Chapter 20
ROYCE
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Royce groaned and rolled over to snuggle closer to the warm body at his side.
Thud.
Thud.
Thud, thud.
Said warm body jackknifed to a seated position at his side with a gasp.
Royce peeked at her through heavy lids. “What are you doing? Go back to sleep.”
“Someone is here,” she hissed, leaping from the bed and scrambling toward the door.
“What time is it?” He sat up and dragged a hand down his face.
“Seven.”
He groaned again. “It was probably someone next door. Honestly, one of these days I’m going to get you to come house shopping with me. We need to find a place with acreage.”
Penny scoffed, her eyes on their bedroom door. “I thought you said you weren’t interested in running a farm.”
“Oh, I’m not. But I’m also not interested in raising a family in the city.”
This time, she snorted and folded her arms. “Well, lucky for you, that’s not going to happen anytime soon.”
Royce frowned. “Why not? Don’t you think we’d be good parents?”
Her expression softened. “Of course, but that doesn’t mean we’re ready—”
Thud.
Thud.
Thud.
Penny startled. “I told you someone was here.”
Royce shot a wary look toward the open bedroom door. “Who would it be at this hour? One of your brothers?”
She shook her head. “They wouldn’t stop by without calling or messaging me first. And only if it was an emergency.”
Penny took a step toward the door, but he tossed aside the covers.
“No, let me get it. Stay here for a second.”
Already, he could tell his body was being sent into fight-or-flight mode. Whoever was at the door was being far too persistent. Who in their right mind would continue knocking this early in the morning when no one seemed available?
As he got closer to the door, a new wave of alarm twisted his insides. On the other side of the only barrier that kept whoever it was out of their place, he could hear distinct male voices. They were loud enough that he could make out just how agitated they were.
He didn’t want to look through the peephole, but he knew better than to just open the door.
Royce was within ten feet of it when the door suddenly swung open.
He jumped back, cursing as three people pushed inside. Mathew, Rose, and George. Then within seconds, three more crowded into the room. The two separate groups glowered at each other, stopping just inside the apartment and making the space feel ten times smaller.
Royce’s focus connected with each one of them before landing on the one person he wanted to see the least.
“What are you doing here, Lincoln?”
His brother’s face was a mottled red hue.
His hands were balled into fists, and he took a step toward Royce with clear intent.
“What am I doing here? What are you doing here?” His voice rose to a decibel level that might very well get Penny booted from the complex.
“You’re lucky we share our locations on our phones.
I didn’t know whether you were dead in a ditch somewhere.
Imagine my surprise when I found out you were just betraying our whole family. ”
A gasp at his back was all the confirmation he needed to know Penny had disregarded his request to stay in the bedroom.
And now she was going to have to deal with their worst nightmare.
His father, Lincoln, and Bentley were on one side of the room glaring at her and the members of her bloodline.
“Mathew?” The accusation in Penny’s voice was capable of making a lesser man flinch.
To his credit, Mathew looked mortified. He cut a look at his uncle, then the ground, before lifting his gaze to Royce. That was when his eyes hardened, and he seemed capable of judgment he had no right bestowing.
Before her brother had a chance to defend himself, several voices started talking.
Or rather shouting.
No one seemed interested in letting anyone else ask questions or give an explanation.
They needed to leave. All of them. It was none of their business why he was here. He chose to live his own life on his terms. The shouting got so loud his ears were going to start ringing. Finally, when he couldn’t take it anymore, he raised his voice.
“Enough.”
He hadn’t expected his outburst to work, so when it suddenly got quiet, he wasn’t prepared for it.
His family shot withering looks in his direction.
Penny’s uncle seemed just as angry, if not more so.
Rose appeared to be bored, as if she wanted to be anywhere but in this apartment, and Mathew’s emotions flickered between fury at Royce and guilt when he glanced in his sister’s direction.
Royce glanced at Penny over his shoulder, and his heart dropped.
She was pressed up against a wall, her arms folded tight. Her eyes brimmed with unshed tears.
“Penny,” he murmured.
She didn’t glance at him right away.
“Penny,” he tried again, reaching his hand toward her.
“Royce,” his father warned. “Whatever you think is going on between the two of you, it’s going to stop.”
Penny still hadn’t moved, and Royce curled his fingers into a fist before dropping it to his side and facing his father.
“With all due respect, Dad, you don’t have any say in what I do or don’t do. In fact, that applies to all of you.” He glanced between both families. “I’m going to ask you respectfully only once to leave.”
“Not happening,” Lincoln barked. “Clearly, you hit your head. We heard about the accident. Have you lost your mind? Your memories? She’s one of them.”
He spat the last word with such venom Royce saw red.
He took a hard step toward his brother. “Don’t talk about her like that.”
Before he could reach Lincoln, Bentley darted between them with placating hands.
“Hey, he didn’t mean anything by it.”
Royce glared at his brother. “Did you tell them? Or did they figure it out somehow? Did Morgan say something?”
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Rose stiffen, but not enough to rouse suspicion from her father.
“What? No. I wouldn’t have done that.” Bentley’s face flushed, and he looked away. “But that doesn’t mean this isn’t wrong on so many levels. You know they’re the one family we don’t mix with.”
