I'm trying not to retreat into that place in my head, where I want to blame myself. It's hard. Really hard and when Everest's pulled into the room, already sporting a cut lip, it's a lot harder.
I know he can get out of Grayson's grip if he wants to. But he's too focused on me as soon as he enters, scouring his eyes over my body with so much fear in his eyes. My heart breaks into two as I see him.
This isn't going to end well. Only yesterday, we were wrapped up in one another. Our own world that nobody could invade and now it's being torn down and we're being pulled apart. I can feel it as Grayson keeps him by the wall. It's my fault. This isn't his family or his business.
Everest's the least likely person to get wrapped up in reputation, and families like these. The least deserving. I brought him into it all.
"How lovely. A reunion." Dean speaks.
Everest's eyes flit over the room, taking in everyone. His eyes flit to Sage and I've never seen two people so desperate to pounce at each other.
I can barely breathe. Ashamed and exploited and ruined.
"You." Clara speaks up, Dean's mother, whose been sitting idly this whole time. Her husband sits besides her with a bored expression. I wonder if he's seen the pictures too. Of course he has, they're all over the floor.
I feel sick to my stomach the longer I stand here. The more I realise just how bad of a predicament I'm in.
Clara looks at Ev in disgust, "I can't believe you associate with such filth, Violet. You've always been disappointing but for some reason, my sweet boy's sights are set on you."
"So pricks run in your family?" Everest asks Dean flatly.
Clara gasps. Dean snarls, "At least I have a mother."
"Good one." Everest drawls, rolling his jaw and wincing, "Though mine's dead and she still seems more interesting."
He doesn't know what he's doing, or what's happening. I want to run to him. Get us out of here somehow.
"Don't provoke me!" Dean almost yells now, across the room from him.
"But you're like a yippy little chihuahua." Everest says back, "It's hard not to, Deany."
Grayson's watching the interaction and I swear I see the smallest hint of amusement. It fades quick when he sees me, and then the photographs that Dean's picking up. He tosses it to Everest's feet like he'd thrown it at mine.
I shut my eyes, not being able to watch. I'm not sure I've ever felt so humiliated in my life. Never so unsafe. I was watched within the privacy of my own home and now, every moment with Ev feels exploited, open to everyone's eyes. He was mine. We were each other's and Dean's twisted it to benefit himself.
"What the fuck is this." Any humour has gone from his voice, anger overtaking him in its stead, "What the fuck is this?!"
He thrashes in Grayson's hold but Gray smashes him back against the wall, caging him in. Everest looks down at him fiercely, "Let go of me or I throw you halfway across the fucking room."
"You want me to punch you again?" Gray snaps back, "Stay here. Don't provoke him, for the better of her."
Everest looks to me now and we're too far away from each other. Tears are silently streaming down my face, arms wrapped around myself like it offers some sort of protection from all this cruelty. I stare at his blue eyes and they're pierced with pain. Not for himself, but for me. We can feel it, everything shifting beneath our feet.
He calms, just enough to stop thrashing and says, "Let me go to her."
"Move and I restrain you myself." Sage speaks darkly now. Everest's jaw tightens but he doesn't say anything back. Sage is bigger, stronger and we all know it.
Dean gets closer to me and I pull my face back, shaking. It's too much. All of this is too much. I'm a pawn being moved and used. How did it all go so wrong, so fast?
"Fuck this." Everest gets angrier, "Fuck! Get away from her!"
"Stop it." I say to Dean when he leans even closer. The closer he gets, the more it agitates Everest. I don't want my brothers to hurt him.
He watches my tears fall and he leans so close that a disgusted part of me thinks he's going to kiss them away. Instead, he stares right at me as I tremble.
"From September, you'll go to Rockley Academy with me. Away from him and his pack." Dean's expression is suddenly serious, "If you don't, I release every picture. If your brothers try to stop me, I'll release them too."
No.
"I won't." I shake my head, again and again, "I don't care. I won't."
Hundreds of miles away. States apart. The thought of being apart from Everest feels like someone's set my stomach aflame with anxiety.
"I had a feeling you'd say that." He turns me so I'm facing Everest, locking his arms around me tight. I hadn't realised that Sage had moved forwards, holding him back against the wall but Ev still thrashes, fighting as hard as he can to get to me.
"Come on! Let me fucking go!" He screams, his eyes flit down to the photographs again. Of me bare and exposed. It makes him more feral and he looks right at Sage with red, glossy eyes, "Do you not give a single fuck about her, you psychotic prick? You can see that and just let it happen?!"
