Brady Remington Landed Me in Jail (23 page)

My mouth fell open. "Uh—?"

She continued her rant with her arms in the air, "I just, forget it. Forget it. I'm done. I'm done, okay?"

"Okay."

“
Okay
? You think its okay?" Clarissa exploded and jerked forward in her seat to slam back against it. "It's not okay! This is not okay. I want to know what's going on."

When she pinned her beady eyes on me, I shrugged. "I have nothing. I'm worried about Brady."

"AHHHH!" Clarissa screamed and then started to mutter under her breath.

I didn't speak until we got closer to Highpoint Bridge. With Clarissa, I never knew what I was going to get. Her eyes took on a crazy look the closer we got, but I only focused on Brady. I didn't know what had happened back there or if Frank was my father, but it didn't matter.

"There he is," Clarissa muttered. She peered straight ahead.

He was on the fence that separated the road from the steep incline. The dam was ahead. The sound of falling water was overwhelming when we got out of the car.

"Straight whiskey. Just what he likes when he's in a mood," Clarissa noted.

Brady glanced over his shoulder before he took a long drink from the bottle. "You better have a damn good reason for bringing her."

We stopped, frozen for a second. Then I opened my mouth. "Brady—"

"Not you," he interrupted. "Why'd you bring her, Clarissa? I don't want her here. I don't want either of you."

His rejection slammed me. My mouth closed with a snap.

Clarissa stumbled out, "Uh, she's, what's going on, Brady?"

"None of your business." He was so cold. "Just leave. There ain't anything here for either of you."

A third swallow.

Clarissa looked at me. I knew she wanted me to say something, do something, but I didn't know what. He was furious with me and I wasn't sure why. I'd never really seen him like this. I'd seen him livid, but never at me. It wasn't a good feeling. The fetal position in bed was starting to look tempting.

"Brady, I—" Clarissa stammered out.

"LEAVE!" he roared. Then he turned and threw his bottle at us.

Clarissa jumped and ducked out of the way and that's when my nervousness left. I knew that bottle wasn't going to hit us and it didn't. It sailed clear over our heads and shattered into pieces across the road. Brady would never hurt us, not physically.

A calm came over me. "I already know."

He flinched. That was enough for me. I stepped even further. "What happened at the hospital? Why'd you leave me at the jail?"

Clarissa said, "I just wanted, I came up here because I was worried. I brought her because you two are—"

"We are not anything!" he roared again and jumped off the fence to land in front of us. He moved like a cat, lean and fluid.

Clarissa stumbled backwards. "I was trying to help. I was worried and I wanted to help and she's usually the ticket. What's wrong with you?"

He wasn't going to listen to her. I moved between them. "What happened?"

Brady jerked as his hand tightened into a fist. Then he grabbed another bottle from his car.

"Brady," I murmured. "Please tell me. What happened?"

He shook his head and turned back to take a long drink. "Did you think I was going to jump? Is that why you guys came up here? I wanted to be alone."

"Kid was worried. I'm worried. Rayna's worried." Clarissa glanced at me.

"Rayna can't be worried!" Brady exploded. "She's the reason for all of this." Then he seethed at me, "You didn't think I wouldn't find out? How long did you know? Or a better question, how long did you know and not tell me? Has it been since we were together? The first time or the second? Obviously your grandmother knew. Did you think it was funny? Were you both laughing at me?"

"Ooh." Clarissa stepped back even further, almost to the other side of the road. "I should go. This is between you two. I should, yeah. I'm going to go."

Brady whipped his glare at her and taunted, "What, Clary? You don't want the gossip? You don't want all the sordid details? Can't handle the aftermath of what you do?"

She sent me a pleading look.

"You're just as bad. You've used me all my life. You like screwing the guy at the top. You like the power it gives you."

"Brady." Clarissa made soothing motions with her hands. "We're friends. We've been friends forever."

"Friends don't fuck each other." Brady looked at me.

"What are you saying?"

Brady looked at me like he could commit murder, but he didn't say anything more. He reminded me of his father at that moment.

I pressed again, "What are you saying?"

Still nothing.

I couldn't look away from him. He was about to say something neither of us could take back. I wasn't going to let that happen. No matter how angry, for whatever reason, he wasn't going to throw us away. No chance in hell so I demanded this time, "What. Are. You. Saying?"

He opened his mouth, but again no sound came out.

"Say it!" I screamed this time. "You're not going to do this to us, to me. You're not going to make me go away, so stop it. I'm never going to want to NOT see you again so stop trying to make me."

I forgot about Clarissa. I didn't care what she overheard.

