CHAPTER 62
maverick
Iwasn’t supposed to be living in the house yet, while all the little details of the sale were finalized, but the actual owners didn’t care.
They hadn’t been here in decades, and I needed every minute I could get to fix it up.
It had crappy running water, electricity, and heat, which was all I needed as I gutted the place to build something new.
After leaving Harley’s, I came here because I couldn’t sleep.
Thankfully, I had the day off, so I could do that later.
I just needed to blow off steam to help my mind settle down.
Jumping into bed with Harley hadn’t been my plan.
It hadn’t been a thought when I went to talk to him.
The itch of anxiety in the back of my mind wanted me to spiral, and I was determined to avoid it.
Eventually, we had to talk about everything between us. There was just no avoiding it. He lived in the city, and I lived here, moving between a borrowed room I hated and a house I’d just bought. It didn’t make sense for me to move. Did it?
I wasn’t so sure. Half my thoughts said fuck it, I could move out of Wilde Bay. The other half told me I was being irrational after what could very well be a one-night stand. I hated thinking it, but it was true. I didn’t have a clue what we were to each other.
And so I threw myself into fixing things because working with my hands always helped, even if it was just to get me out of my head.
I worked through the night and past sunrise.
I drank energy drinks and snacked on crappy foods, but honestly, it all made me feel better. There were worse ways to spend my time.
I only paused what I was doing for the knock on my door mid-morning. I rubbed my dirty hands on my thighs as I hurried to the door, expecting the realtor or someone of importance to be there.
Finding Aidan standing there wasn’t what I was expecting. Or wanted.
I hadn’t seen my brother since my arrest. It wasn’t like he’d tried and I’d turned him down or anything like that. He never tried. He sold me out and then disappeared from my life, like I was expendable. And to him, I was.
I blocked the door with my body while carefully reaching behind the door and picking up the baseball bat I had left there as my own personal security system.
“What the hell are you doing here?” I growled. When he opened his mouth to say something, I cut him off, “You know what? I don’t fucking care. Get off my goddamn property before I call the police.”
“What?” Aidan drawled. Just the sound of his voice grated on my nerves. It took everything I had not to hit him on principle. “No hello for your big brother?”
“Fuck off.”
“I need cash.”
Why did that not surprise me?
“What happened to the money you made off of selling me out?” I demanded. If he was surprised that I knew, he didn’t show it. Fucking douchebag.
“Spent it.” Of course he did. “You know Millie?”
“Yeah, I know Millie,” I said. Everyone knew Millie Wagner. She and her husband, James, owned The Boathouse. You couldn’t spend a day in Wilde Bay without running into them or any one of their five kids. “What the hell did you do to Millie?”
“Nothing.” That slow, wicked grin on his face made me uncomfortable. “But I sure as hell did a lot to her daughter.”
My stomach dropped. Roxy Wagner was Millie’s youngest. I knew a few of her brothers, but I didn’t know her. Granted, I didn’t make it my business to hang out with high school kids either.
“Jesus fuck! Are you kidding me, Aidan?” I snapped. “She’s a goddamn kid!”
“She’s eighteen. I checked,” Aidan said. The sick pride in his voice made me nauseous. How the fuck was I related to this asshole?
“That doesn’t make it better!” I exclaimed. “Fucking hell, you’re disgusting. You disgust me! Do you hear yourself? She’s a child! A goddamn child!”
His expression darkened to something dangerous—something that would’ve scared me once upon a time—but I wasn’t backing down. Not on this.
“I didn’t come here for your fucking judgment,” he shot back. “You’re the last person who gets to judge me. You’re out of jail for… what? And you’re already that rich boy’s fuck toy all over again. Talk about pathetic.”
Great. The asshole was keeping tabs on me. I didn’t need to know why, even if it bothered me.
“Get the fuck out of here, Aidan, before I call the cops.”
“I need money to take her to a clinic to fix the situation—”
“Are you fucking kidding me? You knocked her up—”
“Hey!” he bellowed over me. “You have no room to judge me. Now, I know you’ve got money lying around if you bought this hellhole, and you know you owe me after all I’ve done for you—”
“I don’t owe you shit.” I planted the top of the baseball bat to his chest as I walked out of my house and pushed him backward.
He stumbled off the two shitty steps, his eyes widening.
For all the bullshit going on, there was a satisfaction in knowing I could still surprise him.
I wasn’t some kid he could control anymore.
“I don’t owe you a damn thing for being alive.
You took care of me because you felt you fucking had to.
Because you needed someone smaller than you to push around.
Well, guess what? You don’t get to push me around anymore.
I’m done. I’m done with you. I’m done being pushed around by you. I’m done.”
“You don’t get to be done—”
“Yeah, I do,” I cut him off. “Now, get the fuck out of here before I call the cops for trespassing because I will.”
“You’ll regret this,” Aidan snarled.
“No, I won’t,” I told him. Not by a long shot. “And if you go near Roxy or your kid ever again, I’ll beat your fucking brains out. I’m not kidding. I don’t care if I go back to jail. You’re not going to ruin them like you ruin everything else.”
Like he ruined me.
“You’ll regret this, Maverick.”
“No, I won’t!” Not a single part of me would regret kicking him out of my life. Honestly, I should’ve done it a long time ago. He started across my beaten-down lawn toward his car. I yelled after him, “If I see you again, I will file a restraining order. I mean it.”
“Sure you do,” Aidan called over his shoulder, “You should ask your little fuck boy what he’s been up to in the city. I don’t think you’d like the answer.”
I frowned. I wanted to let the words go—I should’ve let the words go—but they hit a nerve. One that was already rubbed raw by everything I had with Harley. We were complicated and convoluted. I was fully aware that he wasn’t telling me a lot. Why would he? It was clear life had been awful to him.
But I also wanted to believe that Harley wouldn’t hurt me. I didn’t think he’d do anything. At least, not in the capacity that Aidan would use against me.
Still, his words nagged at me.
“What do you know?” I demanded. I hated entertaining him. I hated giving him that kind of power. But I mostly just hated how I wanted to know what he was going on about. And I hated that he knew more than I did.
“No, you know what? I think I’m going to enjoy watching you crash out,” he retorted. Without another word, he got in his truck and drove away, leaving me standing there while the pit of my stomach dropped out.