Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
GREYSON
Braxton escorts DeVane off the property with Wrecks barking at his heels while my mind swirls with so much anger and fear, I know it’ll all come tumbling out when I open my mouth.
“What were you thinking?” I finally hiss. Whirling around to face Savvy, I attempt to rein in my vitriol when I see how pale she is.
She shudders, and I bite back a curse, then stomp toward the fridge, where I pull out all the ingredients for a sandwich. I need to keep my hands busy, and she needs to eat.
“Why would you agree to speak to him in private?” I toss the bread on the counter. “What did he say?” The drawer rattles when I paw around for a knife. “What does he want? How can I fix this if I don’t know what the hell is going on?”
She’s silent as I slap together the sandwich, then slam it onto the counter in front of her.
“Eat,” I demand.
“I—I can’t. I think I might be sick.” I hate how small her voice is. This isn’t Savvy. This is someone retreating into the wounded version of herself, and I want to murder that fucker for sucking her back in time.
“Hey, mate. Take a step back.” Cian is wound just as tightly as I am, but he’s able to maintain his composure enough to keep his voice gentle.
“I—I know Riley,” she says. “If I didn’t hear him out, he would’ve just made things worse.”
“You know him?” I sound slightly unhinged, so I do take a step back, fill my lungs with air, and try again. “Well, do you know me, Monroe? Have I not shown you that I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you safe?”
Okay, so perhaps Cian’s right. I need to calm down.
“I just wanted him away from all of you. I did what I thought was right.”
“No,” I say, proud of myself for finding my composure this time. I slide the plate closer to her. “You did what you’ve always done—you placated him because it’s always been you against the world. Well, guess what, Monroe?”
She shakes her head with dazed eyes.
“You’re not alone anymore. You’re not his, you never have been.”
“That’s not what he thinks.” Her palms slap down on the island with a snap. “He’s delusional and scarily manipulative, Grey.”
“It doesn’t matter what he thinks, Sav. You could never have been his when you were always meant to be mine.”
Her chest expands on a sharp hiss of breath.
A chorus of aws break out as Elle, Madi, and Clover join Savvy at the island.
“Ooh, can I get one of those too?” Madi asks with a hand resting on her belly.
With an aggravated sigh, I set about making them all sandwiches.
“What are you doing?” Clover asks as I set the ham in the frying pan.
“Madi can’t eat deli meat unless it’s cooked until it’s steaming, or she runs the risk of listeria,” I mutter.
When silence hangs in the room like a wet blanket, I turn to stare at the women. Even Cian is smirking in my direction.
“Why do you know that?” Savvy asks.
I shrug and get back to work. “I read a lot.” And it’s true. But I also planned to have a child of my own, so I needed to know what the hell I was doing.
Braxton enters the kitchen with Pops and Moose. “He’s going to be a problem.”
“I know.” Savvy sounds so dejected, I want to shake her.
“Monroe.” I place fried ham onto Madi’s sandwich and then hand it to her. “I need you to tell us everything he said, and then I need you to promise that you’ll accept our help.”
“But I—”
“No buts,” I say roughly. “You’re not alone anymore, and nothing he can say or do will change that.” I meet the eye of everyone in the room, happy to find them all nodding in agreement. “So while you eat, tell us what he said, and then together, we’ll make a plan.”
She scowls at me but picks at the bread and finally spews the bullshit demands DeVane has made of her.
“Sav?” Madi asks cautiously. “Do you think you should at least try to talk to your brother? Get his side of…this, before you make any decisions?”
“No way,” I blurt. “All he’s done is hurt her for years. He doesn’t deserve her.”
“Respectfully, Mr. Slightly Unhinged, this is not your decision,” Madi huffs. “Savvy?”
Is she irritated…with me? What the hell? We’re on the same team here.
My gaze snaps to Savvy’s. The pain her idiot sibling causes is not far from the surface, and it drains what little color she had left in her cheeks.
“I’ve tried to talk to him over the years, but he’s always said the same thing—until I take accountability for what I did, he wants nothing to do with me. ”
“He sounds fecking brainwashed,” Cian mutters.
“Riley has always been…persuasive,” she says.
“And Austin wanted so desperately to be accepted in that circle. I wouldn’t say he’s brainwashed, but possibly willfully coerced.
After the accident, he only saw what he wanted to see.
It made the most sense to him that I, the wild child, the problematic one, was to blame. ”
“But what about Paige? You said she wasn’t like her family,” Clover says quietly.
