Beautiful Brute (Court University 3)

Yeah, I can lie too motherfucker.

Learned from the best, how to act like you care about someone when you really didn’t. God, he was so good.

And I was such an idiot.

I started to walk away, but he got my arm—fucking dangerous. I ripped it away, and that’s when my buddies stepped in.

“Cool the fuck off,” Royal growled, tugging me back and away. “Don’t do this. Don’t say something you’ll regret.”

But I wouldn’t, and oh, how sweet it would be to tell this guy off. I’d been tasting it, for years tasting it on my tongue. I pressed my chest to Royal’s. “Get out of my way before I go through you.”

Unfazed, he stared at me, nostrils flaring.

And behind us we had an audience.

My other buddies stood in the wings, crowding me. They all shielded me, a protective conclave, but I didn’t need their protection.

“Fellas?”

From behind them came my father, bio dad with his golf club in his hands. He waited on, seeing what my friends were doing.

Which was keeping me from killing him.

It seems he didn’t care for the courtesy, coming forward. A heavy sigh and he was passing a look between us all. “Can I talk to my son for a moment? Just the two of us?”

I had absolutely nothing to say to this man. Not a goddamn thing. He knew where we stood now obviously. I had a bone to pick with him and always would, why I was here.

I just wished I would have held tight to my guns.

I should have told him hell no to this fucking weekend from the jump, not entertained all this bullshit, and my friends looked like they wanted to do anything but leave.

My dad stood tall, though. Stood his ground and after looking at me, maybe even gauging the situation, my buddies eventually backed off.

“We’ll go get some drinks,” Royal suggested, and both Knight and LJ reluctantly nodded. All three had given me the eye, though, a silent plea. They wanted to know if I’d be okay.

But I wasn’t sure.

I didn’t know what I’d do if left alone with this man, but I allowed it. Royal waved the group on, and they took a golf cart to go get those drinks. Meanwhile, my biological father and myself stood on in the hot sun.

Another sigh on his end, a deep one as he fisted his club. “Do you have something to say to me then? You want to say something to me?”

Well, where did I fucking start?

I said nothing, though, unable to give him the satisfaction. Instead, I peeled around him, but Rick got my arm. “Come on, Jaxen—”

“It’s Jax, which you’d know if you knew anything about me, my life, or my friends.”

His hand left, complete and all brightness evaporating from his eyes. He’d been nothing but shines and smiles since we’d been reunited, a false sense of security I’d given him. It’d been on purpose. His lips dampened. “I know you’ve been dealt a shitty hand. That I dealt it to you.”

“Do you?” Up in his face again. I smiled. “Tell me. How shitty was it? Tell me how I’m supposed to feel about you.”

“You can feel any way you want. And I get your anger.”

This fucker didn’t know the half. I shot a finger. “You don’t get to try and figure me out.”

“No, but I’d like to. I’d like to know how you feel and…” A hand raised and dropped. “Is this how you’ve felt the whole time? Is this how you feel?” I started to walk away but he grabbed me again. “Jaxen—Jax,” he corrected, sighing as he let me go. “I want to understand. I want us to talk. If this is how you’ve felt the whole time, why didn’t you just tell me?”

I shouldn’t have to.