Chapter Twenty-Two

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

Parrish

After my nap, Riven had gotten up and made me dinner, then helped me into the small shower, where he washed me, my torso aching with each small movement or touch. I could see the pain in his eyes when he looked at me, how much it was killing him to know what happened. It was worse than any physical pain. Mine would fade and heal. Riv’s wouldn’t, and there was no doubt in my mind he blamed himself.

“This isn’t your fault,” I told him while he slid a pair of underwear on me.

“Who the fuck else’s fault would it be? They did this to you because you stuck up for me.”

“No, they did this to me because they are both pieces of shit. This is their issue and no one else’s.” He grunted in response. “Hey.” When he stood, I took his chin in my hand and held his head so he looked at me. “This is on them. I’ll be fine. But I like that you love me so much.”

His pupils flared wide, but he didn’t argue with me. Riven just leaned forward and pressed his mouth to mine in a swift but solidifying kiss. Sometimes actions spoke louder than words, and this was one of those times.

“Come on, Parrish. Let’s get you back to bed and drugged up again.” He led me there and helped me climb in. Despite the window AC working, it was still a little hot, but Riven put a fan on the nightstand, blowing our way. He got into bed with me, though I knew it was too early for him to try to go to sleep.

“I do, ya know?” I said softly, brushing my fingers over his pec.

“Do what?”

“Love you. I’m in love with you.”

His chest sank beneath my hand with the deep breath he took. Riven McKenna didn’t believe he was worth loving, but he was. He really fucking was. “Why?”

“Because you’re a good man even though you don’t see it. Because you have a big heart even though you don’t see that either. It’s ripping you apart to see me hurt. There’s nothing you wouldn’t do for Betsy. You might not have always done the right thing, but there is honor in why you’ve done a lot of it. I don’t give a shit if anyone agrees with me on that or not. And there’s not a damn thing in this world I wouldn’t do for you.” He breathed a few times and didn’t respond, so I added, “Plus, you’re really hot and have a great cock.”

A loud laugh jumped out of his mouth, soothing my soul. “I love you too,” he said softly a few moments later.

“I know.” Making a big deal out of it would make it harder on him, but damn, did I want to burst out of my skin. I loved hearing it so much.

“Go to sleep.”

“Then stop talking to me,” I teased. “And promise me you won’t do anything stupid, Riv.” I was scared as hell of him retaliating and getting in trouble or hurt.

“I won’t do anything stupid,” he said as my eyes drifted closed. My body healing was a whole lot of work, and it exhausted me.

The next morning Riven whispered in my ear that he was going to work. “There’s food for you in the fridge and bottled water, and the painkillers are beside you.”

“Come straight home after work,” I slurred sleepily.

“I will.” He leaned forward and kissed my temple, and then he was gone.

I woke up again a few hours later with a full bladder and an aching face and body. I took some pills first, then got up to relieve myself.

Just in case Betsy showed up, I managed to get some shorts on so I wasn’t half naked in her grandson’s apartment. I made coffee and ate the sandwich Riven had made for me, while the words I love you too, in Riven’s deep, scratchy voice, played over and over in my head.

I couldn’t help smiling. It didn’t matter how fucked up things were, Riven loved me and I loved him. We’d sort out the rest of it.

I lay down for a little while, trying to rest while scrolling through my phone. Getting ahold of Bec was high on my priority list, but I didn’t know what to say to her. She’d likely seen Rex and how beaten up he was. He would blame it on me, of course, because that’s the shit he did. I wanted to think she wouldn’t believe him, but there was one truth I couldn’t deny, and that truth would cloud her judgment on everything else—me and Riven.

Rex hadn’t told her we were close, which I figured was because he didn’t want to talk to her about Riven at all. He wasn’t dumb and knew how she felt about him, but he would use it to his advantage now.

My body froze when I heard a car pulling up in front of the house. I wished I had the app for his cameras on my phone, but he likely had alerts on and would be notified of comings and goings.

It could be Betsy, a delivery driver, or hell, anyone else, but the boulder in my gut told me it wasn’t. I got to my feet, slipped on my shoes, and went to the door, just as Becca was walking up.

“You and Riv?” she asked, tears welling in her eyes, one already trickling down her face.

My gaze darted toward Betsy’s place. “Come inside, Bec. Let’s do this in here.”

“You and fucking Riven!” she shouted, the dam breaking, the tears flowing down her face.

“I’m sorry.” My heart felt like it was cracking apart, Becca’s pain and devastation having more power over me than Rex’s fists ever could. This was going to break her, and I’d known it. I’d known it, and I’d done it anyway.

“Fuck you, Parrish. Why him? Why the only person I’ve ever loved? The only one outside of you to treat me like I at least matter a little bit!”

How sad was that? Becca had grown up with parents who didn’t give a shit about her, with men who used her to fuck her, knowing if they pretended to care even the slightest, she would cling to that because she had never known any different. Riven hadn’t used her, but he hadn’t loved her or always treated her the best. Not that she had either. She’d cheated on him with Rex and gotten pregnant with Lainey, but that had been from desperation too—to feel loved, to feel wanted, to feel like she mattered. In some ways, Becca was the biggest tragedy of us all, but it seemed to go that way for women.

