The Damaged, page 24
“I’m sharing all this because they iced me out last night, and that’s not good. You need to understand the significance of them icing me out. They’ve never iced me out before. I don’t know how the cards are going to fall with the guys, but if the girls iced me out, something happened with their families or Victoria’s family. I’m sorry to lay all that on you, but when you walk down there for breakfast, Victoria is here, and I have a feeling you and I both might be walking into a bloodbath.”
Dread took root in my legs, anchoring me down.
My tone was dull even to my own ears. “I called Kash last night. Had a feeling something happened. He said he couldn’t talk about it on the phone because he didn’t know who was listening. This is bad.”
Matt was frowning. “This is bad.”
I tried to move. I couldn’t. I was still anchored in place.
“You going to be okay?”
“Yeah.” That cost me, too. “I’ll be fine.”
I think …
“Okay.” I wasn’t looking, but I could feel his concern. “I’ll wait for you in the hallway.”
That was sweet.
My brother waiting to have my back … or no.
I looked just as he was leaving. “Matt.”
He paused, looking back.
I flashed him a grin. “Team Batt.”
His eyes warmed, but he didn’t return my grin. “Team Batt. All the way.”
Now that was sweet.
He went out to wait, but it didn’t take me long to finish changing. If we were walking into battle, a part of me was absorbing Torie’s and Tamara’s ways. I dressed like a warrior.
Okay, I didn’t really. They would’ve worn leather pants, black corsets, and they would’ve had their hair greased back or in braids like a Viking.
I just put on black leggings, but they had a leather strip that went down the side of my leg. I paired that with a black hoodie sweatshirt that wasn’t baggy, not at all. It stuck to me like a second skin.
And my hair … I couldn’t do the grease look, but I could do the braids. I had two braids on each side of my face, so I was half Viking right now.
It took me longer than I thought, but Matt didn’t gripe when I opened the door. He just took me in and noted, “Ready for battle.”
“Ready for battle.”
There was no guard outside my door.
I never questioned it until later. I never thought to.
That’d be my first mistake that day.
FORTY-TWO
When I walked into the breakfast area, the groups were split down the middle. My cohort was on one side and Matt’s was on the other.
Matt rounded behind me and stood in the middle.
Cedar and Fleur were in the middle, like us.
A very angry Victoria was in front of them.
I swallowed, seeing Victoria.
Her eyes were bloodshot. Her eyes almost matched her hair, which was wild and messed, and she had an unnatural pallor to her skin that I knew wasn’t healthy.
I wished I had pushed Kash more to fill me in on what happened. I had a second for that thought before her eyes snapped to mine, and I knew two things at once.
One: she wasn’t well. She had a crazy look in her eyes.
And two: she was here for me.
“He likes to fuck hard.”
She launched. That was her first attack.
I had time enough to suck in my breath, fortify my insides, because I knew more assaults were coming.
Matt growled, “Not cool, Vic.”
She ignored him, sweeping around him. The air around her got even chillier. “He likes to make you come first, maybe two times, before he lets loose, and when he does, you are the only person in the world to him. That’s how he makes you feel, isn’t it?” Her eyes were so cold. She drew back, her head high, as if she were holding court. “That’s how he made me always feel. I missed him when he tossed me aside. You get addicted to him. He does that. Makes you feel that intoxication, that high, and then he pounds you with pleasure, and he pounds you so hard you just gasp for more. Then he tosses you out, and it’s freezing out there.”
The others started to rally now.
Torie and Tamara pushed to my side.
Torie started to step forward, “Listen—”
I held a hand up. No matter what, I needed to handle this. Me. Not them.
Guy and Chester came forward, standing on the side.
Guy said to Matt, “What the fuck?”
Matt’s eyes flicked once to Guy before returning to Victoria. “Whatever happened between you and Kash is in the past—”
An unnatural laugh rippled from her.
It was unsettling to see.
“I’m not talking in the past.” She tipped her head back and let out that laugh, and an icy shiver trailed down my spine. Her eyes came back to me. “Unless we’re talking ‘the past’ as in twenty-four hours ago.”
She waited.
A beat.
Her words penetrated.
They penetrated hard, and I stumbled back a step.
I felt kicked in the chest.
A whoosh came out of me. I lost air, and the force was emotional, but it staggered me.
Pain ripped through me like a thousand knives sticking in, all at once.
My vision blurred.
“Matt,” Torie growled in warning.
I shook my head. I was hurting, but I had to hear this. I didn’t know why. I just did.
“He fucked me hard. He flew me to Greece, making me come over and over again on the plane. And it didn’t stop there. He was insatiable. What have you been doing?” Another sick laugh from her. “Or maybe I should be saying, what haven’t you been doing? What’s the problem, Bailey? Not enough for him? Or maybe it’s something else. I bet it’s something else.”
Her voice dropped, softening. She was trying to be gentle.
The look didn’t fit on her face.
It was a farce.
Victoria was hard, angry, and bitter. Her attempting to be pitying was a farce. She looked like the Joker.
I reeled from what she was saying.
Kash was on a trip.
