#Heart (Hashtag #6) (12 page)

Romeo

The doorbell rang.

Rimmel’s entire body changed from relaxed to anxious in about three seconds flat. She was sitting in my lap, drinking her coffee, and petting Murphy, who was sitting below us looking like he was desperate for a treat.

She tried to get up and get him one, but I wasn’t willing to let her go.

I liked her where she was just fine.

The second her body stiffened, mine reacted without thought. I was so attuned to her I didn’t even have to try anymore. It just was.

I pulled her in a little tighter against me, offering her shelter, and kissed her hairline. “It’s Trent, baby.”

Drew was already up and heading for the door to pull it open.

Rim looked a little sheepish when she relaxed back against me. “Sorry.”

“Better go get Murphy a snack or he’s gonna stalk us the whole time we’re in here having our meeting.” I patted her hip.

She climbed out of my lap and held out her hand for the mug. The coffee was almost gone since both of us had been drinking it. “I’ll get more. You want some, too?”

“I’ll just share with you again. Tastes better when I know your lips have been on there.” I added a wink at the end.

Her cheeks turned pink, and I reveled in the sight. Fuck, I loved that I still was able to make her blush.

“‘Kay,” she said and turned away.

“Hurry back,” I said softly so only she could hear.

“Dude,” Drew said as Trent came into the room. “You look like hell.”

“Not everyone wakes up looking like Romeo,” Trent quipped and flashed me a grin.

I shrugged. “I woke up like this.” I gestured to myself and flashed a smile.

“I didn’t know someone with such short hair could mess it up.” Drew guffawed.

“Like you ever comb your hair.” Trent scoffed. “Besides, this is what you get when you call me at the fucking butt crack of dawn and tell me to get my ass over here.”

“I didn’t comb my hair either!” Rim said cheerfully as she walked by.

Trent looked at her and laughed. “Bedheads unite!”

Rimmel backtracked and held her fist out to him. Both Drew and Trent pounded theirs on hers, creating a triple pound.

It was like a meeting of some ‘80’s hair band.

“Coffee’s in the kitchen!” she called and then disappeared. Murphy went after her with a loud meow.

Trent divided his gaze between Drew and me. “Thought I’d show up to a fire or some serious emergency. You seriously didn’t call me over here for coffee, did you?”

“Family meeting,” I grunted.

Trent’s eyes widened a bit. I rubbed a hand over my face. “Why do you two keep acting like someone stole your lunchbox when I say Trent’s family? It’s not new.”

They were acting like a bunch of women.

Trent cleared his throat. “Well, yeah, I mean… We’ve been friends a while. I guess I just thought…”

I cocked my head to the side and waited.

He glanced at Drew, then back. “I guess I’ve always felt like kinda the third wheel.”

“There’s six of us,” I pointed out blandly.

Trent shrugged.

“You want to be part of this family?” I asked, blunt. “You loyal to us? All of us?”

How fast he answered would tell me a lot.

He didn’t even think about it. “Hells yeah. You know I got your back. I was even loyal to you over my frat, and you know how they are about that shit.”

I nodded. I did know. Trent went against his fraternity more than once to help me out with Zach, and even when I’d been rushing, he looked out for me. As far as I knew, he never got any shit for it, because him getting rid of Zach wasn’t just good for me, but for everyone.

“You wanna move in?” I asked, blunt yet again.

I didn’t have time to dance around. We had shit to talk about. Rim appeared, and I sat back so she could avail herself of my lap. It was a freaking distraction the way she wiggled her little ass against me as she got comfortable.

My cock started to stiffen, and I palmed her hip to make her go still. She must have felt what was happening because she looked at me wide-eyed.

“Be careful, baby. That’s hot,” I said and took the coffee from her to have some.

We both knew I wasn’t talking about the coffee.

She wiggled again, right against
the spot
. I practically choked. Rim giggled.

She was so going to pay for that later.

“Move in?” Trent said, surprise in his voice.

“B!” I yelled. “Get your ass down here!”

I looked back at Trent and shrugged. “The rest of us live here. Maybe that’s why you feel so separate from us. You aren’t here all the time.”

Rimmel nodded. She hadn’t even heard the whole conversation, but she agreed. It just proved Trent was family. She’d take him in even without knowing the reason.

Trent gave her a smile, like he, too, noticed her acceptance, and then turned back. “I—”

“‘Course we’re outta bedrooms. You’d have to bunk with Drew.”

Drew choked on the coffee he was drinking and it dribbled down his chin. Since he wasn’t wearing a shirt, he used the back of his hand to mop it off his face.

