Touched By The Devil (Boys of Preston Prep 3)

“Nothing?” he spits back. “You come into classes every day hungover, looking like crap. That is, when you decide to actually attend. All the girls are riled up about whatever went down between you and Sugar. Vandy and Aubrey were the ones who asked us to talk to you. Even Afton said something, and you know she doesn’t get involved in trivial shit. I know break-ups suck, but this has gone somewhere toxic.”

“Look,” I shrug, “they’re Team Sugar. No skin off my back. You know, Hoes before Bros.”

“They aren’t Hoes,” Emory snaps. “They’re Devils, and they’re worried. We’re all a little worried. I mean, fuck, dude, you’re not exactly…” He waves a hand at me, as if encompassing my entire being.

I raise my eyebrows, waiting for him to continue.

“Stable,” Reyn cuts in, clearly having no problem throwing punches. “You’re not stable.”

I narrow my eyes. “Is Reynolds McAllister seriously judging my character? Because that’s like the pot calling the kettle—oh wait, someone stole the kettle. And the pot. And the whole fucking stove.”

Reyn just shrugs.

“No one is judging you,” Emory insists. “In fact, Georgia is convinced this is about Heston.”

I clamp my jaw shut, eyes narrowing. “Georgia needs to shut her cakehole.”

He ignores me. “Is it? Does this have something to do with Heston?”

I shove a hand through my hair and look away. Emory’s the only one who really knows my brother. Fuck, he idolized him and Bates when they ran this joint. But I also know that Emory wanted the Devils to be better than a group of pretentious bullying assholes. He wanted to make this into something worth being a part of. Kind of funny when I think about it—the long arm of Heston, still fucking the Devils up even after he’s left.

I take a long drag from my beer before admitting, “Heston found out about me and Sugar.”

There’s a long moment of silence before Reyn says, “Uh, so what? What’s the big deal. Did you think you could keep her a secret forever?”

“Did he say something?” Emory asks, eyebrows furrowed. “Did he threaten her?”

I think about the texts he sent me. It was an entire day of them. He found her school records. He knows she’s here on scholarship. He knows she doesn’t like being touched. Fuck, that one probably gets me the most. This thing I tried so hard to teach her was good and fine, and he’s more than willing to twist it into something ugly and awful, just to get back at me for…

I turn the bottle over in my hands, pressing my thumbnail into the glass. “He wants me to fight again.”

“You can’t,” Reyn instantly says, as if it’s that easy. “Unless you want your brain to turn into swiss cheese permanently.”

Rolling my shoulders, I grind out, “I know. But if I don’t, he’ll take it out on her. Fuck, if I do, he’ll take it out on her.”

Emory stares at me. “So what? You figured if you dumped her, he’d let it go?”

“He’ll lose interest if he thinks she doesn’t mean anything to me,” I explain. “If he doesn’t think he can use her against me, he won’t bother.”

“Then we go talk to him,” Reyn suggests.

“Oh geez, why in my eighteen fucking years on this earth had that never occurred to me? Thank you, Reyn! In two seconds, and with almost zero insight, you completely changed my life. Jesus Christ,” I say to Emory, jabbing a thumb to Reyn. “How much therapy has this guy had? Like everything can be ‘talked out’.”

Reyn just goes on, “Explain the situation. The concussion and everything. Work it out.”

Fist clenched tight around my bottle, I explode, “It doesn’t work that way with Heston!”

“You’re the toughest guy I know, Wilcox,” Reyn admits. “How bad can it be?”

I chuckle darkly. “You want to know how bad my brother really is? He’s the asshole who kicked his best friend’s girl in the face during a fire drill. He picks on little gay kids and mocks them in front of the whole school. He’s the one who preys on girls, films them in vulnerable positions, and hey, if they’re lucky, no one can see their face while he’s abusing them!”

I stand and start pacing the room, feeling the anxiety and anger rising. “He’s the kind of guy who sets up his little brother with an unfair fight that gives him a wicked concussion just to get a bigger payday. I’ve watched him drive our own mother to the edge of her own fucking sanity, just because she showed me a sliver of something he saw as favor.”

I turn to Emory, adding, “You know that pregnant cat? The one Sugar and I have been feeding? I took her home to have her kittens, and you know the first thought that popped into my head at the thought of leaving them in the house with him?” I look at Reyn, explaining, “That he’d kill them. Just because they were something I wanted to protect, something I gave even half a shit about. That’s who Heston is, and that’s what Heston does. Emory doesn’t even know the half of it. Being a Devil with him? That’s nothing. Try living with him. Being related to him. Being someone he’ll never see as anything more than competition.” I shake my head, tossing back my beer. “I will do everything in my power to protect Sugar from him, even if that means breaking her fucking heart and having her and the Playthings hate me forever.”

Emory and Reyn both look on, slack-jawed and still.

Reyn’s the first to break out of it. “But what about your parents? You dad? He’s powerful, right?”