"Shut up." Sage grounds out.
"You're just as bad as him. You're fucking worse. You're a pathetic psycho that lets his little sister take all the pain-" Everest's eyes flit to me, panicked when Dean holds me a lot tighter, "Come on- fuck, he's hurting her."
"If I do anything, he hurts her worse." Sage snaps and holds the forearm against his throat tighter, "Shut up before you make things worse."
I want to look at Sage. I want to see if he's angry at me, if he feels any need to protect me right now. Even if he wanted to, he can't. If my brothers make a wrong move, Dean can release those pictures. He's blackmailing us all.
Dean leans down and kisses my bare shoulder. I crystallise in place and Everest watches, his eyes burning like he's dreaming of burning this entire manor down. So am I. Maybe one day I'll do it.
"Admissions are too late for Rockley Academy." I try.
He ignores me and continues, right at my ear this time, "That maid of yours. Lila. You know who she is?"
I'm silent, listening. And confused.
"The orphan had somewhere to go eventually." He whispers it so nobody's hear, "She's his primary guardian."
Lila? I never knew, not that there'd ever been an opportunity where I could've figured that out. Everest never talked about her and I had never asked who else he lived with before we moved to New York.
"What about her?" I ask apprehensively.
"She works two jobs. In this manor, where I can force your brother to get her fired. And a bar. It'll only take a little bribe to get her fired from there too." He says and my lips part, horror running through me.
"You remember what my father does, don't you?" He says. The Delaneys mainly run a chain of banks and they fund big universities, closely connected to them. It all falls into place when he next speaks, "Your new friends, they're set to start NYU in September, isn't that right?"
Money. And power. I'd love to believe it equates to nothing but it's a bald-faced lie. It can get him anywhere and in this moment, I realise its true extent. It absolutely terrifies me.
"Dean," My voice trembles and I turn to him, "No-"
"A few phone calls and my father gets them kicked out." He declares, "His friends, his only caretaker. You'll ruin them if you don't come with me, Letty. If you refuse me, I hurt them in your stead. One way or another."
"What is he saying- Vy," Everest begs, probably having noticed the change in my expression, in my posture, in everything, "Violet. Talk to me."
I stare at him. Blonde hair that's all mussed, his throat probably turning red from my brother's hold. So wound up on getting to me. Away from Dean.
Everything falls around me.
I stare at him and realise I can never hurt him. Everest Jones needs love to survive. He needs his family and his friends happy, to be happy himself. I'd rather die than take that away from him.
Dean knows that. He's calculated this knowing that the depths of my feelings for Everest would mean I never hurt him. And like he wants, I'd concede. Bend to his will.
This is possibly the most painful affair. But I won't allow Everest to lose anything. Not because of Dean's cruel obsession with me. I won't leave an innocent woman jobless and struggling. I won't ruin my friend's futures. Not if I can help it and I can. I go to Rockley Academy.
Dean will hurt him without any remorse if I refuse, I know that undoubtedly. He's gotten us where he wants us. Checkmate, in his game of chess.
"No, Vy." Everest shakes his head, his expression turning grave, "Fuck whatever he's saying to you. Stop listening."
He's loving and sweet and so much more beautiful than these people give him credit for. He doesn't belong in all of this.
"So what do you say, Letty?" Dean's arm locks around my stomach and I don't fight it, numbness spreading itself through my body. Everest's blue eyes flit to his arms around my body and he fights so much harder.
"Fight him off. Vy-" Everest begs. I'm not fighting anymore, I'm still.
I've been used my whole life. Mistreated and abused. A part of me long believed that I wasn't meant to be anything but people's pawn. Destined to be tread upon my whole life, for some reason. I had accepted it before him and I can accept it again.
If not, I'll force myself to accept it again. I can't stand by and throw Everest and his family to Dean's slaughter. Dean wants me. I won't let them suffer for it. Hurting the people he loves, it hurts Everest. Pains him.
And god, Ria and Val, girls I've come to love so much. Just the other day they'd been talking about a shopping spree, buying new clothes for college. I'm not going to be the one to tear them away from the university they're going to attend, together.
I'm not roping them into anymore pain. I've braved other people's pain my whole life. What's another few years?
Right?
"I love you." Ev says it through tears, "Come on, I love you. We love each other. That's all that matters."
Ria had said it herself. It's hard to realise that loving someone isn't enough. I love him, as much as a heart is possible of loving anyone. More than anything.
