Stepbrother Bestie (A Stepbrother Romance Novel) (50 page)

Chapter
42

Tyler

When I got back to the house, everything
seemed ridiculously strained and quiet.

My stepfather was watching television and
didn’t even look at me when I walked in, and I couldn’t find my mother.

After searching downstairs, for I have no
fucking clue what, I started to make my way upstairs, when I heard my
stepfather’s voice yell, “If you’re looking to fuck my daughter again, she’s
gone.”

There were about a million different
responses roaming around inside my head that I didn’t say, because believe it
or not, I really didn’t want to start a fight, especially if she was
gone
? I knew that if I fought with the
bastard, I would have little to no chance of getting the information that I
wanted.
Gone fucking where?
I
thought, but didn’t even say that.

Instead, I moved back downstairs and in
front of the television. I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to make
myself look impressive before I squinted my eyes at him. “Excuse me? What did
you just say?”

“You heard me…” my stepfather answered in
a gruff tone.

I felt my muscles tense as I tried my best
not to knock him the hell out. Instead, I just took a deep breath, let it out
and asked, “Okay, fine. I did hear you. The part that I want to know is, where
did she go?”

At this, Ashley’s father stood up and ran
at me.
Oh shit…
I thought as I
automatically moved to block myself.

He swung, stupidly and without the least
bit of form. I blocked it easily and even though I wanted to hit him, I
resisted, knowing that I could easily kill him and that would only escalate the
situation.

I certainly didn’t want to kill another
supposed father figure, after all, no matter how shitty he was at it.

So I just grasped him around the shoulders
and shoved him back into the padded chair.

When he looked back at me, his eyes were
bloodshot and irate. “You son of a bitch!”

“Yeah, but you fucking married her,” I
answered. He insulted my girl. I wasn’t below insulting his, even if she was my
own mother; it wasn’t like I didn’t have the same opinion.

At this, Ashley’s father snarled and
rushed at me again. I expected this and put my hands up to protect myself. Once
again, I grasped him and pushed him back on the couch. “Fucking stop!” I
screamed, “I just want to know where the hell Ashley went! If you’re not going
to tell me, then fuck you. I’ll find her myself.”

I backed away, but continued to keep a
close eye on him. I had a feeling he wasn’t going to be above taking a cheap
shot at me, but as much as I would have liked to beat his face in, I knew that
I shouldn’t. Besides, my body was physically and mentally exhausted.

Right now, all I wanted was a fucking nap.
I didn’t have time for this shit, but instead of taking a nap and ignoring
everything that was going on around me, I decided that I wanted to find Ashley
no matter what.

I took this as improvement.

So, I backed up toward the door.

“Get back here, you worthless piece of
shit!” my stepfather screamed, barreling toward me in a sloppy manner.

I was never one to run from a fight, but
in that moment, when I realized that I had a choice to make — stay and continue
this charade with this asshole, until I got hurt while trying not to hurt him,
or he became seriously injured when I lost control, or get away so that I could
find Ashley quicker — I decided that my real fight was to try to get Ashley
back. To hell with her father.

So I turned quickly and ran out of the
house. My legs immediately began to scream and I wondered briefly what would
happen if they gave out on me, or if I passed out, but I didn’t dwell on that
thought. Instead I just ran, trying my best to get where I needed to go instead
of wasting more of my time.

Thankfully, I naturally ran faster than
her father, so I was able to make it to the front door and slam it in his face
before he came close to catching me.

It was just about then that my adrenaline
kicked in and I was able to continue running, which was a good thing, because
it didn’t take long for my stepfather to open the door and tear off after me.

I was able to outrun him fairly quick, but
I still didn’t want to take any chances. I continued to run down the driveway
and the first side street, before curving back down and going into an ice cream
parlor that was filled with people. I ordered something because I was starving
and tried to text Ashley while I waited, hoping to get lost in the crowd.

I would have liked to think that
everything would have been okay, even if he had caught me, but I really
couldn’t have been sure. Ashley’s father had a sense of crazy in his eye that I
knew I didn’t particularly want to mess with. I knew that I could take him,
that wasn’t exactly the issue. I just didn’t want to take him. I didn’t want to
hurt him and I didn’t want to get so caught up in that line of thinking that I
let him hurt me.

I wondered if he would make an effort to
find me, or now go after Ashley, since he really did appear to have gone
slightly insane, but I couldn’t truly think about that right now. I just wanted
to focus on getting back with Ashley and making things right.

There was no need for either of our
parents to approve, especially if they were going to act like that. In a way, I
was surprised and kind of happy that her father showed me he actually had a
backbone and was willing to stand up to me. But he had chosen the wrong fucking
time to get his tail out from between his legs and take a stand.

If we were supposed to be together, then
it didn’t matter what they thought. It wasn’t like their love-life was filled
with spotless marital bliss.

So, I waited for Ashley to text me back,
but she never did. I tried calling her phone when I was almost finished with my
ice cream, slightly hesitant over who was going to answer, but that went right
to voicemail. I felt a tremble of fear cascade through me.

What
if her father found her…As crazy as he is being…
I
thought at first. Then, I thought,
or what
if she’s really gone?

I shook both thoughts out of my head and
realized that the only way I was going to find her was to get out and look for
her. I left the ice cream parlor and made my way back toward the house.

