Undeniable (Damaged Elite Book 1), page 4
Shaking my head, I text Jagger, then toss my phone into my purse. I am so fucking done with today, it isn’t even funny. I just want to go back to my dorm and hide under my blanket. Unless Jagger wants to let me raid his apartment. Then I can drink all the wine I want while watching movies in his bed all day.
I sigh as I think about how fucking amazing that would be. He’s got the best bed I’ve ever been in.
As soon as I stand up, his twin does, too. I almost turn around to say something, but Jagger’s voice carries through the lecture hall.
“Bres.”
I quicken my pace and wrap my arms around him. “Thank fuck you’re finally here. He was about to get his junk punched, too.”
He chuckles in my ear. “I love when your feisty ass gets rough.”
Taking a deep breath, I try not to punch him for the second time this morning. Breathe, Bresin. Breathe.
As Jagger’s twin tries to walk past us, Jagger grabs him by the neck and pushes him into the wall. “Who the fuck are you?” His voice is no longer the playful one he was just using on me. It’s now the deadly one that threatens the guys I date.
“Like you don’t know. I know she called to warn you.”
My head snaps to Jagger’s twin and I frown. What in the hell is he talking about?
“Who?” he barks out.
“Mom. She found one of your friends and called him so she could warn you I was coming to town. Surprise, big brother.” He grins and pulls out of Jagger’s grip.
“Brother?” I ask, completely in shock. Jagger is an only child. His parents are assholes who never cared about anyone, only having him because their family pressured them into having a baby.
“Yeah. I’m the bastard no one in his family knows about.” He grins, his eyes trailing down my body.
“Don’t fucking look at her again,” Jagger growls, pulling me behind him. I have no idea what kind of pissing contest this is going to become, but I don’t want to find out. I am still in shock. “You touch her, you’ll deal with me.”
He laughs at that before he looks over Jagger’s shoulder at me. “I’ll see you later, sweetheart.” I feel dread fill my belly. Is this asshole serious? He walks away without another word as I stare at Jagger.
“Jagger?” I ask, not sure what else to do. His body is stiff, and I just want to do something to make everything better.
He turns to face me, anger radiating in his eyes. He doesn’t say anything as he dials before putting the phone to his ear. I hear a feminine voice answer. My whole body goes cold. I hate thinking about him being with other women, but he doesn’t have to talk to this one while I’m standing right here.
“Who the fuck are you and why am I just finding out I have a brother?”
I press my body into his. He mindlessly wraps his arm around my back. His fingers barely put pressure on me, but I can feel all his tension.
He listens to whatever she has to say. I don’t know how he’s going to handle it. I'm not sure if he’ll go off the rails, or if he’ll find his brother and beat the shit out of him for even coming here. I try to be strong for him as we stand in the empty hall. He protects me, and I’ll try like hell to protect him. I don’t care what I have to sacrifice to do that.
The anger flowing through my veins is nothing new. I got used to feeling like I was the gum on the bottom of my father’s shoe. It’s part of the reason I grew up to be such a nuisance. It’s how Beckett, Maddox, Ridge, and I became such good friends. We were all pretty much outcasts in our wealthy families, and we needed a way to break free from their hold on us.
We are the black sheep.
We didn’t care if we got in trouble doing shit. We did it hoping to get in trouble. Maybe they’d then show that they cared. It never happened. Not one of our parents cared enough to ask what the fuck we were thinking. They just cleaned up mess after mess, throwing money at our problems like that was the answer.
Dax Matthew Bishop.
Her fucking story does nothing but force my anger to rise higher until I throw my phone at the damn wall, watching it break into pieces. I’m fucking pissed. I know I’m scaring Bresin, but I can’t control it.
I just found out my whole life has been a lie. I was told Mary Bishop was my mother, but she isn’t. Josephine Mac is. She left my father when I was five, but he refused to let me leave with her. He threatened to kill her if she tried to take me, so she just left. She left me behind because she couldn’t deal with him any longer.
