Reign of Brayshaw (Brayshaw High 3)

Zoey kicks against Captain, so he puts her down. Her little lips move and she points toward the dollhouse.

Cap nods and starts walking but Zoey, reaches up and he offers her his hand, but she wants Royce and Maddoc’s too. She tries to hold them all but can’t figure it out and frowns up at Captain.

He laughs and shrugs his shoulders at her, but Zoey smiles and grabs Royce and Captain’s hands, locking them together.

I laugh, scooting closer in my seat, holding my breath as she reaches for Maddoc’s hand. She can only grip two of his fingers, her other hand holding tight to her dad and damn if I don’t wish I had a phone for the first time. That’s a helluva picture right there.

Cap and Royce hold hands while Zoey holds Caps with her left, and Maddoc with her right. One little blonde-haired baby girl, leading all three right where she wants them.

Captain’s eyes cut back to the SUV and I still. His stares a moment and I know what he’s wondering – do I not want to meet her. I hate the moment of doubt it causes him, but when they shift to Maddoc I know, without words, having not even needed to hear it from my mouth, he communicates my reason.

He knows I want this for them, and this isn’t me not wanting to meet her, but them needing this moment for themselves – a niece and her uncles.

Movement from the porch catches my eyes.

Maria steps farther out, fishing a phone from her pocket, and I jolt for the door handle, quickly hopping out and rushing straight toward her.

Her head snaps up, eyes wide in shock.

“You.”

“Me.” I keep forward.

She glances back to her phone before looking to me again.

“Don’t do it. I don’t want to have to fuck you up while your security watches,” I warn, holding out my palm.

It takes her a second, but she hands it over with a not so gentle slap.

“By the way, security for a social worker, huh?”

“Security for the little girl I protect day and night.”

“When you’re not posing as a social worker and dragging other girls hours away from their homes and dropping them in new ones?”

Her eyes narrow. “Some would say I brought you home, not drug you from your home.”

Can’t quite argue with that. They are my home more than anything else ever was. “Some would be right then, wouldn’t they?”

It’s on the tip of her tongue to ask me, so I hold eye contact until she can no longer keep it in. “Why would he... why would they bring you here? Why would they allow you near her at all?”

“Isn’t it obvious?”

She frowns after them, a deep sigh leaving her. “I worried this would happen. The day I read your file I thought it, but the day I met you...” She trails off, her eyes tightening at the edges. “At the school with the principal who clearly cared for you even though you were a brat, how Ravina spoke to you and how you handled her.” I tense at the mention of my mom’s name. “Your overall attitude and the look in your eye when you spoke to me. Everything about you was... refreshing. I knew it in my gut. I warned him you’d be everything they never knew. That made you dangerous for them, for this world.” She looks to me. “But at the end of the day, we all want something we can’t have.”

I fight not to frown.

What the fuck does that mean?

Her features soften some as she asks, “Which one?”

“Like you don’t know.”

“I—” she cuts herself off but decides to keep going. “I don’t,” she admits.

My brows pull in at her abashed tone.

“It was in my contract.” She audibly swallows. “In exchange for caring for her, I wasn’t allowed to look for or ask anything about them or their world.”

“You wanted to care for her?”

“I wouldn’t trust anyone else to.” She stares at me head-on.

My eyes narrow.

“You can try to read me, but I told you before, I was somewhat like you once. I can hide what I want from who I want.”

“Yet here you stand giving more than you realize.”

“Who said I don’t realize?” she draws.

I scoff. Right.

I look to the boys.

Zoey tries to push Royce inside the dollhouse, but he makes himself fall onto the grass and Zoey throws her head back, laughing at him.

She bends and hits his chest with the palm of her hands before climbing across his body and inside, where the other two must already be.

“Who were you about to call?” I ask, assuming she won’t answer.

She does. “Rolland.”

“In the contract?”

She turns away, moving for the patio set that allows her to hide back, but keep an eye on them all the same, so I follow, dropping into a chair.