But it's not all that matters. Not when him and his family, people I care about too and his happiness is involved.
I look to Grayson, "Take him outside."
Their faces fall at the same time. My brothers but Everest's - god, Everest's is the worst of them all. I might as well have just ripped right through his body.
"No." He says in disbelief. He looks between my brothers and in one motion, he fights. With a shove, Grayson is slammed against the nearest wall and he somehow manages to evade Sage, kneeing his stomach when Sage turns around. It startles Sage enough for Ev to shoot towards me.
Dean's yanked away from me and then, Everest's arms are around me. In a matter of seconds, all my strong resolve starts to fade. Home will never be anything but within his arms, in front of that face filled with so much pain.
I let him hold me close and I can't move. I don't want to move. I'm losing everything. His hands cup my face and wipes away all my tears, trying hard to smile through his own, "We're going home. We'll figure it all out, Violet. I swear."
I shake my head against his chest, my tears wetting his shirt. I need to be strong enough to realise which option I need to take. What's the other one? Misery for everyone around us? No.
"Stop shaking your head." His voice trembles, "You don't need to listen to him, Violet. You're not staying in this manor or doing what he says. I have you, we're okay."
"Trust me." I fist his shirt, hide against him for a final time, "Please trust me and let me do this."
"No." He snaps, "Fuck this, no-"
"You have to trust me!" I beg, pulling back just enough so he can see my face, and look at me with those pretty sky eyes I've fallen so in love with over these months. I'd do anything to protect his light. His tenderness.
He would do the exact same for me. He won't understand this, probably never but it doesn't matter. I'll carry through with it, for the better of both of us.
There's too many strings pulling us apart, strings that can break and burn our hands. Burn the people around us. Strings that have morphed into thick, heavy chains that I can't duck under anymore. Other people will get hurt.
Everest starts shaking his head once seeing my determination. I'm not letting this go. Neither will he so I reach up and pull his face down, so his forehead can touch mine.
"The sun has to rise on us, Vy." He grits out, "I promised you. I promised that we'd be okay."
"We will be." I kiss him softly, "Maybe it's just not together."
"No. I'm fucking nothing without you. Nothing will be okay unless you're with me too so you can leave, or do whatever Dean wants but you're it for me. I'll get fucking back to you." He says strongly, eyes burning into mine, "This isn't some goodbye, or sad ending. Do you hear me? We're getting a happy ending, Violet." His tears fall faster, "We have to get a happy ending-"
"Just tell me you love me." I plead because this hurts so bad. I can't take this pain.
Even the idea of leaving terrifies me. I'm not cut out for it, being alone again. All of me has come to centre on him.
"Violet." He's pained and frustrated and helpless.
"I love you." I say then, "You're going to be okay. It's for the better, I promise."
"Why do I keep fucking losing you?" His eyes screw shut.
"Everest." I plead.
"I love you." He forces the words out. He stares at me for a long moment and I muster up a small smile for him. He pulls me closer, "Fuck, I love you."
I take in the sight of him. It started with slurpees and pacts. Secrets and hiding from our own pain. Until, along the way, we let each other in enough to hide together. For a while, Everest was my most thrilling escape and even if it comes to a close now, he'll always be who I think of when I need light.
I force myself to look at my brothers, "Get him out."
Everest fights again, not wanting to let me go. I knew it would happen. This is the only way to make him go. He manages to punch Grayson, but Sage gets one good hit that makes Everest fall to the floor. Unconscious but breathing.
Everything's a daze. They're sending a Bentley to New York, to take him back and to get my things.
Dean's whisper is wicked, in my ear, "We move to the dorms on Saturday. I'll see you then, Letty."
It feels like a seal, imprinted on my fate. Everything has been stripped away from me in one day. Everything I came to care about, and love. He forced me to push away the person I treasure most and I'm at his mercy now, incapable of doing anything.
But one day, he'll pay for all this pain. Roiling inside me, burning me from the inside out.
Usually, I forced the empty feeling away. Now, I let it consume me. I have nothing to lose anymore.
I lost everything.
Everest.
My cheek burns, head dazed as I try to open my eyes. Everything fucking hurts and I attempt to grasp my bearings.
"Sir?" A man taps my side and I startle. He's on my side of this car, waking me up. He insists, "We're here. You must get out."
I take in the plush seats and the driver. I'm in a Bentley and I can't move for a minute.
