33. Archer

33

ARCHER

T he rest of the day drags on endlessly. Misery gnaws at my insides, leaving me listless and unfocused. Our confrontation with Lyric left me feeling hollow, which is echoed in Levi and Zane's faces.

When we left to confront Lyric, we thought we were fighting for the right to know our son, but now it feels like we're still obsessed with winning at any cost. I'm sick of every conversation with Lyric ending in a screaming match, with insults thrown back and forth on each side like grenades.

I can't shake the feeling that every time we've tried to get back at Lyric, the people we end up hurting are ourselves.

Desperate for a distraction, we decide to go out and drown our sorrows at a college party, but it's just our luck that the only party is at Sigma Theta, a place we'd normally avoid at all costs.

But it's better than drowning in our own thoughts, so we throw some clothes on and head over, getting lost in the mindless punk-pop playing over the speakers and the disgusting mixed drinks on tap in the kitchen.

I wander through the crowd, trying to find something, anything, to pull me out of this funk. But all I can think about is Lyric and Eli. I can't believe how quickly things spiraled out of control.

Upstairs, I search for the bathroom, needing a moment away from the crowd. The hallway is dark and quieter, a stark contrast to the chaos below. As I reach for the bathroom door, I hear it—a muffled scream, faint but unmistakable.

Furrowing my brow, I creep closer to where I heard the sound coming from—one of the rooms at the end of the hallway. I stand outside and listen carefully, wondering if someone is in trouble and needs assistance.

I hear a yell more clearly this time, a plea for help, and I freeze, instantly recognizing the voice I'm hearing.

It's Lyric.

Adrenaline fuels me as I bust the door open and nausea fills my stomach at the sight of Cameron Grant pinning Lyric down on his bed.

Lyric's face turns toward mine, fear and pleading in her eyes. I don't hesitate and run back into the hall, needing backup.

"Levi, Zane! Get up here, now!" I scream as loud as I can. Within seconds, I hear them scrambling up the stairs. The tone of my voice must have them worried because they're racing down the hallway as I storm back into the bedroom.

Both of them act at the same time, pouncing on Cameron and dragging him off Lyric as I grab her and carry her off, sprinting down the stairs with her and getting her as far away from that asshole as I can. I trust my brothers to take care of that asshole. My only focus is on protecting Lyric.

She's having a panic attack, I realize, as I hear the sound of her gasping for breath. I take her to our house, dashing up the stairs with her at top speed to get her into my bedroom where I know she'll be safe.

She clings to me as I try to lower her onto the bed, so I stay with her, holding her tightly as she wheezes for a breath, unable to calm down.

"Breathe with me," I order her, trying to help. Right now, I need to get her calm so she doesn't have a horrible anxiety attack and end up in the hospital. Lyric shakes her head, eyes wide and unfocused.

"I can't… I can't!" Lyric wails, grabbing at her chest. Her dress is hiked up over her hips, and I realize she must be freezing, so I wrap us both in my down comforter, holding her tight to my chest.

"Can you be my good girl?" I ask, trying to change my tactic. "Be good for me, Lyric. Breathe in and out on my count. Are you going to be good or do I have to punish you?" I don't know if this will work and I'm scared that this might make her worse, but I have to try.

Lyric's eyes meet mine, and I notice how bloodshot they look. I frown. "Have you been drinking?" I ask.

"No," she says, drawing the word out. She pokes her tongue out of her mouth and goes cross-eyed trying to examine it. "Only had one cup of that crappy jiggle juice."

"Jungle juice," I correct her and then my heart seizes. Cameron must have slipped something into her drink so he could get her alone and vulnerable like this. Bile fills my mouth, and I swallow hard. "Just breathe with me, okay, Songbird?" I ask, hoping the nickname will help.

She focuses on me as best she can, trying to mimic the way I breathe slowly in and out, but once her breathing has become regulated, that's when she breaks down into tears.

"I'm sorry!" she wails. "I'm sorry, please, I'm sorry, Archer. I'm so sorry."

I shush her, stroking my hand through her hair. "Shh, it's fine, you don't need to apologize," I tell her. "You're safe now. You're fine. I'm not mad. I was scared that you were in trouble, but you're safe now," I repeat.

The words seem to help because she slowly starts to calm down and relax. "I… I'm sorry, Archer," she says, voice soft. "I didn't mean to. You told me not to be around Cameron. And I didn't listen, again."

"It's my fault," I admit, my heart in my throat at how close Lyric had come to getting hurt tonight. "It's all my fault. We shouldn't have yelled at you. We pushed you away and you reached out to someone you thought was a friend."

Lyric clings to me, a sob escaping her. "I thought he was my friend. He used me. He only wanted to be close so he could hurt me."

"That's our fault too," I say, wincing because I know it's the truth. We've spent so long making sure that Lyric had no friends, no support, no one she could trust that she ended up trusting someone dangerous. "We shouldn't have isolated you. That's abusive shit right there and that's why you were vulnerable to assholes like him."

I feel tears sting my own eyes too, realizing for the first time how my anger issues have affected everyone around me. Guilt washes over me as I swallow the bitter pill of truth. Fuck. If I hadn't been so hell-bent on revenge, if I hadn't been so desperate to lash out, then I might not have put the mother of my child in this situation.

Because no matter what Lyric did or didn't do wrong, she did everything she could to protect our child from harm, even putting herself in harm's way instead. I rub my thumb over Lyric's cheek, trying to soothe her but feeling like I have no idea what I'm doing. "You're safe now," I tell her. "We can take you in to get looked at if you want. I can take you to the clinic."

"No!" Lyric yells, clinging harder to me. "Don't leave me! Please, don't leave me!"

"I'm not going anywhere," I promise, trying to calm her down so she doesn't hurt herself. "Just breathe. Come on, Songbird, you can do it. Breathe in and out."

Lyric obeys, copying my breaths as I get her calmed down again. "We don't have to go. We can go tomorrow. We can stay right here for now."

She seems to relax at this and I breathe a little easier, knowing she's not going to freak out and hurt herself.

"I should have been there," I say, my voice choked up as I think about how this could have easily gone wrong. "Fuck, I should have protected you, Lyric. You were the only person I ever loved, and I failed you."

I look down, but her breathing has evened out and I realize she's passed out. Relief washes over me. At least she's safe here and can sleep off the effects of the roofie in her system.

As I lie back with her, hand still stroking over her hair, I reflect on the words I just admitted. All this time, I spent so long being angry at Lyric, but the truth is, my own issues caused this.

If I hadn't been such a prick with a bad case of affluenza in high school, if I didn't think of myself as completely untouchable, maybe we wouldn't have pulled so many dumb pranks thinking we could get away with it.

Lyric wasn't the one who set off the drones. We were. All she did was tell the police who did it. Someone else had tampered with them, but it wasn't her. She didn't know enough about that kind of shit back then to do something like that.

I hate myself for putting all the blame on Lyric for ruining my life when I was the rich asshole who ruined my own life with my carelessness. No wonder Lyric felt like she couldn't trust us enough to tell us about Eli.

I'm starting to wonder if my temper and my selfishness have been the cause of all the problems I blamed on Lyric. Maybe if I hadn't treated her like shit, she would have told us about Eli sooner. And maybe if I hadn't been an arrogant dick, she wouldn't have reached out to someone like Cameron for help.

I don't know what I'm going to do when she wakes up, but I know that things are going to have to change in a major way from now on.