Stupid fucking cunt.
What she never told my father was that she was pregnant when she left. She had the baby and never told a goddamn soul.
I grew up thinking my parents never fucking loved me. In reality, they didn’t. One was a fake, the other just wanted control. They both can go fuck themselves.
Sliding down the wall to the floor, I try to process this shit some other way besides rage. Bresin falls to the floor with me, never letting go of my hand. I pull her into my lap and she wraps her arms around me, comforting me in a way I never expected. She breathes new purpose into me. One that tells me I don’t have to give a fuck what my dad wants me to do. He wants me to take over his business one day, but all he’s going to get from me is a big fat fuck you. He will never control my life, not after the lies he’s filled my head with over the years.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper against her neck. Closing my eyes, I breathe in her scent and let it calm me.
“What can I do?” she asks, running her fingers through my hair.
I clutch her tighter. I don’t say anything for a while. I need to get a new damn phone and still need to talk to the guys about Ridge. Unfortunately, we now have one more thing to talk about.
As much as I would rather spend the rest of my afternoon wrapped up in Bresin’s arms, my ass is numb. I kiss her neck and lift her up with me when I stand. “I need to go get a new phone. You want to come?” I refuse to let her go, but I won’t force her to do anything she doesn’t want to.
“Sure.” Her voice isn’t the bitchy attitude I love from her; instead, it’s soft and quiet, which is something I’m not used to.
“Don’t treat me like I can’t deal with this. I need you to be your feisty, bitchy, sexy self,” I murmur before pressing my mouth to hers. I’ve never kissed her in public before, but it feels like the right fucking thing to do.
She laughs before agreeing to be herself.
When we finally get done at the phone store and get back to my place, I dial Maddox’s number. Bresin has her hand in her hair, inspecting the ends of it like a damn monkey. I never understood what the hell girls are doing when they do that shit.
“Hey, Jagger. What’s up?”
“Hey. I need you to stop by,” I say, pushing Bresin over with my boot. She flips me off as she falls off the couch, making me laugh.
“Sure, brother. I’ll come by in thirty.”
I hang up and dial Beckett’s number. If I were to say I only wanted to see them, I’m sure Ridge would find out and show up, too. I don’t need that shit yet. I also tell Beckett to get to my apartment in thirty before I hang up and motion Bresin to come back over to me.
She rolls her eyes and sits on the opposite end of the couch. “Bresin…,” I say, crooking my finger at her again. She shakes her head. This time, I grab her foot, making her squeal, and drag her ass over to me. Once I have her straddling my lap, I ask, “You want to be here for this?”
She bites her lip as she tries to decide if she can handle me telling them what he did to her. I know she doesn’t like people knowing her business, but if she’s here, they might believe me. I have a feeling they’ll just think I’m trying to get inside her panties and that making up shit about him putting his hands on her is the quickest way for them to agree to get him help.
“Yeah, I’ll be okay. I just don’t want to say anything.” Her voice breaks. I hate that she’s even in this position. Ridge knows we don’t hurt women. Not like that. We may use their bodies for our pleasure, but they are all very willing participants.
Getting up from the couch, I walk into the kitchen to pour her a glass of wine before grabbing myself a beer. She’s going to need the alcohol by the end of this little family meeting.
Taking a seat next to her, I pull her legs into my lap and start to massage her feet to keep my mind off what we need to talk about. Thinking about my brother makes me fucking twitchy, and part of me just wants to sink back inside Bresin so I can relieve some of this damn tension in my body.
“I’ll let you fuck my mouth again if you stop bouncing your damn leg.”
My eyes meet hers. “My leg isn’t bouncing.” She raises an eyebrow and nods at my legs.
Fuck. She’s right. My leg is bouncing like a damn ball and I can’t stop it. Shit.
“Bresin…,” I murmur, running my hand up and down her thigh.
“What? You are one of the strongest people I know, and I know at least four.” She winks at me as I shake my head. “Stop worrying. I don’t think he will do anything to me. He seemed more interested in you.”
