Chapter 9
CHAPTER
NINE
HUDSON
T oday is off to a fan-fucking-tastic start.
Waking up to a message from Sutton saying I’m horny, where are you and having to explain that I really moved here should have been the low point, but then the smashing started.
Not even pacing to one end of the street and back again is enough to shed the irritation rattling inside me.
This week has been a fucking disaster.
Hartwell’s watching me through lazy eyes as he sips his coffee, and Kennedy’s anxiousness has him on the move.
He’s cooking breakfast on the cooktop we’ve chained to a pole and avoiding talking to either of us.
Out of the three of us, Kennedy is most excited to be here, but after spending the day yesterday getting air back into our tires, even he’s starting to question why we’re sticking around.
My gaze skims over the glass glinting in the squat front lawns, and I force myself to exhale. The windows had to be replaced anyway. Sure, they were keeping the weather out, and now we’re going to have to board those up too, but this isn’t a complete disaster.
What happens when they are replaced though? Will Wilde smash those too? Will he destroy the progress we make again and again and again? And when we’re selling, is he going to show up during walkthroughs and threaten all our buyers?
I lift my fist to my mouth and bite down on my knuckles with all the pressure I can handle. My scream smothers in my chest, and it takes way too long for me to shove all this shit with Wilde out of my head. No matter what, I’ll take it as it comes. I’m not backing down from this.
My phone vibrates in my pocket, and I pull it out, Sutton’s message back at the forefront of my mind. Not only am I here for my brothers, but I also needed to get away. His text is a perfect example of why.
If I’d still been home, I definitely would have woken up to his booty call, and I definitely would have slept with him. Because I’m terrible at making decisions, especially when my cock is involved.
The smell of eggs reaches me as I open the message Sutton has sent back. It takes me a second to make sure I’m reading the words I think I’m reading.
Sutton:
Wait. That was serious? You’re actually there? This is the dumbest fucking shit I’ve ever heard. Don’t text me when you’re back. You were last on my list anyway.
My grip on my phone gets so hard I swear I’m one squeeze away from shattering the screen.
We were far from exclusive, and I know he’s only saying that to piss me off, but somehow, it still works.
I contemplate texting him back a thousand and one insults, but I get control of myself and put my phone away instead .
Ignoring him only makes him madder.
I know. We’ve played this game before.
At least being here means that I won’t be the first to give in.
Kennedy holds a plate up toward me, and I shove everything that’s already happened this morning aside to join them.
“What did your wild man say?” he asks cautiously.
“The usual.” I pick up the fried egg with my fingers and take a bite. “It’s his town, get out, blah blah blah.”
Kennedy sends a searching gaze Hart’s way, but our brother ignores us both. “Maybe we need to listen.”
“Or not.”
“He broke all our windows. What are we supposed to do now?”
“Board them up.”
I can tell Kennedy’s torn. He’s clinging to any little hope I can give him, and lucky for him, I can talk through my ass like no one else.
“Another setback, though?” He doesn’t sound convinced.
“And I doubt it will be our last. Look, I know it’s shit. I know this is a pain in the ass, but he doesn’t get to push us around. We worked hard for this. We deserve it. Think about how excited you were when we first got here.”
He pokes at his eggs. “Maybe we could get our own chickens?”
That’s not at all where I was going with this, but it’s a start. “Now you’re thinking. We’ll set up a coop next to the house, and then we’ll have all the eggs we need.”
Hart groans. “Don’t we have enough to do around here?”
“If Kennedy wants chickens, he can have chickens.”
“Cool, so you want to be here, and Kennedy wants chickens, and I want to throw myself off the roof. Does that mean I’m next? ”
If I thought Hart cared enough to actually kill himself, I’d have him in a psych office before he knew what was happening.
He’s not suicidal though; he’s just an asshole.
“You’re always complaining you don’t have purpose in life.
Well, here I am, trying to give you something.
But I can only get you partway. You need to do the rest yourself. ”
“And you need to get laid. Heard from Sutton recently?”
I almost throw my phone at him. How is it that I know when people are deliberately trying to get a rise out of me and they’re successful anyway? I really need to work on my anger issues.
“I have, actually,” I say through a grin that feels painful and probably looks it. “We fucked before I got here, so I should be okay for a while. Thanks for being worried about me, brother.”
Kennedy huffs and shoves a full egg into his mouth. “He’s an asshole,” he grumbles around his food. “He doesn’t deserve you.”
