Brutal Heir (Court University 1)

She frowned. “Did you know those guys were going to attack me tonight?”

A curse left my lips when she dabbed my knuckles. My jaw moved. “Why would you think that?”

Silence as she touched me with alcohol again, and once clean, she smoothed some ointment on the knuckles. She pressed gauze to my hand after that, wrapping the whole thing with medical tape she tore free with her teeth. She shrugged. “I mean, you texted me right before those guys came.”

“So?”

Her frown deepened. “So it’s weird. You told me to wait for you, that you were coming like you knew something was going to happen.”

More silence as she wrapped my hand, and pride was a real fucking thing. I didn’t want to tell her the truth, hell all my truths. But in the end, I guess she deserved it. In fact, she deserved so much more than I’d given her in the past and probably could ever give. I worked my fingers bound with tape. “I was tipped off that a couple of guys were coming after you. Paid to do so by my grandpa.”

Her eyebrows jumped. “What?”

How long and fucked up the story was. I sighed, scrubbing my burning fingers through my hair. “My grandpa went to the frat looking for volunteers. Those guys, Garret and Hunter, I knew. They’re pieces of shit no one likes and willing to do pretty much anything for a buck and some entertainment for the night. Some of the other guys at the frat obviously knew about the coup since Grandfather poked around asking for someone to mess with you. The guys called me up, let me know about it. Apparently, Garret and Hunter were just supposed to handle you, scare you, but knowing those fuckers, I highly doubt that’s all they’d stop at.”

Absolute horror behind Greer’s eyes, her swallow hard. “Why would your grandpa do that? Why would he send people after me?”

And so the truth came out, all of it. Still livid, my body visibly shook. “Because you were right. You were right about fucking everything.” I breathed harshly into my hands, and Greer joined me on the couch.

“Right?” She touched my shoulder, and I faced her.

“My grandpa was keeping my mom in that coma,” I said, her mouth parting. “He was keeping her asleep and has been for twelve years. She woke up eight days after her accident, Greer. Eight fucking days.”

“What the fuck?”

Nodding, I stared away. “He said she was trying to take me away from him after my dad died, that he was trying to protect me because my mom was a whore. I guess my dad married an escort and Gramps didn’t like that. He didn’t think she could be a parent after my dad died.”

She covered her face with her hands, gasping. “Oh, Knight.”

“I’ve spent the last few days just trying to get her out of his care, but he hasn’t made it easy. There’s all this red tape I didn’t know about, legal shit, and I’m trying to work my way through it, but she’s still in that goddamn nursing home. He has power of attorney over her and her care.” I didn’t know if I’d ever get her out, if I could save her or even if she could be saved. Now that my grandpa knew that I knew, he may kill her. Finish the job he’d started before I got a chance to get her. I looked at Greer. “When I found out about all this, I mentioned your name. It fucking slipped about you being right about all this, and though my grandpa obviously didn’t remember you when he’d seen you those handful of times, he asked around. He found out you went to Pembroke. He found out you came with me to the nursing home. Your name was on the damn sign-in sheet.”

She shook beside me, staring off, and her lips trembled as she looked at me. “So he sent someone after me?”

“Probably because in his sick, fucked up way, he believed he was protecting me. Protecting me from you and all the chaos you bring.” I covered my face. “Thank God he hadn’t found out you’d been there that night with Bryce. A loose end he’d have to shut down.”

Because he would have wiped her way, done so just to prove a point. That Greer Michaelson was trouble, trouble I needed to stay away from. True, chaos accompanied her whenever she seemed to be in my life, but that wasn’t her fault. She was a victim, always the victim, and I’d made that so fucking worse for her in the past it made me sick. I’d hurt her. Hurt her so many times and still continued to do it. My grandpa just shy of put a hit out on her head tonight, and if she hadn’t been able to hold her own…

I didn’t even want to think about it, maddened to the point of insanity. Small hands made their way around my bicep, tugging at me, and I realized how clamped up I was.

She touched my face. “He’s why you threatened me.” That realization she discovered now too, cringing with damp eyes. “Oh my God, Knight.”

I brought chaos into this girl’s life, none of it deserved. I shook my head. “I fucked up, Greer. I fucked up, and I hurt you.”

“No—”

I removed her hands. “I fucking did, and I don’t even have the words. All that terrible shit I did to you…”

Her hands touched me again, and I didn’t fucking deserve it, none of this. She should run the far fuck away, who I was a monster just like every other demon that plagued the town I came from. I could add my grandpa to that list now, a true devil in sheep’s clothing. He may have had his own reasons, but the end far from hell justified the means. He was just as cruel, just as sick as everyone else.

Greer’s fingers curled against my jaw, and I actually shuddered, taking her hand. I kissed it. “I’m so fucking sorry.”

“Just stop. Stop, okay? Look at me.”

I did, cringing. “How can you even look at me right now?” Because she was and not in the terror she should. There was so much sympathy in her eyes, empathy even. She was being understanding when she fucking shouldn’t.

She let go of me after that, but only to jerk her pant leg above her ankle. On her pale skin was a scar, the gruesome remains of a bite mark in a location I was well aware of. Old Man Peabody’s dog had bitten her there, another way I’d failed her. I let her get fucking bitten that day. I should have taken care of that dog sooner.

“I have to admit,” she said, chewing her lip a little. “Back then, I didn’t understand. It’s still hard for me.” She let go and touched my jaw. “But now, I need to.”