Beautiful Brute (Court University 3)

“Rick…” Mom’s lips parted, rushing over to him. “Rick, what happened? Oh my God.”

It was like he didn’t see her, staring through her. She sat beside him, and he didn’t even move. She touched his shoulder. “What happened? Did you…” She shook her head. “Did you tell him?”

My dad finally sat back, his head shaking. “I couldn’t,” he murmured, his eyes closing. “I just couldn’t. I’m sorry.”

An engine revving pulled me away from the conversation, away from everything since it was so familiar. Jaxen was leaving.

Why was he leaving?

I didn’t know, but I was going after him, and when Mom called my name, I didn’t answer. I rushed away, over glass and outside. It was like I had this pure dread inside me. That if Jaxen left here today whatever damage had been done wouldn’t be able to be undone. Like this was it.

Like there was no going back.

I got outside, and he was already behind the wheel. I only knew because his car was running. His windows heavily tinted, I couldn’t see him and did the only thing I could do.

I ran in front of his car.

I got right behind as he backed out, my adrenaline pulsing, and his tires screeched so bad, burning rubber hit the air.

“Cleo, what the fuck!”

Out of his car and on me, holding and shaking my arms. He was pissed, his whole face three colors of red. “What the hell is wrong with you? I could have fucking hit you. Did you want that?”

I just… hadn’t wanted him to go, hadn’t thought. It’d been like that day sailing. I just jumped in.

I hadn’t thought.

“Why are you going?” But then the tone changed, everything changed. Next thing I knew, he was letting go of me, like he remembered why he was leaving and headed back to his car. I grabbed at his arm, but he angled it away like I’d burn it if I touched him. “Jax…”

Well aware of the plead in my voice, of the emotion. I didn’t know why, but it was there and the struggled screech nearly made h

is name unrecognizable.

And he stopped against his car.

His hands shifted ghost white on the top, his body stiff and shoulders shaking. It was like he was about to transform into something deadly.

And I needed to get out of the way.

“You don’t get to do that,” he said, the words incredibly dark. The back of his head shook. “You don’t get to.”

“Do what?” The tremble of my voice, at this point, I couldn’t control. I was scared. I just didn’t know why. I wasn’t afraid of him, no, but the situation. I didn’t know what this was.

Jax shoved around, his face beet red. Emotion completely colored his cheeks, his eyes strained and glassed. “Isn’t it enough that you have everything?” he asked, stalking closer. “That you get everything without having me too?”

Words choked down in my throat, my swallow hard. “What do you mean?”

A dry laugh and my fear did shift his way, his chest to my chest, his eyes to my eyes. He stared down at me, like I was beneath him.

But what he’d said made it sound like it was the other way around.

That he thought, for some crazy reason, he was beneath me, his hand rubbing his eyes before he shoved a finger in my face.

“Well, you don’t get me too, Cleo,” he said, my heart threatening to bust, to shatter. “You don’t get to have that. That’s the one thing I can control, and you don’t get to have that. You don’t get to have me.”

“Jaxen—”

“Go back to your house,” he said, backing away. “Go back to your perfect life because that family inside is yours and that man inside is not my father. Never was.”