How would she have known that unless she went with him?
“Or maybe it’s like mother, like daughter? You were his side piece, just like your mother was for Peter Francis.”
“That’s enough!” From Tamara this time. “Shut her up! Shut up.”
“Victoria,” Matt growled next to me.
Victoria ignored Tamara, her eyes going to Matt. Some of that pitying look dwindled. “It’s the truth, Matt. You know it. He stepped out on your mom with her mom. How can you stand next to her knowing that? That her mom helped destroy your chance to have two parents—”
“SHUT UP!” He was in her face, his hands in tight fists, but he was holding himself back. Barely, though. “You know that wasn’t the deal with my mother. And as for Bailey, you should stop while you’re ahead, because in two seconds she’s going to pull her head out of her ass and she’s going to remember the world stands up, not down. She’s going to light into you and you’re going to be nothing but a sniveling piece of shit on the floor.”
She shook her head, another laugh. “You’re sweet for thinking I can still feel anything like that.” She moved past him, coming toward me, almost swaying in a smooth manner.
She ignored how Matt shifted, too.
She added, “He must not have told you. I’m not surprised. He was like that with me. He didn’t tell me things. Always working. Always having some battle to handle. And yeah, he was as obsessed with Calhoun back then as I imagine he must be now. It’s all a joke, you know. You do know that, right? I know Calhoun. He does have some bad business colleagues, but the man himself is a sweet grandfather. All he’s been doing is trying to get close to Kash.”
No.
I hissed, drawing air in.
That pierced me. Hard.
“I can see that Kash has you believing the lies, but it is all truly a lie. Calhoun just wants to know his grandson.” She leaned in, her face so close to mine. I felt her breath. “Except for how he was with me. It was almost a frenzy, as if he hadn’t been touched in years. That’s how much he needed me. I think he just needed a hole that wasn’t yours. He plunged in and he kept going. He wasn’t even seeing me; his need was making him blind to who he had underneath him.”
“You’re such a bitch.” From Matt.
I couldn’t speak.
I couldn’t move.
She was pounding me, over and over again, and I couldn’t move to stop it.
I wanted to think she was lying …
But …
Was he tired of me?
He hadn’t called yesterday, until last night, but I knew something happened.
My stomach heaved.
“What hurts the most?” She was snapping at me, but also taunting in the same tone. “That he fucked someone else? Or that he was so blind in his need to fuck someone else, he didn’t care who it was?”
She sliced me open with the last two questions.
Girl.
I heaved again, but in relief.
Finally.
That voice in my head wasn’t mine. It was Chrissy Hayes. It was me. It was all of the Hayes women, and I knew what else she was about to say to me.
You shut that fucking bitch up now. Even if you’re questioning your boy, you don’t take that shit from her. You don’t take that shit from anyone. Never let ’em see your insides. She doesn’t get to have the last word. She doesn’t get that pleasure. It’s yours. So take it. Now!
All the crap Victoria threw at me, flinging it in my face, slid to the side. No matter what she said, no matter if it was true or not, it didn’t matter. Not here. Not in this battle. Because my inner Hayes was right.
This bitch was not going to win.
“Shut the fuck up.” From me.
Matt sighed beside me. I could almost feel his relief, his and Torie’s, and Tamara’s.
Victoria started to roll her eyes.
“No!” I snapped, catching her chin.
The move shocked her. Her eyes widened.
I had touched her. Not good, but I went with it.
I squeezed her instead. I pinched her chin, just a tiny bit, and I grilled her. “You have lost. Whatever Kash did to you, you’re here. You’re bitter. You’re angry. And it makes you look ugly, so that tells me what you’re saying is a lie.”
I felt strength pouring into me with every word I said, because the words were true. I mean, I still didn’t know about Kash, but she was being ugly and bitter, so, true. The Kash question was on the back burner for now. I’d deal with that later.
It was as if all the Hayes women were with me, filling me, pumping me back up, helping me say what I needed to say because they saw it for what it really was. She pulverized me, but I was swinging back.
“You were already forgotten before I even came into the picture. You know it. Your friends know it. The society pages know it. Whatever happened this weekend—if he needed to fuck you—you wouldn’t be here unless something went bad. You wouldn’t be throwing it in my face. No, no.” I sidled closer to her, letting her chin go. “You’re here to hurt me, so that only tells me one thing. That you lost, and you’re here to cause as much damage as possible on your way down.”
I stepped back.
I expected a comeback.
I got nothing.
She wasn’t crying. There was no break there. That told me I was right. She was already broken. Kash had done something to shatter her.
Matt must’ve seen it too, because he said quietly, “Leave. Now.”
Victoria laughed.
She actually laughed, but like before, it was still sick. It was also a destroyed laugh, coming from someone not put together right.
It was alarming.
“With fucking and utmost pleasure, Matt. I got what I came for. Now that your precious sister knows who she lets between her legs, I’m taking my girls and we’re flying back. Do not attempt to call us when we’re there. We are through. Our families are through. When we get to Chicago, we are enemies from here on out.”
