Accepted & Rebuilt (Shattered Duet Book 2), page 1
Copyright © 2018 by Bry Ann
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Author Note
Music
Part I
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Part II
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Epilogue
Want More Nix?
Author Note
Books By Bry Ann
THANK YOU
Author Note
The Shattered sequel contains references and spoilers from the Roses & Thorns series.
The first couple chapters of part two in this story will be much clearer if you know Rose and Lacey’s story first.
You can go without reading Roses & Thorns first, but it is intended to know a little of Nix’s involvement there before diving into this one.
Just a heads up!
If you want to check that out first, here are the links, if interested:
Roses & Thorns (Book one)
Roses & Thorns (Box Set)
🌹🌹🌹
Music
FOR ACCEPTED & REBUILT
“Can You Hold Me?” by NF and Britt Nicole
“Mansion” by NF
Nix: Age 5
“Mommy, is Aaron coming?”
I hook my arms around the legs of the chair. I don’t want him to come. He makes me do bad things. I know they’re bad, but he tells me they’re not. I’m confused. His eyes scare me.
Mom takes another drag of her cigarette.
“I’ve told you. Mom doesn’t fucking know these things, Nixon. I’m sure you’re counting down the fucking minutes, dumbass.”
I flinch and duck my head.
“I don’t want him to come,” I whisper. “I don’t wanna do what he says.”
Mom grabs a cup and throws it at me. That’s why I’m by the chair. I quickly jump behind it and listen to the glass shatter.
“Clean it up.”
I don’t know what Mommy’s drinking, but it’s that drink that always makes her extra mean.
“Am I gonna be able to start school this year like all the other kids, Mommy?”
She bursts from her chair and storms over to me, grabbing the shirt around my neck and pulling me up by it. Her hazy grey eyes reflect how much she hates me.
“What did I tell you?!”
“My dad said no.”
She tosses me back down. “Then listen. He said no and you’re just Aaron’s son. A piece of shit. Kids like you don’t get school. Now clean up the fucking glass before your father gets here and wipes one of our faces in it.”
I sigh and drag my legs over to the broom, but despite my grumbling, I do clean up every last piece. If Dad sees one, he can use it to hurt me or someone else. It’s too tempting for him to resist. So I always hide sharp things. If they aren’t there, he can’t hurt anyone with them.
“Where’s my son?”
Aaron.
He didn’t see me.
I sprint from the kitchen, sneak out the back door of the house, and run into the woods outside. Well, Mommy says they’re not really woods, but there are enough trees to hide. I duck behind an especially large one and curl my knees into my chest.
Please don’t let him find me.
“MARTINA!” Aaron roars. “Where the fuck’s my son?”
I can hear him from over here. He’s always crazy, but I make him especially mad. I hear my mom whimper as Aaron drags her outside by her hair.
“He was just here,” she slurs. “He was goin’ on about school again.”
Smack! My mom stumbles over from the force of Aaron’s hand flying across her face. I flinch. I should help her. It doesn’t matter that she hits me. I still don’t like her hurt.
“I told you to put an end to it.”
“In case you haven’t noticed, your son’s an idiot.”
His eyes flare. Oh, no.
I pull my face back behind the tree.
“Nix, you’re very predictable, kiddo. Do you want me to punish your mother because she didn’t do her goddamn job and keep track of you? Or should I punish you for hiding from me? Again.”
I hear the venom in his voice. I’m so scared. I bite my wobbling lower lip. I can’t let Mommy get in trouble ‘cause of me, though.
I always lose.
Slowly, I push to my feet and pull up my track pants on the way up.
“Here, Aar… Dad.”
He glances up at me. His stormy eyes flash. He throws my mom off the porch. It doesn’t bother me anymore. I’ve seen it a lot of times.
Aaron cocks his finger. “Here, boy.”
I run over. My little feet don’t make a lot of noise in the grass. When I’m close, he snatches my shirt, like Mom did, and pulls me inside.
“Always fucking giving me trouble. Your sister never gives me trouble,” he grumbles.
Her name is Rose. Dad showed me a picture once. She’s so little. Littler than me. She’s got bigger eyes than me and her hair is lighter than mine. Apparently, I’m her big brother, but Aaron says I’ll never meet her. He says she’s good. She doesn’t know her dad’s a bad man. I’m bad, and that’s why I know the truth about our shared dad.
He tells me good doesn’t talk to bad.
Unless they’re killing them.
Or using them.
Which… I guess that’s why he keeps her when he wouldn’t keep me? He’s using her for something, I guess.
He lets go of my shirt when we get to his truck.
