laundry, but I could wait if I wanted. And I told him, ‘I think I’m here for you actually.’ And then I said Harper’s name. I said, ‘Drake sent me. It’s Harper.’ After that, I bolted. Literally turned and sprinted out of there. I never even saw Kess. And I didn’t know what would happen until the next morning. Jessinda came in my room, half-sobbing and hysterical because the guys all witnessed Harper get kidnapped. Right in front of them. Guys with masks and guns. Scary shit, huh?”
She had no clue.
“I was there, Tab.”
“What?”
“I was there.” I already told her before. “They took him in front of me.”
I was remembering them, too. The guy in the white mask. Heckler stopping and staring at me.
Another shiver went down my spine.
I didn’t want to go back there, when Maxwell Raith was in my backyard. No way, no how. Another nightmare for someone else, not me. That was behind me, or it would be now that I knew all the connecting dots.
And that also meant that Drake had used me.
“I’m sorry, Bren—”
I stood up, cutting her off. “I don’t want to hear it.”
My stomach was churning.
Tabatha.
Drake.
I didn’t know how to do any of this. How to be used and be okay with that? That wasn’t the game I played in life.
I played no games. I didn’t know how.
But fuck them. I knew that much.
“I’m okay, I think.”
“What?” She looked up, frowning.
I looked out over the houses, knowing who was sitting at my feet, and knowing that I was different again. “I think I’m good with friends. You got that guy killed, and I even understand why you did it. You wanted the problem to go away. You wanted your mom to be okay. I understand that, but I don’t like this feeling I have. You used me and two guys are dead because of that.” Three. My assailant. Three were dead. “And I had a hand in that, whether I knew it or not and I’m good. I mean, I have to live with that and I have to live with some other things, but you and me. We’re done. Clean slate. I’m going to be friends with other girls like Aspen, like her crazy floormates. They kinda make me laugh. You. Jessinda, if she comes around because of Jordan, I don’t know what’s going to happen between you all and Jordan, but I’m out. You come around for him, you and I are civil to each other, but that’s it. I’m done.”
With that, I walked.
And there was no regret.
BREN
It took me six months to get approved, but I needed to do this in person.
It was the only way he’d be honest with me.
Once I was sitting at the table, it took a few moments for them to grab him, but it didn’t seem long enough until Drake was coming toward me.
He looked good.
And I wasn’t noticing in that way, as his ex. I was noticing it as someone who knew him, had once cared for him, and knew this would be the last time I saw him again. Or I was hoping.
He’d never been bulky, but he was lean and muscled now. The angles on his face seemed harder, more chiseled. And he just seemed tougher. I caught a few of the other prisoners glancing his way as he sat across from me, and then I noticed the tattoo on his neck.
It was the emblem for the Red Demons.
That. Right there. That told me what I came to find out, but I’d driven all this way, waited all those months to get approved, I wanted him to say the words.
“Heya, Bren.” His eyes twinkled at me, and he grinned. “How are you? You look good.”
A small nod. A small smile. Some polite conversation.
That was fine and dandy.
Now to business. “I know what you did.”
His small grin vanished, and he leaned forward, dropping his tone. “I know. Tabatha gave me the heads-up.”
I kept lingering on that tattoo on his neck. “Is that why?” I nodded at it.
He reached up, covering the tat, and an awkward sounding chuckle slipped from him. “Why’d you make the drive if you already knew?” He frowned, his hand fell away and he cocked his head to the side. “You didn’t know, did you? You just found out.”
“I couldn’t think of why you did it because you don’t do anything unless you’re getting something out of the deal. Tabatha getting in touch with you, giving you a problem to