She swept out, but some of the fierceness had left her.
Cedar and Fleur wavered, glancing at the guys, who were locked down. Their faces were set, their jaws were hard, and each was facing off against them, their feet a shoulder length apart. Their hands were in fists at their sides, and they were heated.
“Cede! Flow!”
Cedar cursed, then went after their friend. She dragged Fleur behind her.
I felt Torie and Tamara at my side.
“You okay?” Torie asked.
I couldn’t answer. I didn’t know.
Tony clipped out, “What the fuck?”
Guy was cringing. “There’s going to be a trickle-down effect. Cedar’s dad is giving mine a shit ton of business this fall. Word gets out and people are seeing who’s on each side, I can see Cedar’s dad pulling out. He’s a pussy when it comes to his daughter.”
“Same with Fleur’s family.”
Tony added after Chester was done, “My own grandfather’s not happy with Kash. He fucked her and tossed her. It pissed her off enough where she flew all the way out here to impale a knife in Bailey and then twist it—yeah. This is going to be bad.”
Matt had had enough. He rounded, his nostrils flaring. “Are you kidding me?” He jabbed a finger in the direction the girls had fled. “One: Kash isn’t a cheat. Two: he hates her guts. Three: I’m the brother, so it’s all gross to me, but I have to say that Kash and Bailey do not have a problem in bed. Four … Do I still need to keep going? Because if that’s not a flyby, trying to hurt someone close to Kash because it’s obvious he did something to hurt her, then I don’t know what is.
“And fifth: Do you all fucking know who you’re talking about? Have you forgotten? It’s Kash, and he’s not in our leagues anymore. Hasn’t been in for a long-ass time. He’s not even in the pros right now. He’s in the hall-of-famers and you all know it. Tony, I highly doubt your grandfather is going to walk away from Kashton Colello when I know he was begging him to be saved just a month ago. Kash’s family defines ‘old money,’ so you all better shut up and start remembering which side of the line you should be on.”
He wasn’t done.
He turned to me, gentling his tone. “Those were bald-faced lies from her. I know you said you knew that. I know you called her on it. But I need to make sure you really know it.”
Her words had hurt, but I nodded. I bit down on my lip. “I know.”
“Wait for Kash.”
Another nod. “I’ll wait for Kash.”
He let out some air, only then looking like he could still breathe. “Good.”
But I had lied to him.
I didn’t know about Kash, and I didn’t know how to process that.
I was feeling all sorts of feelings I shouldn’t have been feeling.
I didn’t shut it down.
That was my second mistake that day.
FORTY-THREE
We sent everyone to fly back, except Matt and I. The two of us alone stayed back.
We were sitting down for dinner when they hit the door running.
Cyclone burst through, full-out sprinting for us. He dropped his bag by the door, and then he was first in Matt’s arms. I was next. His little body was squeezing me tight.
I was melting.
“Bailey!” His arms still around me, he leaned back. “I’ve got so much to tell you. You were right about AI being the next big thing. All the guys in my advanced class worked on a project together and we made an AI rock.”
I stared down at him.
First, I was marveling at how adorable he looked, no matter that he was shooting up in height and his face was beginning to grow more. Second, I had missed my little brother something fierce, and now his arms were around me. And third, an AI rock?
“What?”
He squeezed me before jumping back, his cheeks red and his eyes excited. His hands were waving all around the air. “Yeah. I mean, it can’t talk, but it can move. We tell it to do things and it’ll move there. Like, one guy told him to get him a soda from the fridge and the rock actually went to the fridge.”
Oh my God.
They had possessed a rock.
I just blinked at him, not sure how to respond.
Matt chuckled next to me, but then Seraphina was running through the doorway, too. She went to me first, burying her head into my shoulder and neck. And wow. Cyclone went up an inch, but Seraphina had shot up at least two inches.
No. No. No. They needed to stay little. They couldn’t grow. I wasn’t having it.
But she stepped back, a shy grin now coming over her, and she turned, stepped, and buried her face into Matt’s chest next.
His face softened, and he hugged her before she turned back to me. “I have a lot to tell you.”
“Good.” Good! I still had a mission to hack the mean girls who might be giving her crap. I needed to do an interrogation later, because I had promised Kash last summer that I wouldn’t hack my siblings … again. But I was looking her over, and she looked good.
She looked more than good.
“Ser,” I whispered, feeling all the emotions clogging my throat. “You are beautiful.”
She was stunning!
Her hair was longer, a little lighter, and that made it shine even more in the light. Her face had a natural, healthy glow, and her lips were the cutest shade of soft pink. Her eyes were dancing, and there were no shadows in them. They were clear, focused, and glistening as much as Cyclone’s were.
I pulled her back into my arms for another hug.
At that time, Marie came through the door, along with my mother. Both were carrying bags and wheeling luggage in.
I didn’t question any of it.
I didn’t question why Marie was back, what brought her back. I would, just not now.
I didn’t question why they were bringing in the bags. I never thought to. And then Marie was coming toward me with a fierce expression set on her face. Her mouth was firm, determined, and I was bracing myself.