Trent laughed. “Dude, your face.”

Drew gave him the finger.

B sounded like an elephant coming down the stairs, while Ivy came down a lot more gracefully. He was dressed in a pair of beat-up jeans and a hoodie. He didn’t look too thrown off by this morning, but he was. I knew without looking at him at all. Ivy looked tired as she stepped off the last step, dressed more causally than usual in a pair of leggings, tall knee socks, a T-shirt, and an oversized cardigan.

I was worried about them.

But I was getting off track. I turned back to Trent and lifted an eyebrow.

“As tempting as that sounds…” He began, and Drew hacked and coughed some more.

“Why do I even bother trying to drink this!” he demanded.

Ivy made a face at the mess he was making and rushed into the kitchen and came back with a towel, throwing it at him. He started wiping up the coffee he managed to get everywhere.

“I meant living here with you guys, not freaking sharing a room,” Trent ground out, then muttered, “Perv.”

B and I grinned.

“But I can’t. Frat prez remember? I have to live at Omega.”

I knew that, but I wanted him to know he was welcome here anyway.

“But thanks, means a lot to me,” he added and settled back against the cushions.

Ivy sat on the couch beside him. She still had the now almost empty glass of juice in one hand.

He held out his fist to her. “Ives, looking good.”

She pounded it out and smiled. “Thanks, Trent.”

Braeden sat down beside Ivy and pulled her into his side. I suppressed a smile. He was so freaking possessive of her it was borderline ridiculous.

I liked seeing my best friend whipped. Amused the hell outta me.

“So what’s this family meeting all about?” Trent asked. “Don’t we have those like every Sunday when we eat pancakes?”

“No, that’s family time,” Rimmel said. “This is a meeting.”

I didn’t bother telling her that we men didn’t really see the difference.

“We got shit to discuss that stays in this room,” I said. “Seems we got a situation.” I quickly explained to Trent about our unwelcome visitor.

He shook his head. “Can’t say I’m surprised after the shit I’ve been hearing.”

“What shit?” Braeden went on defense immediately. “And why the fuck haven’t you said anything?”

“Because it’s just stupid talk around the frat house.” He glanced at Ivy a little apprehensively. “And I didn’t think Zach was a welcome name in this house.”

“What have you heard?” I asked, wanting him to go on.

“Apparently, Zach’s dad has hit rock bottom. After Zach died, he started drinking, his clients started looking somewhere else for representation, and just the other day, I heard his wife left him. Filed for divorce.”

Rimmel nodded. “He looked like he hit rock bottom.”

I knew she was thinking about her father and the way he looked before he was carted off to rehab for his gambling after having lost literally all his possessions.

“Accusing Ivy of murder isn’t hitting rock bottom. It’s being a vindictive asshole,” B ground out.

I gave him a glance, wondering if I was going to have to haul his ass outside and throw him in the snow to cool him off. I knew he was pissed about the things Robert said to Ivy. Hell, I’d be too in his position, but B had a temper and he couldn’t afford to lose it right now. He was already skating on a fine line.

I was thinking now I understood why.

“Whoa,” Trent said, sitting back. “I haven’t heard anything about that. I would have said something.”

Ivy slid her hand over onto B’s thigh and used her thumb to trace slow circles there. Then she rested her head against his shoulder. Some of the hair in her high ponytail rubbed against his cheek.

Braeden seemed to calm down.

Ivy was good for him.

“Robert Bettinger seems to think he’ll be able to build some kind of case against Braeden and possibly Ivy.” I began.

“He’ll leave her the fuck out of this, so help me God,” B growled.

I shot him a warning look. “Cool it, man.”

“For what?” Trent asked.

“For Zach’s murder.” Drew finished.

Trent was dumbstruck.

I’d been too at first. But it didn’t take me long to start wondering if this was part of the issues B was having lately with sleep, the reason Ivy seemed to be so concerned I wouldn’t stand by him.

Did she know more about that night than she let on?

What was it Braeden never said?

“B, you didn’t deny it while he was here,” I said.

Everyone grew quiet and glanced his way. Ivy straightened and lifted her chin like she dared anyone to say a word to him.

Have I mentioned I thought she was good for him? B did good picking her out.

“You accusing me of something, Rome?” B’s voice was dead calm.

“Hell no,” I replied. “I couldn’t care less if you locked the fucker in the car and made him burn.”

Rimmel gasped, and I realized I probably shouldn’t have said that out loud, but it was too late to take it back. Besides, it was the way I felt.