Her
car is still there…
I remembered,
so unless she took a bus, she couldn’t have gotten all that far…

I made my way back on the beach, knowing
that being spotted here was a possibility, but also realizing that this was the
most likely place for me to find her.

It was getting dark though and I knew that
visibility would take a nosedive as soon as the sun went down.

As I walked along, I continued to try to
call and text her phone, but there was no answer.

So as I made my way toward the back of the
house, fear began to build inside of me.
What
if something happened to her…What if her father made her…go away…Dammit! I
should have fucking been there. I shouldn’t have waited…

When I reached the back of the beach
house, I decided I should
search around the
property, just to make sure that a fit of rage didn’t claim Ashley’s life.

After
all, the dude was pretty fucking quick to resort to violence…
My mind egged my terrible thoughts on as I snuck my way back onto the property.
Was the dickhead trying to tell me
something? He did offer the information that she had left. Maybe it was his
sick way of gloating.
“Shit!” I muttered to myself as I quickened my pace
toward the back of the house.

I looked at the yard and decided that
there was no signs of a fight. For as many fucking fights as I have been in, I
should know.

Once I was satisfied with the way the yard
looked, I noticed a piece of clothing hanging off of the house. It was lacey,
but it looked as though it was discarded in a hurry.

I moved closer to what I soon figured out
was a thong and went to go pick it up, when I heard noises coming from the
garden shed behind me.

I wasn’t sure what the grunts sounded
like, but I felt a bad vibe rocket throughout my body and I knew that I needed
to get over there quickly. I didn’t know what was going on, but it didn’t take
a rocket scientist to realize that people shouldn’t be making those noises in a
shed.

Without thinking, I tore open the door, ready
to fight, and heard a woman scream.

I moved over to the man, who seemed to be
on top of the woman and in the dim lighting, it took me a moment to realize who
the people were. I pulled the man back, but turned around to see my mother with
wide, terrified eyes.

Not sure yet what I was thinking, I looked
over at the other person and realized that it was not my stepfather.

In an instant, everything clicked.

“Oh my God! Tyler please…I’m going to
leave Fred. It’s just a fling, but I know it is wrong…Please don’t tell him…Let
me tell him,” my mother was saying, even before I had actually registered what
was going on.

When I did, I glared at my mother hard,
until she stopped talking and stared at me.

“Mom, I really don’t give a fuck,” I
answered before I walked out, closed the door and made my way back out onto the
beach to find the one person in the world that I did really give a fuck about.

Chapter
43

Ashley

I no longer had a phone, or a car, since
both of those things belonged to my father. I was sure that I would have to
worry about how to pay for school, but there were plenty of options for
students in my good standing.

I might be paying them off forever, but I
would at least be able to have the life I wanted, without relying on my stupid
father.

I had certainly said a lot to him and I
had meant every word of it. I wasn’t trying to be cruel or hurtful, but I
wanted him to know that he had hurt me with all of the awful things
he
said.

I wanted him to know that life didn’t
always work the way he thought it did. I had tried to forgive him for what he
did, but I hadn’t forgotten. I would have never forgotten; he made it so hard
to get past it, because he was acting guilt-ridden over something that he did
not allow me to try to understand.

For all he knew, I spent all of those
years having no idea what was going on. He might have wanted forgiveness for
it, but he had certainly never asked. In fact, he hadn’t even explained
anything to me, so how could he expect true and honest forgiveness if he wasn’t
able to own up to what he had done?

Hell,
he isn’t even willing to accept that he did anything wrong!
I thought, rolling my eyes and laying back on the sand.

After leaving my car and basically
everything that belonged to my father at the house, I realized that probably
wasn’t the best idea. I didn’t know where I was going to go, since I didn’t
want to pay for housing at school for the rest of the summer and I didn’t want
anything from my father. I knew I had to figure it out, but I certainly wasn’t
going to try to get back in his good graces just so I had a place to stay.

If I got desperate enough, I was sure that
I could have crashed at a friend’s house close to school.

However, right now, I was just enjoying
the ease of having all of that pent-up anger and anxiety off of my chest. I
felt as though I could breathe easy for the first time in years.

Even when I was in school, my past life
plagued my mind, but since there were no reminders I could ignore them. Here,
they were so daunting that ignoring them was almost impossible.

Therefore, after they had built up for
three months, it was really nice to have a breath of true fresh air.

I still didn’t want to leave Tyler and I
hoped he was all right, seeing as how I didn’t tell him anything about what had
happened, but I figured he would make do. I certainly wasn’t worried about him
leaving if he felt like he had to. In all honesty, I was surprised that he
stuck around for as long as he did.

For
me?
I thought, but then reconsidered.
Don’t
kid yourself. He’s probably just as happy that you’re gone.
You took care of the headache that was your
relationship with him basically for them. Now they can really be one big, happy
family of three. No questions asked, just what my father had always wanted.

That’s when I heard a familiar voice
calling my name.

I stopped to listen and turned my head
toward the sound.

The voice certainly didn’t sound like my
father. In fact, it actually sounded a lot like… “Tyler?” I asked, squinting my
eyes in the darkness. I was able to pick out his muscular shape coming toward
me.

“Ashley?” he asked, in a far more hopeful
voice then I had expected. He quickened his pace toward me, slid next to me on
the sand and wrapped his massive arms around me.