“I never meant to hurt you.”

“But you knew it would!” she shouted again.

“Yes,” I admitted because there was no reason to lie. She deserved better than that. She deserved better than all this. “In the beginning, I didn’t know you still had feelings for him, and by the time I did…” It wasn’t until after Riven and I had slept together for the first time that she’d told me explicitly that she still loved him. I’d made the choice to continue it anyway, and that was on me.

Becca’s eyes met mine, a cloudy blue sky that might never see the sun again. “Why can’t anyone love me?”

She collapsed, and I managed to reach her just in time to catch her. My body ached with the movement, screamed at me to let her go, but still I carried her inside the house, closing the door behind us. I set her too-small frame on the bed and knelt in front of her.

“You deserve better than how I treated you…better than Riv back in the day, and you sure as shit deserve better than Rex. You are worthy of love, Becca. You just gotta believe it and demand it. You have two little girls who see you as the queen of their world. They don’t love anyone the way they do their mama. I’m so fucking sorry I hurt you. You’re my best friend in the world, and I should have done better by you. This isn’t because you’re not good enough, okay?” I tried to wipe her tears, but she jerked away.

“Do you love him?” she snapped.

I hated this, but she deserved the truth. Maybe if I had told her from the beginning, we could have avoided all this. “Yes.”

“Does he love you?” A second boulder landed in my gut, my hesitation the only answer she needed. “You can’t see the girls anymore.” She shoved her way around me and stood.

My heart dropped like an anchor with her words. “Please don’t do this, Bec. I love them. I’m their uncle. Don’t take them away from me.”

“It’s not me. It’s Rex. He’s the one who said it. You beat the shit out of him, Parrish. The girls saw it too.” When I flinched, she lowered her voice and said, “I tried to make him leave, tried to kick him out so they didn’t see him that way, but you know how Rex is. He wanted to punish you, and he wanted to punish me for caring about you. He let them see, and he told them you did it. I would never hurt my girls that way.”

“I beat the shit out of him? Do you see my face and body right now? This is because of him. Rex started this. I was defending myself,” I seethed. How could she let him do this? Let him take the girls away from me? Let him take me away from the girls? “Please don’t do this, Bec.”

Her tears had dried up, but now they started flowing again. “I don’t have a choice. He’ll make things harder on us if I don’t do what he says, and…I just can’t right now, Parrish. I’m so tired of hurting. When does it ever stop?”

“Becca…” I reached for her, but she pulled back again, then turned and ran out the door.

I fell to the mattress, sitting on the corner of it, hands in my hair. Becca was breaking apart, hurting more than I’d ever seen her hurt before. Rex was taking the girls from me. He’d beaten me up. And I knew this was just the beginning, and for what? Because Dad and Rex could? Because they couldn’t handle anyone being happy or moving on?

I wanted nothing more than to take Riven, Betsy, Becca, and the girls and get us all the fuck out of here, as far away as we could go.

“I hope the other guy looks worse.” My head snapped up at the sound of Betsy’s voice. I hadn’t even realized Becca had left the door open, and now there she was.

“Shit,” I cursed quietly. This was the last thing we needed. “Bar fight. Not sure who it was.”

“Bullshit,” Betsy replied, and if I wasn’t feeling so shitty about everything, I would have laughed. “After what happened with Riven, you’re not that dumb. Did your brother do this?”

I sighed. Riv wasn’t going to be happy, but I didn’t have the strength to argue right then. “Yeah. You know how it goes. We’ve never gotten along.”

“And you and Riven are hiding something from me too. I don’t know how stupid you boys think I am, but I promise you, I’m not. The story about the cameras wasn’t slick.” She walked over and sat beside me on the bed. “Tell me my boy isn’t doing anything he’s not supposed to. Tell me he’s not going down the wrong path again.”

“He’s not. God no. I wouldn’t let him even if he wanted to, but more importantly, he doesn’t want to. I don’t think he ever wanted to do the things he’d done. He just never believed he had a choice, and now, he’d never do that stuff again.”

She nodded, then reached over and patted my leg. “I knew that, I did. I just needed to hear it. I love that boy more than anything in this world.”

“He loves you the same way.”

“How about I make us some lunch. We can relax in the house where it’s cooler. You can nap in there or do a puzzle with me, anything you want.”

“I’d like that,” I told her, just as my phone beeped. I reached over and grabbed it, not surprised to find a text from Riven.

Everything okay with Becca?

I wasn’t surprised he had seen her through the cameras.

No, it’s not, and now Betsy is here and I’m going to the house with her. I’ll explain everything later. Come straight home after work.

See you soon.

“Do you love him?” Betsy asked.

“Yeah, yeah I do.”

“Then everything else will be okay.”

I smiled at her, hoping like hell she was right.