Dump and Chase (Nashville Assassins Next Generation 1)

Mom’s annoyance rings in her voice. “If someone doesn’t tell me what is going on, I’m going to flip this table.”

“And we wonder why Emery is the way she is,” Asher snaps, and Emery glares.

“Hey!”

Silence. I know I’ve gotta get out of here. There are four too many people who know what is going on. My mom can’t know; she’ll freak. I push back my chair. “I’m out of here.”

“The hell you are!” Mom yells, and when I look at her, her eyes are wild. “You tell me right now what the hell is going on.”

“Mom, please. It’s nothing.”

“Are you going to give me the ring?” Asher asks, and I shake my head.

“No, asshole. Let it—”

“He’s dating Shelli Adler,” Asher announces, and he doesn’t spare me a glance.

My jaw drops. “Wow. All over a ring that isn’t even yours. That’s real rich!” I yell, and the girls cower in their chairs. Dad is looking down at the table, and I refuse to look at my mother.

“May be an asshole move, but if I can’t have it, then you better fucking use it,” he snaps at me, and I think I might hit him.

Before I can snap back at him, my mom says, “Shelli Adler, as in the girl we’ve known since she was born?”

Everyone nods except me.

“The same girl you held and said she had a tomato head when she was born?”

I want to laugh. Shelli would get a kick out of that. I don’t answer, though; I just move my fork through my whipped cream.

“The same girl who was at your house this morning with sex hair?”

Well, I guess she did have some serious sex hair. I love it, though.

“That’s her,” Asher says with no problem whatsoever.

Mom’s voice is low and angry. “Asher, Stella, and Emery, get out now.”

I swallow hard, and even though my name wasn’t on the list to leave, I’m twenty-seven years old. If I want to leave, I will. I start to get up, only to stop at my mom’s voice.

“Aiden James Brooks, you better sit that ass down right now.”

At least I like to think I’m a man.

As the room clears out, I sit down, staring down at the table.

“You’ve known?”

I look up to see my dad nod. “I thought he was going to break it off.”

I feel my mom’s gaze on me. “How long?”

I shrug. “Not too long—”

“Over three months,” Asher calls from the other room.

“He has a picture of her with no pants on his phone, Mom. I think they’re sleeping together,” Emery calls.

“Y’all are so dead,” Stella laughs, and I’m vibrating with anger.

“Fucking traitors,” I mutter, and when I lean back, my mom’s eyes are on me. In slits, those green eyes are piercing as she shakes her head.

She swallows hard, and my stomach clenches. My mom is scary as fuck. “You know, if you’d told me, I would have said it’s great. I love Shelli, she’s a wonderful girl, and I think she’d be great for you. Will her dad freak? Hell yes, but he loves you and would support you. While this does have the potential to mess up our friendship with the Adlers, we are all adults and can handle it. But not when we’re being lied to.”

“It’s my business—”

“That apparently everyone knows but me.”

“I didn’t want them knowing either!” I yell, holding my palms up. “Your daughters extorted me, and I thought Asher was my best friend, but that’s been revealed as a lie.” I look toward the living room. “All over a ring he’s not fucking getting!”

“Aiden James, if you don’t watch your mouth, I might wash it out with soap.”

I snap my mouth shut. I’m twenty-seven; why am I being chastised right now? “I don’t see what the big deal—”

“Oh, the big deal, you say? It’s the fact that you kept this from us. And then you’re supposedly in love with her, but you won’t accept that because of us, so please, explain to me how this is our fault.”

“I never said I was in love with her.”

“Asher seems to think so.”

“Asher is a jack—” I let the word fall off when she sets me with a look. “Mom, it’s nothing—”

“Fallon, you know why it’s our fault,” Dad says then, and I close my eyes. I don’t want to do this.

“There is no reason for anyone to be faulted right now. It’s done,” I try, but it’s as if I’m not there. Mom looks at Dad, and their eyes lock. This isn’t the first time I’ve seen them look at each other like that, but nonetheless, it takes my breath away. They look at each other like no one else is in the room. In a way, it’s how I feel when I look at Shelli.

“We’ve talked about it before. Unlike with the other three, I wasn’t there from the beginning. He didn’t get to see us in love when he was younger—”