Chapter Twenty

CHAPTER TWENTY

Parrish

Iwasn’t home long when the call came through. My instinct was to ignore it, but I knew my dad better than to try and do that. If he wanted me for something, he wouldn’t stop until he had his say. He knew I wouldn’t do illegal shit for him anymore, but that never stopped him from needing things from me.

“What?” I answered with, instead of hello. In the background, my washer buzzed, letting me know my laundry was done.

“Now, is that any way to talk to your old man?” he asked, sounding like he’d just chain-smoked a pack of cigarettes.

I sighed. “What do you want, Dad? We don’t have to pretend you’ve ever given a shit about being a father to me. I’m not Rex, so I don’t matter.” I cared when I was younger. It was why I’d done the things I’d done—trying to be the son Frank Hunt wanted and the brother Rex Hunt respected. What a waste of time.

Dad laughed. “Always were a little more sensitive, weren’t you? Get your ass to my house. I want to talk to you.”

“No. I’m tired. I don’t feel like—”

“How was your weekend away with Riven?”

My heart stopped beating. How had he known I went away with Riv? The only person we told was Betsy. “I’m on my way.”

“That’s what I thought.”

Motherfucker. Blood rushed through my ears, my pulse slamming against my skin as I grabbed my keys and headed out.

My fingers drummed against the steering wheel the whole way. When I pulled down the driveway, Rex’s truck was there too. Of course.

I killed the engine and jumped out, forcing myself to bury my anger and nerves, the two leading emotions in the crowd of feelings trying to break me down.

Rex opened the door the second I got onto the porch. “Hey!” He feigned excitement. “How’s it going, little bro?”

“Fuck you, Rex.” I pushed past my brother and into the smoke-filled house. There were two lines of white powder on a tray on the table, which caught my eye as Rex and Dad laughed at me. “How did you know I was away with Riven?”

“I can’t believe he left Betsy home alone all weekend, can you?” Dad asked Rex conversationally. “He’s overprotective, though I don’t know what he has to worry about.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. Was that a threat, or just them trying to show they were in control? Neither answer would surprise me.

“Leave Riven and Betsy alone.” Every syllable I’d spoken had been sharp enough to cut.

“Or what? Are you threatening us?” Rex asked. “Dad told you to keep an eye on him, yet you haven’t given us one fucking thing the whole time. And you’re going away like boyfriends or something.”

Because we were. Or at least I wanted to be. I wanted everything with Riven, and while I wouldn’t tell them that, I couldn’t deny it to myself any longer.

“What’s your problem?” I ran a hand through my hair. Dad was sitting on the couch, looking at me, and Rex was standing with his arms crossed, also staring at me. “Leave them the fuck alone. He already did Rex’s time. He went to prison for you. There’s nothing he can do to hurt you now. It’s not like he’s going to go tell them he lied when he said he did it. It would still be three against one.” But then that wasn’t what this was really about, was it? They wanted Riven to still be under their thumb. They wanted to be able to use him more in the future if they could, and they wanted to know he would keep quiet.

“Looks like Riven has a big mouth,” Dad said coldly, highlighting my mistake. Shit. I wasn’t supposed to know. No one was supposed to know.

“He didn’t tell me.”

“How the hell do we know he’s not talking to other people or about other shit?” Rex bellowed, which was another good point. Riven probably knew things, even if it was shit from a long time ago that he could open his mouth about. He wouldn’t because that’s not how he worked, but he could if he wanted to.

“Because he wouldn’t do that, you dumbass. It was your big-ass mouth. I got here early that day you told me to watch him. You guys were talking, and I could hear you, so I hid on the side of the house and listened.”

My dad’s face changed three shades of red. “You need to be careful, son, or you’re going to get yourself in trouble.”

“Because I don’t already know half the shit you guys do? There’s coke on the table right now. Rex sells drugs for you. I’m not a fucking idiot.”

Dad shoved to his feet, hands fisted. He knew I had knowledge of all that, but it wasn’t something that was discussed. It definitely wasn’t something I put out there like I just had. People didn’t talk to my dad like that. I didn’t talk to him like that, and as much as I didn’t regret it, it was a mistake.

And there was more I knew too.

“Be careful, Parrish,” Dad warned again. “Remember who your family is.”

Was he for real? “It sure as hell isn’t the two of you!” My chest tightened, the words hard to hold back. “You don’t give a shit about me. You never did, and if I had it my way, Riven would tell the whole fucking world what Rex did. And I’d back him up too.”

I was too focused on my dad to consider Rex, which was my second mistake besides letting my emotions get the best of me and saying the shit I had. Rex lunged at me, his body colliding with mine and knocking me into the coffee table, which broke beneath our weight.

He was on top of me, sitting on my stomach, fist pulled back. Pain shot through my face when he punched me, then again and again, before I was able to roll us. I threw the next swing, connecting with Rex’s face, then his stomach before he bucked me off, managed to get to his feet, and kicked me in the gut. It felt like a damn explosion went off inside me.

Rex pulled me to my feet, another fist to the stomach and one to the face. I stumbled backward before gaining my balance and running at him, hitting him in his middle and tackling him to the ground again.

I didn’t know how many punches we’d thrown, but enough to make the pain in my fists rival that of the rest of my body, when Dad grabbed me from behind and pulled me off Rex.

If the situation were reversed, he wouldn’t have pulled Rex off me.

I spit blood on the living-room floor, then wiped my face with my arm. “Leave Riven and Betsy the fuck alone.” I jerked out of my dad’s hold as Rex slowly stood.

“Does she know?” Dad asked, making my heart drop.

“No. Riven would never do that.” I spit more blood that filled my mouth. “Please…just leave them alone. I’ll take responsibility for shit if it goes down. Riven won’t say anything, but even if he tried, I wouldn’t let him. He just wants a normal life. Can’t you let him have a normal life?” I was begging and hated myself for it, but I would do it if it helped Riven.

“Jesus, you’re an idiot,” Rex said. “You really are fucking him, aren’t you? Do you think he really wants you? Do you think you’re going to fulfill some childhood dream and ride off into the sunset with him? Get a clue, Parrish. You’re a piece of ass to him. He’s fucking you to piss me off. I know him better than you, and I know how he works. You hate me, but he’s just like me. He just hides it better.”

No, he wasn’t. I didn’t believe that for a second, though I couldn’t pretend Rex’s words hadn’t been hard to hear. What if he was right? What if Riven was using me and—No! I couldn’t let them get into my head that way.

“Get out of my house,” Dad told me. “We’ll leave him be for now, but you better make sure he watches his fucking mouth, and now you owe me. You want me to leave Riven alone, then when I need you, you gotta do something for me.”

My gut churned, knowing whatever it was Dad would want me to do wouldn’t be good. It would likely get me in a whole lot of trouble. Still, I nodded because I would do it if it kept Riven safe. He’d spent time in prison for my piece-of-shit brother. I could do this for him.

The moment I stepped into the driveway, I vomited, emptying my stomach onto the gravel. Everything hurt. My whole body ached, pain piercing me with every step, every movement I made.

It was hard to drive home, but I managed it. The second I got there, I grabbed frozen vegetables from the freezer, a bottle of water, downed a few painkillers, then stripped and fell into bed.

One of my last thoughts was how to avoid Riven until I healed because if he saw me like this, he would lose his mind. The other was that I would do anything to keep him safe.