Braeden needed to know I was on his side.

I locked eyes with Ivy, and she gave me a grateful yet guarded stare.

“But I need to know what the hell we’re dealing with. We all do. We need to be prepared.” I glanced around at everyone, gauging their reactions.

“You really mean that?” B asked. It was like the conversation no longer involved everyone else in the room. It was my best friend asking me and only me if I still had his back.

I stared at him, unflinching. “No truer words have been spoken.”

I got your back. Forever.

He relaxed. A new calm washed over him. Then he glanced down at Ivy, some of his guard sliding back up.

He’s worried what her reaction will be if he admits to something.

“It’s okay, B. Just say whatever you need to say,” she said quietly, squeezing his thigh.

He looked up, stared at no one, and spoke to everyone.

“I let Zach die.”

Rimmel

I couldn’t sit still.

How was I supposed to sit here and listen to Braeden basically tell us he was a murderer?

I couldn’t.

I wouldn’t.

I had to.

Anxious, I unfolded from Romeo’s lap and paced the living room, stopping to stare in front of the fireplace.

I should light it. It was cold in here.

“So, yeah, basically, Robert was right. I killed Zach.” Braeden went on. His voice was hollow.

I felt the words like a knife to my chest. I don’t know why. I wished I didn’t. I didn’t want to be affected by this. But how could I not be?

My brother was sitting in the living room, confessing to murder.

My mother was murdered.

Her life robbed when I was just a little girl. I hated the men who killed her. Part of me was still angry my father was the reason those men came for her. I was angry he didn’t protect her. He should have.

I just don’t know how anyone could justify killing another person.

Even a sick and twisted one like Zach.

I set my coffee on the mantle and bent down to light the pilot light at the base of the fireplace. It was gas, and as soon as the pilot was lit, I could flip the switch and the fire would ignite.

Only the dumb thing wouldn’t catch.

I pushed the button frantically, becoming frustrated that it wouldn’t light.

Why wouldn’t it light?

A warm presence surrounded me and gentle hands pushed mine out of the way. “You trying to blow up the house, Smalls?”

“It’s cold in here,” I said.

Romeo pushed the button, and the blue flame flickered to life. Of course it did what he wanted on the first try.

“There you go,” he said and stood, taking me with him.

With our backs to the room and his arms still around me, he whispered so softly in my ear I had to strain to hear him, “I know it’s hard, sweetheart. Give him a chance to explain.”

They say you’re often drawn to people who possess the qualities you yourself wish you had. I was a living, breathing example of that.

I wished I could be as calm, as accepting, of this as Romeo. I loved Braeden. Next to Romeo, he was arguably the most important person in my life. I didn’t want to be upset right now. I didn’t want to look at B and have him see I was struggling.

Romeo pulled away, hit the switch, and left me to stand there.

With a great whoosh, I watched the fire burst to life. The flames danced for long minutes.

I’m not going to do this.
I wasn’t going to be angry with my brother for a choice he made in an extreme situation. Besides that, he was probably taking on way more guilt than he even deserved.

I thought about all the times he’d been there for me. The night he jumped into the pool in the middle of winter to help fish me out and then dove back in later for my glasses. The night at the hospital when he came and held me as I cried gut-wrenching sobs into his chest. The time he flew to Florida so he could be there to protect me in case things with my dad went bad. All the times I needed a hug, he just knew and hugged me.

There were so many more times that Braeden proved he was my family.

It was my turn to prove it to him.

Abruptly, I turned from the fire and strode across the room, weaved around the coffee table, and headed directly for him.

He looked at me reluctantly, a wary light in his eye.

I already hurt him by my reaction.

I climbed in his lap and tucked my arms around his neck.

I glanced at Ivy from under my lashes to make sure she wasn’t upset. The look on her face could only be described as grateful. Her body slid back a little, making more room for me.

I leaned up to whisper in his ear, “Big brother
for life
.”

Braeden hugged me close, wrapping his arms around me and sighing into my hair.

“Thanks, Rim,” he murmured.

I tucked my head in the crook of his neck and waited for him to tell us everything.

Ivy spoke up first. “Braeden didn’t kill Zach. The car explosion killed him.”

“Robert seemed to think you had time to get him out,” Romeo said.

He didn’t seem upset at all. He didn’t sound accusatory. He just sounded like he wanted answers. I knew Romeo would stand by Braeden. There wasn’t a single doubt in my mind. I never really thought he was a man who would murder someone.

Capable?