“Him being an asshole is kind of the whole point.” I wave a hand over myself. “Gay, remember?”
His half smile makes his mustache tremble. “I don’t mean the literal kind. I mean that he’s horrible to you, and you shouldn’t have to put up with that.”
“It’s sex,” I say, trying to brush it off. This is why I don’t talk about Sutton with him. My brother is a romantic, and I don’t think he’s slept with someone he hasn’t fallen madly in love with. “It doesn’t matter how he treats me. It only matters that I get off.”
“Your life makes me sad.”
“At least I haven’t been through three heartbreaks already this year.”
The smile slips from Kennedy’s face, and Hart murmurs, “Cold, bro.”
He’s right. “Sorry,” I say to Kennedy. “Wilde’s got me frustrated.”
Kennedy, always a better person than me and Hart, lets me take the out. “What do we do about him? We can’t let him keep messing with our stuff. It’ll bankrupt us before long.”
“Could hire security,” Hart says.
“We could, but that would cost a fortune.”
“Put fences up to keep them out?” Kennedy suggests.
I run my gaze along the perimeter, from one end of the street to the other, then along behind the houses where the trees slope up the hillside. “That’s a lot of fencing.”
Hart drums his fingers on the canvas chair. “And I doubt a little thing like a fence would stop that guy.”
“Back to the guns, then?” I watch Kennedy for a reaction.
He kicks at the dirt, still thinking. “Where does this guy even come from anyway? And the others? I’ve counted three people other than him, you can’t tell me they’re all just … just … living in trees or something.”
I catch on fast. “They have to have a house somewhere.”
“Probably close since they’re up there watching us every day.”
I look from Hart to Kennedy and back to Hart again.
If they have a home, they’re as vulnerable as we are.
Maybe even more so. None of our personal items are here; it’s only tired old buildings that we’re trying to breathe life into.
Mountain man or not, he’d have belongings. Things he likes or needs.
“That’s it.”
Kennedy’s eyebrows jump up. “What’s it?”
“If they want to wreck our things, we’re going to wreck theirs.”
“That was not at all where I was going with it.”
“I’m in,” Hartwell says before Kennedy even finishes talking. “Let’s break some stuff.”
“We’re not breaking anything.” Kennedy stares us both down. “ We’re trying to deescalate here. Not escalate. What do you think they’ll do to us if we mess with their belongings?”
“No clue.” I look at Hart, and for a tiny second, there’s life in his eyes. “But we’re going to find out.”
“ No .”
I jump at Kennedy’s whiplike word. At first, I think he’s joking since he’s the most easygoing guy ever, but his expression matches his tone. “Excuse me?”
“Please don’t do this. We’re onto a good thing here, and I’m tired of waking up and wondering what the fuck is going to set us back today. I want to focus on the three of us and our plans for this place. That’s it.”
I can’t blame Kennedy because that’s all I want too. “Unfortunately, these guys aren’t giving us that option.”
“I don’t want to make things worse. This was supposed to bring us together.”
Hart cackles. “This? Really?”
We both ignore him. But I can’t ignore what Kennedy says next.
“I’ve been so worried about both of you. Back home, we were lucky if Hart showed up for work, and if you weren’t making yourself depressed by fucking Sutton, you were drinking to forget about him. I was worried you’d … you know, relapse .”
It’s hard to hold those thoughts against him when I’ve been having them myself. I’m completely caught off guard that it’s something he picked up on. “I’m over that. It was shortsighted teenage stuff. That’s it.”
His gaze is unexpectedly shrewd. “ Was it?”
We’re not going there. I pick up the helmet and hold my hand out to Hart. “Keys?”
He fishes around in his pocket before he tosses them to me. “Where are you going? ”
“To find Wilde.”
“Hudson—”
I cut Kennedy off before he can worry. “To talk . To make a truce. You’re right, this is all stupid and needs to end.”
“Promise you won’t start anything?”
“I promise.” He gets a real smile from me. “I’m an easy guy to get along with. All Wilde needs is a bit of the old Bellamy charm.” And a kick up the ass.
“Don’t go too far,” he says. “Your phone location is on, isn’t it?”
I don’t bother reminding him how shit the reception out here is. “Of course.”
“Then be safe. And, Huddy? Good luck. We kinda need this.”
That’s the whole reason I’m doing this. For my brothers. The two people who mean more to me than anyone in this world.