Royce let out a humorless laugh. “Do you even hear yourself? Between me dating a woman I care about and two families coincidentally showing up at the same place at the same time?” He gestured between both groups, who seemed to be in a sort of standoff.
“This—this right here—is what people would call weird.”
“Weird is shacking up with a girl just to get even with me,” Lincoln snapped, stepping out from behind their younger brother.
Royce took another step forward, but Penny’s voice stopped him short.
“Royce, no.”
All eyes turned in her direction, and he hated the way she seemed to shrink under the weight of them.
He swallowed hard and forced his voice lower. “Don’t put this on her.”
Varying degrees of surprise filled their expressions.
Royce pointed at the door. “You have no business being here. You can leave.”
Bentley shook his head and muttered quietly under his breath. It almost sounded like, “Bad move.”
His father merely folded his arms and planted his feet a little farther apart, like he expected Royce to tackle him to the ground. Royce wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
Lincoln laughed.
Royce narrowed his eyes, but before he could respond, Bentley stepped closer. “Just hear them out. This isn’t worth it.”
His eyes bounced toward Penny briefly, apology clearly written there.
The apologetic look only made it worse.
Royce stepped toward him, close enough that Bentley straightened. “Don’t look at her like she’s the problem.”
Bentley’s face flushed. “That’s not what I meant.”
“Then choose your words better.”
Lincoln stepped forward again. “Listen to your brother. He’s being the reasonable one.”
“I don’t care what you have to say,” Royce snapped. “Penny is everything to me. You want me to choose? Well, I choose her.”
Gasps filled the room.
From Penny? Rose? Some of the guys?
Royce was certain there was a ripple effect from his words.
“I love her, and I’m not backing down. You want to cut me out of your life?” He looked from his brother to his father, his voice roughening. “Then that’s your choice. But don’t pretend I’m the one breaking this family by loving someone you never bothered to get to know.”
Lincoln’s coloring shifted from white to red so quickly Royce might have laughed if he wasn’t so angry.
“You’re making a big mistake,” Lincoln insisted. “And you’re leaving with us whether you like it or not.”
Rose gave him a flat look. “He’s a grown man. Good luck with that.”
“I don’t remember asking your opinion,” Lincoln shot back.
“Lincoln,” their father sighed, “enough. You’re grown, adult men.”
Lincoln shoved a hand through his hair. “He started it.”
Royce scoffed.
There was no reasoning with his brother. Lincoln could only see things his way, and he couldn’t humble himself enough to consider that there was another explanation beyond revenge. If Royce had wanted to get back at his brother for his familial tyranny, he would have done so long before now.
The truth was, he still looked up to his brother in many ways.
This argument was going to leave him reeling when the dust settled.
“You should go,” he muttered. “All of you.”
“I’m not leaving until this is resolved.” George’s stance mirrored Royce’s father’s. He pointed at Penny. “Didn’t I warn you? This isn’t going to happen. Nothing good will come of it. You’ve had your fun, now it’s time to accept that it’s over. Cut things off now before someone really gets hurt.”
The tears that Penny had been holding back for the last several minutes finally tumbled free.
Royce shot George a hard look before heading toward her, but he didn’t get very far. She paled considerably, covered her mouth with a shaking hand, and darted down the hall.
He stopped when the bathroom door slammed shut.
Then he whirled around and faced them all again.
“See what you’ve done?” His voice came out low and shaking with anger. “She can’t handle being ambushed like this. We were perfectly content this morning before you all showed up, and now she’s in there sick because all of you decided your feud mattered more than her peace.”
That last part he directed to her family.
“She’s an adult. She can make her own choices.”
“If she’s smart, she’ll make the right one,” George grumbled.
Rose threw her hands into the air. “Okay, I’m calling it. I didn’t even want to be here. You said you wanted me to talk to her, and you didn’t even give me a chance to do that.”
George balked at his daughter, then gestured wildly at Royce’s family. “That’s because they refused to be reasonable. You saw them monopolizing the whole conversation.” Then he motioned toward the hallway. “Go see if she’s okay. Then you can talk her off this ledge she’s on.”
Royce stepped toward the hallway, but apparently, he didn’t have to say anything.
Rose shook her head and gave her father a little shove toward the door. “I’m not going to corner her like some trapped animal. If she wants to talk, she’ll talk. This was a mistake, bombarding her like this. I can’t believe I let you talk me into it.”
Lincoln chuckled derisively. “Figures.”
She whirled to face him, hands on her hips. “What’s that supposed to mean? You’re worse than all of them combined.”
His eyes narrowed into slits, and he opened his mouth to retort, but Bentley blocked him. “Come on, man. Just drop it.”
Rose smirked, which had Lincoln’s hackles rising again, but then she slipped out the door before he could make good on whatever it was he wanted to do.
Mathew lingered a second longer. He looked toward the hallway, then back at Royce. “Tell her I’m sorry.”
Royce held his gaze.
Mathew looked like he wanted to say more, but he only shook his head and followed them out.
When Lincoln attempted to speak again, Royce held up a hand. “Save it. I don’t want to see or speak to you until you’re willing to talk about this like you’re an adult.” Then he pointed toward the door. “See yourselves out.”