"Violet." I mutter, blinking, "Where is she? Vy-"
"You were driven here. I'm expected to bring back Miss Amory's things." He says easily. I look up to the apartment complex, realising I'm in New York.
Everything, all of it, hits me in one overwhelming rush. Her brother ripping me out of the car and shoving me into that room. Knowing something was wrong as soon as I saw her stood there in the centre, staring at the floor.
Dean. Dean and his fucking mother and her brothers and she's gone.
She's gone. I'm alone in this car and wherever I look, all I can see is the absence of her. I shut my eyes for a second and all I fucking see is his arms wrapped around her. Photographs scattered on the floor. Any bit of fight in her vanished. The world being torn out from under our feet and having to let it happen.
What the fuck happened? How did I let it all happen?
Dean ruined her.
Her family took her away from me.
Tore her down bit by bit in that room, right in front of my eyes until all I was starting to see was a shell of the girl I love. She's gone.
I step out and slam the door shut behind me. I grab the driver and make it clear, "You're not taking her. Fuck off."
"I-" He's frightened. I don't care when he reiterates, "Miss Amory needs her things."
"You're not taking her from me." I growl, lowly and he flinches back from me. When I let him go, he hurries to the drivers seat and the Bentley speeds away.
I turn to the apartment complex, not taking the elevator. I take the stairs, feeling the burn of my legs for every single step. The pain. I need more of the pain. I need something to take away from this fucking pain.
I've lost everything. That fucker blackmailed us and I could do nothing. I couldn't save her from being burned, or let it scald me instead. I'll never be able to forget that feeling so long as I'm breathing. I'll force myself to remember it. I force myself to feel the hurt for every aching step upwards.
We lost. Delaney had been fucking us over from the beginning but today, he swept out everything from under our feet. I wasn't smarter, I didn't beat him to it. I had no fucking clue and I let us lose.
I'm at the apartment door and I bang my fist. I don't know where my keycard is so I hit, and hit and hit. Wanting the pain so maybe it'll compensate for the fact I did nothing to help her. I hit so hard my fist starts to hurt.
Luca opens the door, cussing me out but I don't hear anything past the ringing in my ears. I walk past him and into the lounge, where everyone's gathered on the floor. I can't look at them. To see them all together, is to also see the fact Violet isn't within them anymore. Besides them.
Just tell me you love me.
I open the drawers and slam them shut.
I love you. You're going to be okay. It's for the better, I promise.
I look around the counters, spinning. I open one of the cupboards above my head and almost throw all the glasses to the fucking floor.
Get him out.
When I can't find it, I snap, slamming another drawer so hard that a part of it cracks and I yell, "Where's the fucking keycard?"
I can feel the guys around me. They're asking me questions I don't care about. I don't spare them a glance, finally finding the keycard on the island. I snatch it and storm back out of the door.
The sun has to rise on us, Vy. I promised you. I promised that we'd be okay.
We will be.
The gentle touch of her lips, even when she was in so much pain. Chaos had engulfed us but even in the darkest tumult, one touch of hers had soothed me. I can't feel it on my lips anymore. I can't feel any of her.
Maybe it's just not together.
Happiness doesn't exist for me if it's not with Violet.
It's been hours and I feel like I've lost all light. Anything that was keeping me sane, ripped to tattered shreds on the ground. I've lost my whole fucking life. I failed her, again and again and now, I've lost her. To lose her, means I've lost myself.
If it's not together then I refuse to feel anything at all.
Nothing fucking matters anymore.
Hudson Tempest.
I never anticipated Luca falling in love. Never could have imagined it with Everest either. We were kids when we'd earnestly accepted that we were going to live loveless lives.
By now, I've watched them both love and I realise that I wouldn't wish it on my worst fucking enemy. Love. Affection. Wanting so much of someone that their departure turns you darker.
Love is a lot like an oxy rush. Builds to ecstasy and then leaves you with a nothing so hollow, you find ways to seek it again. Sometimes when I get asked why I'm an addict, I want to ask why they fall in love. It's the same fucking thing. Only placated with a supposed happy ending.
The supposed happy ending for an addict is death. Less sunshine and rainbows, huh?
Even then, I don't think it's much far off this fall from grace. In my several years of knowing him, I've never been apprehensive around Everest Jones. Not until now.
Ruin. Devastation. It hangs off him like a second skin. So heavily that I can barely recognise who he is. You can easily distinguish predator from prey. He's not a predator, not by nature though he can be when circumstance calls for it.
