Broken Empire (Boys of Oak Park Prep 3)

She got quiet again when we reached the mini-golf place, even though I could tell from the look in her eyes and the way her body practically vibrated that she was excited. She struck me as a sweet combination of bubbly and shy—closed up like a clam around new people, but a ray of sunshine around the ones she loved and trusted.

While Cole paid for our club rental, I walked over to where Penny was considering the baskets of colored balls and glanced down at her.

“What do you think? Did you pick your color yet?”

Her long eyelashes fluttered as she blinked up at me. “No.”

“Cool. I think I’m gonna go with…” I ran my hands over the balls, wiggling my fingers like I was letting them call to me somehow. “…yellow.”

“That’s a good color,” she said softly. “Not my favorite, but it’s good.”

“What’s your favorite?”

“Blue.”

“Good choice.” I picked up one of the blue golf balls and offered it to her, and she scooped it out of my hand eagerly. “Should we grab one for Cole too?”

She nodded emphatically and pointed to the basket full of pink balls, a mischievous glint in her eye.

“Excellent choice.”

I grabbed one out and handed it to her, and she took it and ran over to Cole. He turned around when she tugged on his shirt, and when she handed him the ball, his gaze cut immediately to me. I just shrugged and inclined my head toward his sister, suppressing my grin.

Penny seemed younger than nine in some ways, and I wondered if it was because of her Tourette’s—the way Cole had made it sound, she hadn’t gotten much support at all from their parents. I noticed a few small tics that she had, but only because I knew to look for them.

As we started to play, I realized quickly that this was far from the first time the two of them had come here. They both knew every hole backward and forward, and Cole whispered a few pointers in my ear as I lined up my shots.

Every time he touched me, or even got close to me, I could feel Penny’s gaze on us, and I wondered if she knew even a fraction of what had transpired between me and her brother.

Please God, I hope not. Let her just think I’m his friend from school and leave it at that.

Whatever she knew, or whatever she saw in our interactions, seemed to convince her that she could trust me though, because by the sixth hole, she was loudly directing my shots, seeming more intent on helping me win than on winning herself. The chatter from the car resumed, and as we made our way through the next several holes, I learned all about her latest project at school, the class guinea pig that was about to have babies, and a girl at school who had called her a mean name.

Cole tensed at that, his chest puffing up and straining the dark t-shirt he wore as his gaze darkened. The tattoos on his arms shifted as his muscles flexed.

He and the other Princes had ruthlessly bullied me for a semester and a half, but he obviously wasn’t okay with anyone going after his own sister.

It was hypocritical as fuck, but I found it hard to hold onto my anger when he pulled Penny into his side and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. She hugged him back, then squirmed against his hold to go after her ball.

As she lined up her shot, he shook his head, his gaze still trained on her.

“I fucking dread her going to high school.”

My gaze flicked to his, and I wondered if he’d been thinking anything along the same lines I had.

“Yeah. It can be brutal.”

“If anyone ever did to her even close to what we did to you…” His eyes hardened like twin pools of ice. “I’d kill them.”

There was a dark promise in his voice, and a hint of self-recrimination too.

I glanced over at the girl with the light brown hair. Her head jerked toward her shoulder twice, but she hardly seemed to notice

it as she ran to take her next putt. Cole’s fear for her made perfect sense to me. Kids—people in general—could be horribly cruel, and the easiest thing for them to target was always what was “different”. Whatever that difference may be.

“At least she has you on her side,” I said, returning my gaze to Cole.

He nodded, but I could see the muscles in his jaw jump as he clenched his teeth together. Then his brows drew together, and he stepped forward, his large frame filling the bubble of my space as he brushed his knuckles down my cheek.