I don’t believe her. I saw the way he looked at her. If he has a chance, he is going to make it known that he wants her, too. “He was practically eating you with his eyes, little girl. He wants you, and I’m not down with that.” She just rolls her eyes like the child she can be sometimes. “Don’t roll your eyes at me. I know exactly what he was doing as his eyes traveled down the length of you. He’ll try to get in your pants, and I’ll break his hands if he does.”
“You do realize you don’t own me, right?”
I nod. Until I claim her, I can’t tell her not to fuck any of those little pussy bastards she goes to school with, but I can threaten their lives if they try. She doesn’t know the number of fuckers I’ve put the fear of God into since she became sixteen.
“Yeah, I do. If I did, your sexy little ass would be riding my dick right now while we waited for the others to show up.” I run my nose along her neck. “And I wouldn’t let you wear those tight little dresses out in public unless you were on my arm.”
“You are so full of shit. You and I both know that I wouldn’t let you change the way I dress.” She pokes my chest with her finger. I shrug. I guess we will find out when the time comes. “Plus, you’d never claim me. You like fucking all those whores.”
Grabbing her face with my hands, I pull her closer. “I don’t give a shit about them. The last time, I had to think about you just to get it up.”
Her mouth falls open, stunned into silence. This girl is going to be the death of me, but I’m still glad I can make her speechless.
Just wait until I show her what I like. She won’t know what hit her. Her sexy little ass is going to have handprints on it before I tie her to the bed and fuck her from behind. Just thinking about it gets me hard as fuck, but a knock interrupts us.
I pull her mouth in for one last kiss before moving her off my lap. I adjust myself as I make my way to the door. The moment I unlock it, both Maddox and Beckett come pushing their way in, not giving a shit what I called them for. They make their way to the fridge and grab a beer before they even realize Bresin is here, too.
“Are you fucking insane?” Maddox asks, beating Beckett to the punch. Bresin just rolls her eyes and flips them both off before taking another sip of wine.
“No,” I grunt, shutting the door and locking it before making my way back to the couch to sit next to Bresin.
“If you are fucking Ridge’s little sister, you’ve finally gone off the deep end,” Beckett says, walking over to us and squeezing onto the couch in between us. Fucking prick. He knows that is going to piss me off. I have a feeling he’s doing it on purpose just to see what my reaction will be.
“That isn’t what this is about anyway. The three of us need to talk, and she’s part of it.”
They both stare at me like I’ve grown a second head, and I don’t blame them. They know I have feelings for her. I’ve never really been great at hiding them. That’s pretty much how Ridge found out I wanted to fuck his sister into next week.
“So fucking spill before I call that motherfucker and let him beat your ass for this shit,” Beckett says, wrapping an arm around Bresin.
I want to beat the fuck out of him for even putting his hands on her. She isn’t his, but I hope she will be mine very soon.
My nerves start to get the best of me when they show up.
Seriously, I haven’t been nervous about anything since I lost my virginity. God, why am I such a damn chicken right now? Jagger isn’t going to let anything happen to me, and once Mad and Beck find out what happened, they will go on the warpath, too. When they get together, I am sometimes seriously scared of what they might do.
“So spit it the fuck out,” Maddox finally says, taking a long pull from his beer.
I twist my fingers in the bottom of my shirt as I wait for Jagger to say something, anything. The longer he waits, the more likely one of them will call Ridge to tell him they found Jagger and me together in his apartment.
With the way Ridge has been acting, I’m afraid of what might happen. Not that Jagger couldn’t handle himself if it came down to blows, but I hope it doesn’t.
“Last night, Ridge called me to tell me someone was trying to get in touch with me. He passed the number along. Before we hung up, he asked me to check in with Bresin because she wasn’t answering his calls or texts. When I asked her about it, she told me something happened with Ridge a week ago.”