Now, even his presence sets off an uneasy roil in our stomachs. Someone with nothing to lose becomes dangerous and usually, we'd never think Everest poses as a threat. But this isn't the Everest we know.
He's ruined, devastated and falling from grace. Like an angel sprouting black wings. The boy we know morphed into a vision of his darkest parts.
It's kinda fucking terrifying.
He had just stormed out and we were cautious to even go near him. When me and Luca had glanced at each other, we both felt it. Everest's body was vibrating with whatever he was holding inside and I'm not sure if he realised he broke three of the drawers and cracked another two.
The only giveaway is that Violet isn't with him. They'd gone to the manor today. The one she'd been abused in for years and he returns without her. My own stomach ignites with nerves.
Me and Luca share a look and we're walking out after him, telling the girls to stay where they are despite their concern. Luca's eyes are on the door when I catch up to him.
I grimace, Everest's blood painting the fucking door. He'd punched it enough to splinter the wood. Expensive, thick wood.
Luca's posture stiffens, "What the fuck happened to him?"
"He sprouted claws." I mutter, trying to joke but I swallow. That didn't ease the tension at all, "Something happened to Violet."
"No shit sherlock." He glares at me. Great. Luca's pissy.
Not the pissy where I like taunting him back but the pissy he gets when he's feeling protective, doesn't know what to do with the emotions and turns into a little bitch. If I have to deal with pissy Luca and Everest from hell, I might just make a run for it.
Luca turns away and follows where Everest went, the gym being the most plausible option. He took the keycard for a reason.
We get in the elevator and Luca cracks his knuckles. I lean back against the wall lazily, "Planning on punching someone?"
"Your pretty face is tempting." Luca doesn't look at me, too concerned about Ev. I am too. I just want Lu to relax before we see him.
"Don't call me pretty. Makes me hate you less." I stare flatly at him.
He stares flatly back, "Stuff your ego back up your ass, junkie."
"I forgot." I nod, looking away, "Nothing could make me hate you less."
He sends me a dark, bitter smile made for Luca's menacing features. An obscure scent wafts into my nose and as soon as it hits me, I want to glare at something. The only thing I can glare at is the wall, so I do.
Vanilla and roses. I'm assuming the scent transferred to me when that ball of sunshine all but sprang on me like a fucking banshee, not letting me go until I tried her cookies.
I hate the scent. It's hers. I bring the sleeve of my leather jacket up and to my nose, briefly inhaling. My eyes shut. Fucking vanilla, roses and Val.
As soon as the elevator doors open, Luca walks out and I follow. Luca always walks like he has somewhere to be. It adds to his whole I hate everything vibe. I don't understand the need to move my legs faster than need be so I don't and it pisses him off, glaring back at me.
I speed up just a little for Mr Pissy.
When we get into the gym, it's easy to spot Everest since nobody else occupies the place. Luca looks like he wants to jump right in there to talk to him. Luca's also an idiot so I pull him back, watching through the glass.
"The fuck do you think you're doing?" Luca rips my hands off him.
"Don't go in there yet." I watch. I'm good at observing. I always have been. Anything could rile Everest right now and he wouldn't care who we are.
"Why?"
"Trust me." I snap back.
Everest pulls his shirt off in one fell swoop, tossing it to the ground. Every band of muscle is fixed with tension, his back the only part of him we can really see. We're silent and we watch him look right in the mirrors, staring at himself.
I don't know exactly who it's for but hatred has never been so clear in his eyes. When he stares at himself for longer, I start to realise it might be for himself.
Abruptly, he breaks away and to the punching bag.
Luca's brows furrow, "He doesn't have gloves on-"
Everest punches. One hard hit and pulls back. He's in the right stance and moving the right way, things Luca had taught him well when we were young. He's still for just a moment.
And then he doesn't stop.
Punch, after relentless punch. The heavy thud of the bag sounds out again and again until we can visibly see his knuckles cracking open. Blood spills down his arm and it's like he wants more. So he doesn't relent, battering every emotion into the bag. It swings harshly with every hit, only for Everest to beat it harder and quicker. Some of his punches are so quick I can barely see them.
"He's going to break his fucking hand." Luca's tense, so concerned he's fisting his hands tight, "I need to go in ther-"
"Not yet." I sternly keep him in place, "He's not in the right mindset. He'll hurt you. Trust me this once."
"I don't care if he fucking hurts me."
