Chapter 20
CHAPTER
TWENTY
Wells
I caught the fucker on the couch that night.
And this time, there was no one to save him.
Our friends had all gone out to a movie, so there was no one at Legacy House to keep me from that asshole. He couldn’t hide like a little bitch behind our friends.
Bru heard me coming this time. He had ice on his cheek for the bruise I left across his stupid-ass face on the quad. He blinked from the couch. “Wells—”
I went for his ass. Bru was bigger than me, but I easily tackled him onto the floor.
We both picked up where we left off, and, once again, he shielded his face with his big arms. Once again, he acted like a little bitch ass instead of fighting me back.
I socked him in one of his Superman forearms. “Come on, motherfucker, hit me!”
I dared him. I dared him to try. I swung at his face and all he did was take the impact in his arms.
“Wells, stop!” he called out, but he didn’t hit me back. Why wouldn’t he hit me back? He guarded his face like a fighter. “Bro, stop… Wells, talk to me!”
I hit at his arms harder. At least, I tried. I wasn’t his bro. I wasn’t even sure I was his friend at this point after what he did.
It all made sense.
Bru had been trying to tell me something about Squeak at the ballet. The topic never came up again, and this clearly was it.
And he called himself my friend.
He called himself more than my friend and…
“Wells, tell me what this is about!” He grabbed my fists, but I could barely see him. I was driven by a haze I couldn’t easily fight out of.
“You fucked her!” I shot out, and Bru’s eyes widened. I swung for his pretty-boy face again, but he blocked. I growled. “Hit me, you asshole fuck!”
He was an asshole. He betrayed Thatcher. Thatcher was our brother. How dare he do something like this? We were supposed to look out for his sister. We weren’t supposed to do this shit. We were supposed to protect her. I was supposed to…
Bru got me by the arms. He caught me off guard and shoved me off him. He didn’t hit me though, and I needed it. I needed the pain.
I needed the reality check.
“Fucked who? Bow?” he asked, blinking. He was out of breath, and I ripped his shirt again.
I’d done some damage to his sweatshirt on the quad, but this was worse.
In fact, I ripped his t-shirt so bad it was barely a shirt.
The neck of the white tee hung forward, his broad chest exposed.
He pushed his dark hair out of his face.
“You think I fucked Bow, right? You mentioned her on the quad. Why would you think I slept with her?”
I don’t know, because he was all over her on the quad. I saw him getting close to her. The fucker had her pinned against a tree, and he’d been about to kiss her or something.
He’d been touching her lips.
I was there long enough to see them tremble, her mouth, and I knew that quiver.
She’d done it for me recently. I’d been trying to teach her a lesson about getting in my business at my parents’ house, and what a fucking idiot I was.
In so many fucking ways. This dude had been fooling around with me and her behind my back.
I grabbed Bru’s fucked-up shirt, and he let me for some reason. The kid knew how to fight, but he was letting me get the upper hand just like he had on the quad. I didn’t know why, but I was going to take advantage.
“She told me she wasn’t a fucking virgin, you asshole!” I charged before clocking him in the head again. He was caught off guard I think, because he didn’t block me.
A white heat blazed into my fist upon impact, and Bru fell back onto the couch.
The burn in my hand felt so fucking good.
I needed that shit. In fact, I got off on it, but I couldn’t enjoy it long because Bru got his bearings.
Getting up, he grabbed my arms, and the next thing I knew, he was hovering above me on the couch.
“What do you mean she’s not a virgin? Wells, what do you fucking mean!” He was shaking me and got me out of my head enough where I could see him again. Besides the bruise on his cheek, his lip was bleeding, and his dark eyes were wild as fuck. He shook me again. “What the fuck do you mean?”
Like he didn’t know, and like it wasn’t him to do the act. He did all this behind my back, and again, everything he’d been doing now made sense. I actually thought he crashed my tutoring sessions with Bow to get in my head. He was mad at me for fucking him after pushing him away.
I bet he had a good laugh at that. He was trying to get to Bow this whole time. My Bow.
I ignored that last thought. I had to. If I didn’t, I’d lose the last shred of sanity I had left. It was the only thing keeping me from killing this guy I thought was my friend.
But that didn’t mean I wouldn’t fucking hurt him.
Quickly, I got from under him and was on my feet.
I had the upper hand now, and I reared back to unleash the same pain blazing inside my body.
It was a pain I refused to address and the only relief I could get would be to pound Bruno Sloane-Mallick’s face in.
I was aware that wouldn’t fix shit, but I didn’t fucking care.
No, I didn’t care.
Bru’s eyes flashed as he watched my fist gear up.
“Archer!”
I shot around mid-punch, physically pulled out of my head for the briefest of seconds.
It was enough.
I smelled her before I saw her. It was like the air was filled with the presence of baked goods. She was inches away and then only centimeters before I actually saw her.
By then, it was too late.