"Brady, tell me what happened. You're going to have to. At the end of the day, it's you and me. Always you and me and you know it."

"Always you and me?" He gave me a crooked, mocking smile as he drank from the bottle again. One swallow. Two. Three. He didn't stop until half the bottle was gone. "Is that what you thought when you fucked me? Or when you thought I was your brother?"

Clarissa gasped.

"How's that for irony, Rayna? Do you get off on incest?"

"I'm…going to leave…," Clarissa muttered.

A second later her car was gone.

A shiver crossed my skin. My heart was racing, but that was normal now. "You knew Frank Stephens was your dad?"

"So did you!" Brady accused.

His words hurt me, but I pushed past it. This wasn't about who was right, who hurt worse. "How long have you known?"

"How long have
you
known?" he countered.

"For two days. They've been the worst two days I've ever experienced."

Brady looked away.

"It wasn't until Viola threw that fit when she found out about us. I realized more was going on. It didn't make sense to me why she was acting how she was unless, god forbid, we couldn't be together. Once I had that thought, things clicked in place. She always hated Frank Stephens. I didn't know who my dad was, we didn't know who your parents were and I guessed that Viola knew more than she admitted so I asked her whose father was Frank Stephens, yours or mine. It was a long shot, but I was right."

"And?"

My arm twitched. As I felt a softening from Brady, my entire body wanted to launch myself in his arms. "She doesn't know who my father is, but she knew he was yours. She's known since you were a baby."

He took another two swigs from the bottle. "She's known all my life? She's been lying to me all my life?"

"Brady," I started, but did he really want to hear this? It was so painful.

"I have to know all of it, Rayna. I'm tired of these secrets."

If the tables were turned, I'd want to know. So I told him everything. I didn't stop until I got to the part where Kid had confided in me.

Brady nodded. "Kid told me he knew at the hospital. I went there to ask Frank about your mom. You said at the jail that he and your mom knew each other. It makes sense. Your mom doesn't have the best reputation and he's a manwhore. I couldn't handle not knowing if you were my sister. I didn't care what hornet's nest I was going to stir up. I didn't care."

He did what I was too scared to.

"I couldn't handle the other option."

Some tears fell down my cheek. "I'm pretty sure he's not my dad. He was talking about someone else. A lot of it was gibberish, but that was the gist of it."

Brady sighed. "He's not your dad. Your dad is his old partner, Domitri Charisteaus. I think he just died or something. Frank was spewing a lot of crazy, but he said something about a funeral.'"

"He hates my mom now."

Brady nodded. "My dad's a psychopath."

Agreed. "Why are you mad at me?"

Brady ran a brisk hand through his hair and shook his head. "Because I thought you knew this whole time. I was hurt. I thought you weren't ever going to tell me and you were just going to let me look like a fool, running after you. That's how I felt today at your school. I felt like an idiot, coming after you, and you didn't have the time of day for me."

"I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to deal." I felt less of a person. All I wanted to do was run away and I had hurt Brady because of it. "I'm sorry for not saying anything."

"You needed time to figure things out. I see that now. I should've figured that out when Frank told me you knew. I was so furious. I felt like you didn't care about me."

"God, no. The opposite." I wiped at some more tears.

"I get that now. I do." He looked at his bottle and sighed. "The thought of you playing me like a fool messed me up."

I bit my lip.

He finished the bottle and went to sit on the fence once more. This time I wasn't scared to sit beside him. I was a little fearful to take his hand, though my own was itching for it. Brady added, "I know I just flipped out thinking you were keeping a secret from me, but this is where I grovel for your forgiveness. I've known about my dad for three years."

The tattoo.

I traced it with my fingertips. "Is that when you got this?"

He flexed his bicep and the tattoo moved under my touch. "I was hurt and pissed. I wanted something permanent to show that I didn't care. I'm sorry for never telling you."

"What does it mean?" I always knew it meant something with him. I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt he never confided in me.

"Nothing profound." Brady gave me a rakish grin. "Just means 'my own.' I come from my own, no one else except for you and your family. The Forresters helped, but they really just let me have a room there as long as I didn't mess up too much."

"The tattoo, it's beautiful." I meant it. "How'd you find out about him?"

"From my mom," Brady confessed. "Man, it feels good to say that. Finally someone else knows."

"Your mom?" I flinched when jealousy flared in me. This wasn't about me.

"She found me a while ago. Told me that she'd had an affair with Frank Stephens. She also told me a lot about him and your mom. Said he was in love with your mom and was devastated when she left. That's why he pursued my mom, I guess."

"Your mom was okay with that?"