A scream. A guttural, agonising scream and we look through the glass. Everest's forehead is pressed to the punching bag, muscles corded up as he screams into the bag. Shaking with rage and it echoes, even through the thick paned glass. Blood spills from his hands onto the floor and finally, he drops to his knees once his energy's depleted.
Luca rushes in and I follow.
I hang back though, knowing that Luca has something I don't have with Everest. I love them like brothers but these two, they're tied to each other stronger than most else. Take one away, the other starts to fail.
They're on their knees. Everest doesn't lift his head, bleeding badly now. Something's definitely broken there but he doesn't even let out a hiss of pain. I've never seen someone so shattered.
Even as Luca's arm hangs around his shoulders and they breathe in unison, Everest isn't...there. I can barely watch it. I hate seeing them in pain, either of them. Once he's calmed slightly, I walk over and together, me and Luca hook our arms around him. We lift him up.
I'm not squeamish but even Luca can't really look at Everest's hand. It's mangled, skin eroded and blood everywhere.
"We'll take him out to my car. Hospital's nearby." Luca says. I nod and we use our combined strength to walk him out and into the elevator. In there, Luca calls the girls. I can practically hear Ria's stubbornness from the other line and it doesn't take Luca long to concede.
"They're coming too?" I guess.
He sighs, "Ria's meeting us in the parking lot. Val's hanging back with Miguel and Benji."
It's unnerving that Everest doesn't care about the blood. It's running down his arm. That would usually take him enough to shriek or pass out. Now, it's as if he doesn't even see it.
What the fuck happened to him? I think both of us are too apprehensive to ask.
We get to the parking lot and it's not long until Ria's sliding into the front seat of the car. She spins back, Everest sat by me.
We've just started the car when he speaks up, "I don't want to go to the hospital."
I let Luca take the lead here and he reponds, slightly softer than his usual tone, "You've broken bone, Ev. The doctors need to look at it."
He doesn't look to any of us, eyes on his hands. He looks worlds fucking away. I've never seen him like this and it's creeping me the fuck out. I want our Everest back. The sane one. The not so scary one.
"Ev." Ria says gently and the sound of her voice makes him stiffen slightly. She's not afraid of him, not one bit. He looks up, meets her eyes and I don't know what she sees but she looks pained.
She's about to say something, ask about something but Everest's quick to divert, "My wrist's fractured." He says nonchalantly to Luca, "Speed up."
If I ordered him like that, he'd probably strangle me. But Luca's hands just tighten around the wheel and he floors the throttle, which isn't much different to how he usually drives. The hospital's near to us so soon, we're inside and Everest's given a room.
Ria and Luca are sat by his side. I stand against the doorway. What happened to Violet? My insides stir with something territorial when I think about her scars, her abuse, her pain. Where the fuck is she? I need to know but Everest sure as hell isn't batting anybody an eyelash.
I leave them and head to an empty hallway. Nobody's around here, only nurses passing by every so often. They spare me curious looks but I don't bother to pull down my hood and look less uninviting.
I pull out my phone and head to my contacts. Before I click the name, I hesitate. I don't want to. But there's no fucking information on where she is, what's she doing and it's bizarre as fuck. I don't know if she's in danger so I make the call.
He picks up after a few rings.
"Where is she?" I say immediately, uncaring of the shit he's probably gonna spew at me. The Amory brothers are intelligent as shit and cruel to the core. Words are their weapons.
"Ask your cunt of a best friend." He snaps back.
"Where the fuck is she, Gray?" I grit out.
"He hasn't filled you in?" He sounds different. More serious and it hits me suddenly - he's not supposed to know about them. Violet and Everest. He knows, which means Sage must have found out too.
"How do you-
"Thanks for telling me by the way, bro. We agreed to stay the fuck away from each other, I get that but you could've told me when that bastard started fucking my baby sister." He snaps and I can practically feel his explosive anger through the phone, "But all you freaks are the same. And now she's screwed, because of him."
"What are you talking about?"
He fills me in and I can barely absorb it all. The photographs Dean Delaney's collected of them fucking, of her exposed. He blackmailed them all, including the two brothers. They couldn't act against him because one misstep and their sister's nudes would be all over the internet. People would love an Amory scandal.
So they had to bend to Dean's will too, to protect their sister. A snap of their fingers and the brothers could ruin Dean, if they wanted to. But Violet's their liability.
Dean wants them away from each other. She'll attend Rockley Academy once September comes. That's states away, alone with Dean. Violet agreed - to protect us from being kicked out of a college we haven't even attended yet and to protect Lila from losing her jobs.