“This is why I had your mother live way out here,” he tells me, fumbling through his back seat.
There’s a large squeal and then, coming out of the car, in my dad’s big arms, is a really cute black and orange cat.
I’ve never seen a cat in real life.
My eyes go big.
“Is that a real—”
I’m cut off. “Go in my back pocket,” he grunts. The cat is scratching him. It makes me like the cat better.
I do as he says. I go in the pocket and pull out something cold.
I immediately know what it is.
I dangle it between my fingers, feeling my blood go cold.
A gun.
I stare at Aaron. Then the cat.
No. Please no.
“Dad?” I whisper.
“I’m gonna set this thing down. I’ll hold it for you since it’s your first time using a gun, but I expect you to get better. Rose cried about this fucking thing. I need it to disappear so I can tell her it ran away. Figured I could teach you a few things along the way.”
“Dad, I don’t wanna hurt it. Won’t Rose be sad?”
“You let me worry about her. You do as I say. So, first, you turn off the safety. I’ve taught you that already. So go on.”
“Dad…”
“Nix, if I kill the damn thing, I will make it hurt. You’ll do it fast. It’s up to you, but if you don’t do as I say, it’s gonna be your fault that the cat suffers.”
Feeling tears well up, I swallow so Aaron can’t punish me.
I turn the safety off.
“Good. Now put your finger on the trigger.”
I can’t…
I slide my finger in the slot.
“Aim. Point it at the cat. Don’t miss, Nixon, or I’ll buy another and we’ll practice on other live animals. I don’t think you want that, do you?”
“No,” I whisper.
“Then,” he shakes the cat. The poor kitty. I can’t help but cry. This pisses my dad off to no end. I see it in his eyes.
I close one eye.
I point the gun.
I feel the skin of my childhood shed.
I let my heart shatter so I can save the kitty from torture. Even at five, I know Aaron will hurt it so bad. He’ll make it bleed. I’ll kill it fast. I won’t let it hurt for a long time.
So I shoot.
BANG!
The sinister smile on Aaron’s face lets me know I just gave him something I didn’t ever want to.
Something I know I will never get back.
My five-year-old self crumbles.
Nix: Age 16
“Nix, let me in this room right now!” my mom screams through the door. I groan and roll over my pillow, planting my feet on the floor.
“What, Martina?” I snap, throwing the door open. She has long since lost her right to be called “Mom”. Years of beatings, belittling, of plain out being hated for my DNA has made it that way. She’s made me hate myself, and in turn, I hate her.
I should hate myself.
I know. I’m a terrible person, but my mom… come on. Isn’t someone supposed to fucking love me in this world?
I guess I lost that the day I stole money for my father. The day I threatened a man for not paying Aaron back. I sealed it when I killed my first man.
I see it in my dreams every night.
I won’t ever do that again.
When and if I kill again, it will be to save someone or stop something awful.
I hate killing.
Aaron’s really gonna have to fuck me over to get me to do that again.
Mom shoves me aside. I’m not little anymore, but I still let her push me around. I don’t know why. I don’t have the right to stand up to her, I guess.
Aaron’s hurt her enough.
“I saw you talking to Karen’s daughter.”
“Yeah, so?”
“I saw you kissing her!”
“Okay. Again, yeah, so?”
Swack! Her hand flies across my face.
“You don’t think! What if Aaron saw you kissing her, Nixon? Can you imagine? Jesus Christ. You’d have to do whatever he said.”
Oh.
Why do I always underestimate his cruelty? I didn’t think anything of making out with the girl. I mean, I’m always “working” with Aaron. Always working on my homeschooling so I can get my high school diploma, despite my parent’s wishes.
I mean… I’m horny as hell.
God, if Mom knew I fucked her last week, she’d probably stab me.
I grunt. “That was stupid.”
I smell the alcohol on her breath. “Do you give a fuck what Aaron can do to her? You’re so much like him it makes me sick.”
That makes me want to stick my finger down my throat and vomit. It makes me sick to my stomach. Literally makes me want to peel the skin from my bones.
“I’ll be more careful.”
Swack! She smacks me again.
“Fuckin’ shithead,” she mutters as she leaves the room. “I hate that I birthed you.”
“Trust me. I know,” I say flatly.
She flips me off and goes to find the vodka. The sad part is that I hate her, but I don’t blame her. I wish I could get lost in alcohol. What Aaron does to her is awful. He uses her all the time, then shoves her aside, leaving her no choice but to raise the son she hates and live in a house where no other human can go.
I wish I could save her.
But I can’t even save myself.
“Be ready for your father, Nixon!” she shouts. “If I get punched ‘cause of you again, I will come after you myself.”