"No, not in the beginning. She thought he loved her, but one night he raped her. Then he told her to fix the pregnancy. She didn't. She went back to her family and they disowned her. She brought me back because he said that he'd take care of me. We all know how that ended up. After a while, she wrote him a letter asking to meet me. When he never replied, she showed up at the house one day. He told her to take off and that I'd died all those years ago."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"She didn't believe him. She asked around if anyone knew a kid by my name. We were both lucky that he kept my name. She wanted that for me. I'm named after her father, my grandfather."

"People knew of you, of course."

"Yeah." He grinned proudly. "She was pretty shocked by that, but she said she liked knowing that her son was well-known. Said that it meant I'd been taken care of by someone and loved, too." He sighed. "I wish I could've told her about your grandmother's involvement, but I didn't know. I just knew I'd been put into foster care."

"Where's your mom now?"

"She went back to where she lives in New York. That's where she was originally from. I'm still in touch with her. We e-mail back and forth."

I grabbed his hand. "Why didn't you go there?"

Brady looked at our joined hands and then met my eyes. "Because you're here, Rayna."

I melted at the tenderness in his eyes. "Really?"

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and cupped the side of my face. "Rayna, I could've gone to college last year. I stuck around because of you. Because…"

"Because…?"

When his phone rang, I closed my eyes.
‘So close.'

Brady reached into his jeans and silenced it before he touched underneath my chin and whispered, "Open your eyes. Look at me."

I did. Through tears, I saw something that Brady had always masked to me. I'd known it was there, but never really knew. Now I saw it, full and brimming to the top.

"I love you, Rayna. It's why I've never left and never wanted to leave."

My eyes closed with a snap. I burrowed into his chest. It's what I'd wanted for so long. I finally heard it and wrapped my arms around him.

He brushed my hair back and kissed my forehead. "I've just been waiting for you and I'm sorry that I haven't been a saint. When Kid came and said stuff about you, I went crazy for a moment. I thought he was going to try something with you and I couldn't lose you. It's why I made love to you after you got me out of jail. I was making you mine. Then I started thinking it wasn't fair to you. I wasn't sure if you were ready to deal with me, with everything I felt for you when you were going to go away to college. That's why I started to back away from you, but you got so mad at me. I thought for sure that meant you felt the same, but then Viola was there and everything got messed up. I didn't know what to think and then you were avoiding me."

I stopped him. "I love you, too!"

I met his mouth with mine and poured everything into that kiss. He lifted me in the air and climbed to the other side of the fence. As I entwined my legs around his waist, Brady walked backwards and gently lowered me to the front of his car. After that, I felt him surrender everything into our kiss, into me. I wanted nothing more than to be one with him.

We stayed like that, fused together, arms around each other, until both of our hearts slowed and reality filtered back in. Then he pulled away and groaned. "We can't stay here. I'm not going to do what I want to on the hood of my car. I want a bed and a week."

I rubbed a hand over my sensitized lips. "Might want to wait until after graduation."

"Graduation. Tomorrow." Brady grimaced. "I forgot about that. Clarissa's got a party tonight. Did you want to go?"

My mouth fell open.

He grinned and gently squeezed my hands. "I'm kidding. I want only to be with you tonight." Then he nipped my lips and deepened the kiss. It started out a gentle touch, but flared into more.

After he pulled away, I was reluctant to let him, but I couldn't ignore the real world. "I think we have other stuff to do tonight. You need to do damage control with Clarissa and everyone else who thought you were coming up here to jump off Highpoint Bridge. I need to explain to Viola why we might be getting sued by Frank Stephens."

"I doubt that." Brady laughed and pulled me off the car, back into his arms. "From what he was spewing, your mother has his balls in a nut-hold. There's a reason why he's scared of your grandmother too. Nah. You could've killed him and he wouldn't come back to haunt you."

"Really?"

"If he tries to hurt you, I'm going after him."

"God forbid." I grinned and looked up.

Brady met my gaze and kissed me lightly. "Much as I hate to admit this, I've had time to study Frank Stephens and I'm a lot like him in some ways. I know how he thinks. I won't let him hurt you. Ever."

"Ever forever?"

"Ever forever," Brady promised and kissed me again. He pulled away to rest his forehead against mine. "I want to take you home and then I want to do something for you."

"What?" My hands tugged on his shirt and pulled him down for another kiss. He met my lips, softly and then harder. It wasn't long before we were short of breath. He ripped away again.

"I mean it. Let's get in the car now before I decide I don't care if we're in the back of a car or on top of a car." His voice was hoarse, thick with desire, as he pulled me after him. He got in the passenger seat and I drove out of there.