Heart. She has too much fucking heart. And she had no out, no other route to take.
"Fuck." I drag a hand through my hair.
"If your golden prick comes near me again, I'm slitting his throat." He says.
But I feel the petty need to point out, "You're...also a blonde."
"Fine. If the prick that got my sister into this situation in the first place comes near me, I'm slitting his throat." He reiterates and I can practically envision a bitter smile.
"How exactly is this Everest's fault?" I drawl, bored with how idiotic he can also be, "God forbid your baby sis gets fucked. But unless you intended for her to become a nun, it was only a matter of time. And when teenagers think they're in love, they tend to fornicate. You still with me, goldie?"
"Fuck you." He grits out, "He could've prevented all of this."
"How? You didn't prevent any of it. You didn't see Dean coming either and you're not helping Violet out of Rockley Academy." I shrug, "Swallow the pill that you're both as useless as each other right now."
It hurts for a pretty rich boy like him. I can deduce that.
"Where is she now?" I ask.
"In her room." He says quieter and I can hear the clinking of ice in glass, like whiskey, "She leaves tomorrow."
Tomorrow. Fuck. Logistically, we can't stop Violet from doing what Dean wants right now. Not unless we're risking her nudes showing up everywhere.
I know Everest's not taking this quietly. He's gonna try and get her out of this and he's gonna be a fucking idiot about it because him and Luca don't tend to handle things any other way.
It's that leverage. We need to get something better on him, sneak our way out of this. Lucky for me, I'm surrounded by heathens that think knocking someone out solves all problems. This isn't Luca and Everest's type of game, even if they refuse to accept it. Their nature doesn't fit with this.
I hate rich boys.
"You're technically one of us. We hate you too." Grayson chides and hangs up.
I hadn't realised I said that aloud. Rich boy's ego seemed a little hurt. Oh well. What's another bruise to this fucking chaotic day. He deserves it.
When I make it back to the hospital room, a doctor's checking out Everest's hand. Turns out he did fracture his wrist, with three metacarpal fractures. Three of his knuckles. He has to get a splint, which means we'll probably be here a while.
I lean against the wall behind Ria, and Everest starts to get up, "I don't need a fucking splint. I'm going home."
His behaviour makes so much more sense now. Everest hates nobody like he hates Dean Delaney. He had to watch as Dean flipped up two middle fingers and stole his girl right from his grasp.
Everests lost to Dean, his whole life. He's our fucking bane.
Love. Addicting and ruinous. Devastatingly beautiful. In this moment, there's more devastation than beauty and it hangs over everyone in this hospital room.
"Did you do it on purpose?" I ask Everest and he swings his head up to look at me. It's hard to keep my expression straight when faced with the darkness in his eyes.
"What?" He snarls.
"Breaking your hand." I ask bluntly, "Was it purposeful?"
I'm slammed against the wall before I can blink, my back crashing into a cabinet. I sigh. At this point, I'm just bored. Toss me around like a rag doll, why fucking don't you?
I don't even flinch nor do I give anything up, speaking with bored calm, "You broke your hand because you wanted the physical pain, to hurt yourself. That's self-harm."
"Maybe I want more of it and I break your jaw a second time." He's looking at me like he genuinely sees nothing but a body to break, someone to hurt. I've never seen that look, even in Luca's eyes.
"Sore topic, man." I choke out when he pushes me against the wall harder.
Everest's eyebrows furrow for a second, looking me over. He sniffs, "Is that vanilla?"
My eyes widen, "No."
Great. So I've resorted to sounding like a three year old being caught. I'm gonna tell her that her stupid fucking cookies taste like shit, just to get her back.
"Everest, relax." Luca warns, standing. A little ironic but whatever.
"We'll get her back." I say to just Everest. His blue eyes flash with surprise and his cruel mask slips momentarily, revealing burning agony. He hides it again and I assure, "I fucking promise you. But this isn't going to be easy and you can't act like this. Get your head on right and sit down. Violet isn't going to reappear whilst you get a splint."
"Don't talk about her." He seriously looks like he wants to kill me.
"Sit down. We both know I can restrain you if need be." I respond easily, "You've had your fun and I allowed you to. Get your hands off me before I break your other one."
Luca pulls him back and I'm finally let go. My back aches from the force of his shove but I barely recognise it. I've noticed that Everest welcomes pain. Through drinking and chaos and he's never backed down from it. In that respect and probably that respect only, we're similar.