All eyes turn to me. I sure as hell am glad he thought to leave out the information about us fucking. As I look down at my hands, a hand grabs my chin.
“What happened, Bres?” Beckett asks in the softest voice I’ve ever heard him use.
My eyes move to Jagger, who nods. I close my eyes for a second and take a deep breath.
“A week ago, we had our usual family dinner. Ridge had been acting strange all night, getting pissy with everyone for no damn reason, and I couldn’t figure out what the hell his problem was. I tried to stay away from him for most of the night, but before I left, I changed my clothes because I was going out to a party with Ireland.”
I take another deep breath and look at Jagger. He makes me feel stronger, even though I am anything but strong right now. “He caught me before I could leave and pushed me up against the wall because he didn’t like what I was wearing. His hand went to my throat and he started to choke me. I begged him to let me go, but he wouldn’t. No matter what I did, he wouldn’t stop.” A tear falls down my cheek. “He called me a slut, saying I was just like the girls the four of you fuck at parties. That I was just asking for it and he wouldn’t be surprised if someone raped me. That I deserved it.” A sob falls from my lips, then I feel myself being pulled into a body.
Jagger’s cologne envelopes me as I cry against his neck. “I’m going to calm her down, then we can talk about it.” He picks me up and carries me toward his room.
When he sets me on his bed, I cling to him. I didn’t tell him everything that happened. Now that he knows, I don’t know how he can look at me the same. He lay down, pulling me into his arms, soothing me the best he can. His hands run up and down my back slowly, and I can’t help but close my eyes to try and stop the tears.
I hate to cry in front of him because it makes me feel so damn weak, but I can’t help it. “Bresin, I’m not leaving you. The three of us will always protect you, even against your brother. Just breathe, little girl,” he whispers. I nod, but refuse to release him. I’m not ready for him to walk away from me right now.
“Don’t leave me,” I whisper brokenly.
He kisses my head before tucking me tighter into his body. “I won’t. I promise.”
Being in his arms gives me exactly what I need. I close my eyes and just hold tight as long as I can.
My teeth hit against my lip ring as I get up, making sure I don’t wake Bresin. I would much rather stay with her all damn night, but the guys and I need to talk. I didn’t know it was that bad. She didn’t tell me the whole story, and now I know why.
Walking into the living room, I see two sets of eyes on me. “I don’t want to hear shit about it,” I state right off the bat.
“We don’t give a shit about that. What we care about is that he crossed the fucking line. Why didn’t she come to us when it first happened?” Beckett growls. “She should have known we would have dealt with him.”
I roll my shoulders. “I don’t fucking know, but now that she has said something, we need to deal with it. There has been something off with him for months. I thought that maybe shit was just getting away from him with work and the stress of dealing with their old man, but him saying that shit to her went too far.”
They both nod as I take a seat on the couch. “You think he’s using again?” Maddox asks.
I hoped like fuck that he wasn’t, but I’m not sure anymore. This isn’t the first time we’ve had to deal with Ridge using. Three years ago, we caught him shooting up heroin. He begged us to keep it from his family, especially Bresin. He didn’t want her to think he was a loser because he couldn’t say no to the temptation.
“We can throw his ass back in rehab, but I don’t know if it will help. I mean, he stayed clean for three years, but whatever caused him to fall off the wagon can knock his ass off again if he isn’t careful,” Beckett says. I nod, trying to figure out what the next step is.
“We need to find out how bad it is.” Maddox runs his hand over his week-old beard. I study both of them for a few seconds before I say what has been weighing on my mind.
“He’ll be pissed when he finds out we know. Maybe he’s trying to test her, but why the fuck would he not just seek her out and find out if she is going to tell? Honestly, I don’t think she would have. You don’t know what I had to do to get her to tell me in the first place.”
Maddox snorts at that, but doesn’t say a word.
“Yeah. I’m sure it was so damn hard to get her to talk to you. Let me guess. You had to take one for the team and fuck her to get her to spill her guts to you,” Beckett says, shaking his head.
