Always Crew - Tijan Page 0,55

it wasn’t like that. I could have a girlfriend and she’d just have an automatic family, but nah. That was in school. She wanted to be popular, she told me later that she couldn’t fully be popular if she was dating me. She needed to date someone like Cross or Jordan.” I looked at her now, and the pinching tripled. Bren’s eyes were filled with concern. She was hurting for me. I added, my voice getting rough, “The leaders, ya know? The pretty boys, too.”

“Zellman,” she breathed out.

“I got it. I did. I’m not a leader, but damned sure if I’m not the guy they want backing them up.”

“Zellman.” She grabbed my arm and leaned in close, almost right in my face. “When did she tell you this?”

The pinching was now piercing me.

I shrugged. “Don’t remember.”

“When?”

I did remember. Just wished I didn’t. “April, I think. Early May.” May 3rd, to be exact.

“She was already pregnant.”

Wait. What?

I frowned at Bren.

She was trying to hold back a grin. Her hand tightened around my arm. “She already knew by then she was pregnant. Drake had broken up with her. She was trying to push you away.”

No…

Could…

Really?

I scooted back. I didn’t know why, but I needed space. Bren let me go, watching me. Her little smile faded, slowly.

“It was always on and off with us.”

“Yeah, because Sunday’s kind of a bitch, but she’s always cared about you. I know that for a fact.”

It hurt too much, thinking the other way. She was pregnant, man. Having another man’s kid, a guy who was also in the pen. A guy who was known to be a snitch, and we all knew it was only a matter of time how long he lasted in there.

That was Sunday’s baby daddy.

“Bren.” My voice broke. I shook my head. “I can’t—she can’t—”

“It’s okay, whatever you’re thinking in your head. You do what you want, what you need, but Sunday’s not with you because you’re not considered alpha enough. That’s ridiculous, and you are a pretty boy, too. We can take a walk on your campus and I know you’ll get five numbers without even trying. That doesn’t happen to not-pretty boys, and you know it.”

Well. Yeah. She had me there.

I never had a problem getting a girl.

I eyed her, half-grinning. “Did we just become best buds?”

Bren started laughing.

I added, “Cross and Jordan might have something to say about this. They won’t be happy. It’ll mess up the entire group’s dynamic. Does this mean I get to bone you?”

Bren’s laughter stopped and her fist flew out. She landed a good solid one across my jaw.

Too far. I rubbed at it, grinning at her. “There’s that line you keep mentioning.”

“You think?”

But she was smiling, and that was really the reason she called me.

I did my job.

CROSS

“Dickweed.”

I was leaving the library and sighed because, of course, we had psych together earlier and he ignored me. He’d been ignoring me since we cut him out of handling Harper, but now my brother was wanting attention.

I stopped. I considered it.

Fuck it. I kept going.

“Hey! I said DICKWEED!”

I whirled around. “Keep fucking insulting me, and we’re going round two.”

Blaise slowed to a stroll, that same damned fucking smirk there.

He did it again.

I wanted to deck him just for that.

“What do you want?” I snapped, knowing we were getting attention and knowing some of them were giggling girls and frat douchebags, because when I was around my brother, we were attention magnets. His soccer stardom had been growing since we started school, and half the guys around knew Blaise from Zeke. Another idiot that I couldn’t stand, which brought me back to—why the fuck was I standing here?

I turned, starting to leave.

“Okay, okay!” Blaise was laughing. He held a hand up. “Jesus. Peace, fucker.”

I growled. “Stop pissing me off, Blaise.”

“I’m just messing with you.”

“I’m just getting sick of it.”

“Okay, okay.” He drew up next to me, lowering his voice. “Zeke texted me. Harper’s back and called a house meeting. Zeke’s worried about what’s going to go down there.”

I drew up short. All kinds of alarms were starting to sound in my head. “I told him not to talk.”

“Guess he stopped caring?”

With everything going on with Bren and her job, Harper had somewhat slipped my mind.

Blaise asked, keeping his voice low, “Anything new from the dad front?”

I shook my head. “No, and if there was, Channing would’ve called.”

“So what are you thinking?”

What was I thinking? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

I started walking forward.

“Hey.” Blaise darted to keep up with me.