used often, judging by the way he grits his teeth. I could go. I could walk away and completely ignore him. I owe him nothing.
“Quinn.” There’s such agony in the throaty rasp of my name rolling off his lips that I stop.
Crossing my arms, I glare down at him. His lip is split, and there’s a faint bruise around his eye. Dylan got him good. It doesn’t make me feel better, though. If anything, it makes me feel worse. The brothers are inseparable, and here I am, pushing them apart. “You have two minutes.”
“Already setting me up for failure?” He arches an eyebrow, and I try not to fall into the depths of his irises for fear of drowning. He’s always had a hold over me I’ve never quite understood. Maybe it’s because, out of all the brothers, he’s been the one who went out of his way to hate me, and all I’ve ever wanted was for people to like me.
Especially my mates.
I force myself to look at an oncoming wave. “You’re wasting time.” There. How’s that for badass omega?
“I’m sorry.”
The confession hits me like a ton of bricks, but I don’t let it knock me over. A simple apology is nothing without action. He’s done so much. Words can’t fix what’s been broken. An apology can’t erase every time he told me I’d never be pack.
“Me too,” I admit, but not because I’m at fault. “I’m sorry you’re an asshole.”
A soft, humorless chuckle paints the space between us. “Guess I deserve that.”
I press my lips together, ignoring the moisture pooling at the edges of my eyes. I will not cry for Brady. Not again. I blink hard and force the heartbreak into submission. He doesn’t deserve my tears.
Maybe he never did.
“Right,” he says after moments of awkward silence. “I’ve been thinking about what to say, what to tell you that could begin to make what I did better, but I know nothing will. I never should have left. I never should have said those things. Shit, I never should have rutted you,” he mutters.
Ouch. I suck in a breath. “You made that clear.”
“Fuck, no. That’s not what I meant. I meant—” He pushes up and steps in front of me, blocking my view, but I look the other way. “Will you look at me?”
No.
Stubbornly, I stare at the Adkins’ back patio, refusing to do as I’m told.
“I meant,” he begins again, and I can practically feel his jaw muscles tensing. Brady hates being defied. “I meant,” he continues, “that I never should have let it get too far because I knew it would hurt you.”
“Two minutes are up,” I say quickly, turning to run, but he snatches my wrist and spins me back. I jerk in his hold, but his grip is unyielding. “Don’t.”
“Quinn,” Brady growls, trying to control me yet again.
I’m done letting him get his way.