You have, Mom. Multiple times.
I don’t respond. We have this down by now.
I’m always fucking ready for my father. Eleven years of this, and rebellion doesn’t even cross my mind much. My life is like killing that cat when I was five. I do bad stuff so Aaron doesn’t do worse stuff.
I wish he would disappear.
I wish he would go away forever and never come back.
But he’s not going anywhere, so I grab my shit and get ready to go. Apparently, I have a “job” to work with “Dad”.
“Nixon,” he grins, fiddling with the gun in his pocket.
That never fails to make me feel anxious. Not for me, really. Kill me. Go on. I dare him. He’d never grant me that. My skill surpasses my age. He’d never kill off an asset like me. Especially when I have weaknesses he can use against me.
Namely being, I care.
I care if people die. I care if people suffer. I give a shit if he makes people bleed. I care if he leaves them broke and destitute.
So he’ll never have to kill me.
Killing someone else works just fine to keep me in line.
… Not that I ever let it get to that.
“A soon-to-be ex-employee of mine stole from me. We need to fix that.”
“I don’t kill, pops,” I say immediately.
He grins. “Don’t worry, son. I know well what area you need to improve in.”
I glare at him. “Fuck off.”
“Respect, Nix.”
“You told me to demand respect, not give it,” I mock flatly.
“Except me. I’ve taught you everything you know.”
Unfortunately.
“Mmmm. What’s the job? I have homework.”
He rolls his eyes. “You and your damn school.”
“Yeah, I want my diploma. How stupid.”
“You don’t need it.”
I wish I didn’t need you.
“Back to Gerald,” he spits the name like it’s venom, “I just want you to give him a good, old-fashioned warning.”
“Aaron, he’s got a kid with cancer. Come on. I’ll just threaten him, give him an opportunity to earn the shit for real, and he’ll get it back to you. Gerald’s no threat to you. The pussy’s just a man who needs money for his kid he can’t earn legally.”
“Did I ask for your opinion?” Aaron asks, eyes blazing. “And it’s Dad to you.”
“Nope, never do, but come on. Cancer, Dad. His daughter’s nine. Fucking nine. You can’t seriously want me to beat the shit out of the guy.”
“Did I stutter?”
I run my hand through my hair. “I don’t think I can do that. You’ll have to figure something else out.”
“Your sister has been asking about her mother, ya know?”
He grins mercilessly. My heart stops. Fuckkkkkkk.
“I was thinking they should meet.”
“Aaron,” I growl.
“Dad.”
“Fine, Dad, you know how I feel about Rose meeting Martina.”
“Oh, why?” he mocks. “You don’t want to see your baby sister with her mommy?”
I roll my eyes. “She’s barely my sister. She doesn’t know I exist.”
I glare at him.
“She seems innocent as a flower. You put on a show for the girl. Martina will fuck her all up.”
Immediately, the fake persona, the mocking, vanishes and the darkness of a serial killer takes its place in Aaron’s eyes.
“Then you’ll do as I say.”
I wince as my brain flickers all around, trying to find a way out of this.
“What’s his daughter’s name? Katie, right?”
My blood runs cold.
“Parker Hospital is where she gets her treatments. Am I wrong, Nixon?”
I hate him! I know my face reflects it. It’s scrunched with rage. My hands are fisted.
“I know you, son. You will be like me. You’ll see.”
“Where’s Gerald now?”
“Warehouse.”
I nod. “Don’t go near Katie or I swear I’ll come after you myself.”
He snickers. “And then Rose goes to live with Martina. But hey, you’ll get to be buddy-buddy with her. Maybe Martina can show her the joys of vodka.”
“I fucking hate you.”
He shrugs. “Long as you do as I say. Now go on. You have work to do.”
The sick part is that there’s always another person. Another person he can hurt, kill, threaten. I’ll always be a puppet on his string.
Nix: Age 18
“See something you like, Nixon?” Jenna giggles.
“Definitely, babe. You look great.”
Her cheeks heat slightly as she prances around in her bra and jeans. I smirk and approach her, running my hands down her sides.
“You done playin’ around?”
I have to hurry before Aaron or Martina know where I am and hit or threaten me. It’s so beyond fucked up.
“Make me stop, Nix.”
I grab her hips and pin her to the wall. Her eyes become hooded. With my free hand, I unbuckle my cargo shorts.
Ring! Ring!
Shit.
I sigh and drop my head.
“Do you need to get that?” she grumbles.
“We’ll see.”
“Well, get it now. I don’t want you to leave me hanging.”
I nip at her neck. “I promise I’ll take care of you.”