"Can we all just relax please?" Ria says, her tone gentle - never her usual style but if we're being honest, it's her truest nature. She looks torn up.
She takes charge and sits Everest down again and gives up her chair for me to sit. I don't and she proceeds to glare, shoving me into it. When we're all sat and silent, she sighs, "There's no need to fight. All the time. Sometimes, we need to grow the fuck up."
I open my mouth and Luca glares at me from across the room, shutting me up from interrupting her. I listen to her guard dog and look up to her.
I feel guilty when she runs a tired hand through her long, black hair. She's been having trouble with Benji lately. He's not sleeping much at nights so she's had to stay up with him. She's eighteen but bears heavy responsibility on her shoulders, a giver and a carer behind her heartless façade.
As annoying as we are, she cares for each one of us too. It's probably exhausting. We're petty dickheads.
"I'm- I'm tired of us dealing with stuff in the worst ways possible. It's all we've done. Ending up in hospitals and fights and I know we're fucked up, but I can't deal with this shit anymore." She says, exasperated, "We're getting older and so is Benji. I'm sorry for whatever happened, Ev." She turns to him, earnest and gentle, "But this has to stop being our norm."
We're all silent. We all know it's true. We're reckless idiots and we can't continue to be so for the rest of our lives. We never had liabilities, things to pull us back. We do now. Benji, Miguel, each of the girls.
"Please just talk to us." Ria says to Ev and he changes slightly, lifting his eyes to her, "It's only us here. Stop being this person you're not."
Silence extends around us for a while.
Sometimes, I wonder when I stopped straying from most people. I ceased any connections and I still do. A lone predator, away from any pack because I wasn't born to be with people. I was moulded by cruelty, shaped to be cruel. It still sets my instincts on fire as soon as I start to feel like I need them.
Every bit of me should stay far away from these people. I should want to stay away. It goes against every one of my instincts and I'm fighting against it, every fucking day. Every minute.
Loving people, it's my most difficult fucking affair.
Everest looks at me now and I can see the silent permission. He knows that I know. He won't be able to talk about it himself, so he's asking me to. I fill them in about it all.
We're left silent again, Ria now sat on Luca's lap as she digests it all.
"We can't leave her alone with him." She chokes up but fierce stubbornness remains in her eyes, "Destroy the photographs and get her back."
"It's not that simple." I say, a nurse now working on Everest's hand.
"So we just leave her in there? We can't." She shakes her head.
"Leaving her in there with Dean." Luca tries to act impervious but I know he's warmed to Violet, his fingers fisting the chair, "She'll be defenceless against him."
"You need to relax your hand, Mr Jones." The nurse's eyes widen, "You're going to worsen your fracture with how much you're tensing."
Everest snaps, "If you can't do the splint when I tense slightly, learn to do your fucking job."
Even my eyes widen at that. I think Luca's do too. Usual, regular Everest would slap himself for that.
I knew Ria wouldn't allow that, even before she quickly apologises to the nurse. She sends Everest a scathing, disgusted look. He doesn't apologise but he relaxes his hand, not saying another word.
I don't think either of us speak after that until Everest's splint is all done and they do a few checks. They want to keep him for longer but he's leaving before they can stop him, out the doors and back into the car. The drive back to the apartment is unsettling. Not awkward, just so fucking depressing.
When we get back to the apartment, Violet won't be there.
I don't know Violet Fawn Amory well. We're not friends, barely acquaintances. She detests me and I make sure to keep it that way. Yet the thought of her in pain tears at my insides in a fierce passion I've never known before. I hate it.
They think I keep secrets because I don't trust them. Because I like maintaining a mysterious air and a darker aura to compliment it. They think I choose to be this way. I wish they could see how badly I ache to scream until my lungs burn and every secret pours out, away from me. Every single day.
I'm not impulsively angry like Luca. I'm not reckless and wild like Everest. I don't have Ria's caring heart or an ounce of the light that annoying ball of sunshine has, back at the apartment. I have vigilance and silence. I have darkness moulded to my insides like a layer of skin. There's no salvation for someone like me.
That makes me smart and it makes me dangerous. That makes me more than capable of getting a girl, who is connected to me irrevocably, out of her personal prison.
I should hate the Amory's. But family has a way of catching up to you.
a/n
took so long to get to this point. don't hate me too much for this, and whats coming.
i told you that you would hate dean so much more as the story went on
<33