“She wasn’t.” A sad smile sits hesitantly on her lips.
“When we were younger, she was wearing designer clothes before we even knew what a designer was, while I wore Walmart daily deals and socks from the dollar store, and she couldn’t have cared less.
But I have no idea what her life has been like since the accident because her parents wouldn’t let me have any contact with her.
For all I know, she believes the same thing Austin does, or she’s just been in survival mode and agrees with whatever her parents say because it’s easier.
I can’t blame her either way. Her life was irreparably damaged because of Riley’s actions. ”
“So essentially, you’ve got two wealthy families wanting you to be the scapegoat for their children’s poor choices,” Moose says as if commenting on the weather. I forgot he and Pops were even here.
Savvy flinches, and my chest thumps painfully.
Her pain has a connection to my own.
“I made poor choices too, Moose. It isn’t entirely on them.”
Her heartbreak is my heartbreak.
“No,” Moose says before I can. “You had some choices taken away from you, and you were too young to know how to get away.”
“Agreed,” Cian says, crossing his arms over his chest with Wrecks panting at his feet. “Twatgobblin chose to get in that car all fecked up. Paige chose to get in that car with you, knowing that he wasn’t of sound mind.”
“Cian’s right,” I say, frowning at the mess she’s made of the bread of her sandwich—she’s plucking it like a chicken. “You’re the only one who didn’t choose to get in that car that night.” She opens her mouth to argue, but I silence her with a gentle kiss that leaves the entire room silent.
My lips hover above hers. “I understand the guilt, Monroe. The guilt of surviving. The guilt of thriving. The guilt of coming away physically unscathed, but no matter how much you punish yourself, you will never be responsible for the actions they chose to make.”
“He won’t just go away.” She shudders as she speaks, and I wrap my arms around her.
“No, he won’t,” I say reluctantly.
How do we protect her from a madman?
“Okay, so our problems are multifaceted right now,” Braxton says. “Let’s plot them out and go from there.”
Madi hops off the stool and pulls out a notebook and pen, then slides it across the island to me.
My brain is already making a list, so I put it to paper.
Keep Savvy safe.
Confirm Sage’s protection in the dorms.
Get control of Clover’s doxing issue.
DeVanes. Ashfords. Austin.
Find out who the town snitch is.
Mole?
Brainstorm any ways Twatgobblin could mess with Madi or Elle.
“Ha, knew Twatgobblin was a catchy one.” Cian chuckles to himself, but I ignore him.
Create good press for Sunshine Studios.
Remind everyone who the fuck Omni-Reyes Media is.
“Am I missing anything?” I ask.
Savvy leans into my space, her scent enveloping me in gentle calmness.
“Jesus,” she mutters. “That’s quite the list. Where do we even start?”
Looking up, I find Braxton and Cian already staring at me. A silent conversation carries between us. It says: We’ll do whatever it takes.
“I can’t believe I’m about to say this.” I slip my hand into the pocket of my pants and squeeze my lucky coin. “But I think we should call in the Harrington brothers. At least get their take on it and see what they suggest.”
“Good call.” Braxton hums. “That should cover items one through three on your list, and potentially four, five, and six too.”
I stare down at the numbers he recited and nod.
“Number five is obvious,” Madi scoffs.
“But why would she do it?” Clover asks.
Savvy shifts beside me. “I think she’s made it clear her reasoning capabilities recently are severely lacking.”
“Bargain-bin Barbie.” I can’t believe that name has come out of my mouth more than once already.
Savvy shrugs. “She suddenly shows up in designer clothes, acting like queen bee? It’s almost too obvious.”
“How would Riley have known to go to her though? If he was digging around Happiness for any amount of time, someone would have spoken up.” Moose says, sitting thoughtfully in the corner, but I can tell how much this upsets him.
Happiness is a community, a family, and in Happiness, Georgia, no one screws around with family.
“Knowing what I know now of Happiness, Moose is right,” Brax says. “If they’d been nosing around, searching for someone to turn, people would’ve gotten suspicious.”
“Unless they already had someone close by. Someone who’s been watching from the sidelines and already knew the weakest players.” Madi’s lips purse as she stares at me as though she expects me to come to the same conclusion she obviously has.
Madi has always gotten a weird vibe from Quinn. Braxton’s words smack me in the face.
Quinn has been coming here for almost a year, helping the transition of our company from California to Georgia go smoothly. She’s the most likely culprit, but why?
“You think it’s Quinn,” I say. The corner of Madi’s eye twitches as the words leave my lips.