Oh yes, Romeo was capable of anything; that much I knew.

But he was also controlled in a way Braeden never had been. The words he’d said to Braeden just moments ago, how he didn’t care if B locked Zach down and made him burn…

I didn’t like that.

I didn’t like feeling like Romeo was volatile in anyway.

I wanted stable. I wanted steady.

I pressed my face a little farther into B’s neck, suddenly needing comfort.

Braeden noticed and shifted me a little closer but ducked his head down to whisper, “If this is too hard for you… if you don’t want to hear this, I understand. You can leave.”

I felt Romeo’s stare even though my back was to him.

“I want to hear,” I said. “I’m just cold.”

It was a lame lie. An excuse for the way I was clinging to him all of the sudden.

B rubbed his palm up my arm briskly, as if to generate some heat. I felt him lean forward and snag the blanket off the back of the couch, then spread it over me.

“You want Rome?” he murmured.

“I want you right now,” I said.

He seemed a little surprised at that but didn’t say anything, just tucked his arm around me and then reached for Ivy’s hand with his other.

“I never wanted to talk about this.” He spoke to everyone in the room. “But I guess now I don’t really have a choice.”

No one said a word. They just waited as if they too were unsure if they wanted to hear.

“I watched that BMW flip over three times.” His voice turned throaty, like he was battling a bad case of laryngitis. “God, we were both driving so fucking fast. I couldn’t back off. He had Ivy, for Christ’s sake. But me being there seemed to push him to the edge, and the next thing I knew, he was pointing a gun at her.”

Drew made a sound, but I didn’t look up. I just listened.

“I’ll never forget what it was like to hear that gunshot, see the car swerve, and then watch it get mangled as it literally bounced and rolled through the field. When I finally made it to the wreckage, I was out of my mind. I called out to Ivy and she didn’t answer…” I felt his throat work as he swallowed. “I thought she was dead.”

“I wasn’t,” Ivy said.

Braeden shook his head and continued. “No, you weren’t, but you were in bad shape. I honestly thought pulling her out of the car was going to kill her. And the gas was leaking. I saw it the minute I ran up to the car. I knew the car was going to blow up. After seeing it take such a beating and then smelling the gas, I knew it would light up.”

“But you pulled her out anyway,” Drew said.

“Of course I did. I’d have died trying to get her out of that car,” Braeden said. “I carried her pretty far away, closer to the road. I didn’t want her to get hurt when it did blow. She was in and out of consciousness, so yeah, I stayed with her a few minutes, trying to make sure she was still breathing.”

“And you called 9-1-1,” Ivy added.

“Yeah, and gave them a location. I thought Zach was dead. But honestly, I didn’t even care. I was too worried about Ivy. A few minutes later, I heard him yelling.”

Ivy nodded, and B jerked. “You heard him call out?”

“Yes, I heard him,” she replied.

“Did you go back to the car?” Trent asked.

“Yeah, I went back. Zach was trapped by the seat belt or something in the driver’s seat. He was struggling to get free,” Braeden said, his voice taking on a new tone. A rougher sound. “He asked me to help him. Said he didn’t want to die.”

“You tried to help him?” Drew asked.

I felt Braeden’s intake of breath. The way he steeled himself for his response. “No, I didn’t. I stood there and hated him. All I saw when I looked at him was all the shit he’d done to us over the past year. The way he tortured Rimmel, how he broke Rome’s arm. He fucking raped Ivy and let her think she’d just made a drunken mistake. I’d just seen him hit her. Pull a gun on her. And now she was lying feet away, barely alive.”

His words brought a sullen, heavy blanket over the entire room. Zach had been a terrible person. He’d hurt so many people.

“Zach knew before I did I wasn’t going to pull him out. He told me it was murder.”

Romeo sucked in a breath behind me.

“I told him he deserved it. And so help me God, to this day, I still think he did. If I had pulled him out of that car, he’d be somewhere right now plotting revenge, thinking up new ways to hurt us. We’d all be looking over our shoulder, and Ivy… she’d have to look at the man who violated her in the worst possible way.”

“B,” Romeo said, responding to the despair in his best friend’s voice.

I looked at Ivy. Her face was pale and her hand was pressed over her stomach. “We wouldn’t have been safe,” she said.

The way she was holding her middle…

“The car was on fire already.” Braeden went on. “I knew it was going to blow. So I walked away. I barely made it to Ivy before it exploded.”

So that was it. That was the entire truth of that night.

“And now you know,” Braeden said. “I’m a murderer.”