Bradford Bastard (Bradford Bastard 1)

Bri’s jaw drops, staring at me as though I’ve lost my fucking mind, but I see the moment she connects the dots. Everybody has heard the stories. They know someone was attacked, they just don’t know who.

One thing is for sure, she hasn’t denied that he was at the party like he told the cops, confirming what I already know—it was him.

“You’re joking, right?” she says, throwing my hand back at me. “That’s fucking sick coming in here and accusing him of that. I know him. He wouldn’t do that. He’s an asshole, but he wouldn’t … he wouldn’t do that. Six fucking months, Tanner. Not once did he try to force himself on me or try to give me anything. You’ve got it wrong. I know him, and as much as I hate him, he didn’t do this, so find some other sorry asshole to pin this on, and when you do, figure out a way not to accuse me of being some kind of accomplice.”

“Holy fucking shit,” I say, gaping at her in horror. “You’re defending him. He was arrested last week, and you want to stand here and tell me that I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about. Don’t be so daft, Brielle. Your boyfriend is a fucking rapist, and you just stood at his side like an idiot, completely blind to what was going on right in front of your face. Where were you that night, huh? Were you at the party? Why the fuck weren’t you spreading your legs for him? Why’d he have to steal it from my sister instead?”

Her hand lashes out, burning across my face with a ferocity I wasn’t ready for, and I take a step back, knowing damn well that I deserved it. Hell, I feel sick at the fucking vile words spewing out of my mouth, but I can’t stop them from coming. This isn’t who I am, but when it comes to my sister, there’s not a damn thing I wouldn’t do to protect her.

“I get it,” she spits at me, unshed tears brimming in her eyes that make me feel like shit. “You’re angry and frustrated that your sister is hurting, and you want to fuck up whoever did that to her, but nothing gives you the right to come in here and talk to me like that. I’m nobody’s whore, and I sure as fuck don’t spread my legs just because some asshole demands it.”

She moves back to her door and opens it wide, her icy stare slicing straight through me. “I’m not going to say it again. Get the fuck out and don’t ever come at me again.”

Clenching my jaw, I struggle to control the rage that demands to fly from my mouth, but I hold it down as I make my way toward her. I move into the open doorway before pausing and fixing her with a hard stare as she seethes right back at me. “I know he fucking did this, and you … you stood by while it was happening, too fucking blind, and because of that, my sister is breathing through a ventilator, and we have no idea if she’ll ever wake up again.”

Without another word, I storm out of her room, not daring to look back.

Chapter 21

BRIELLE

Painful heaves tear from the back of my throat as I double over, clutching my stomach.

No, no. I refuse to believe it. Tanner’s wrong. He has to be wrong because the alternative … No. There’s a mix up, there has to be because even though Colby is the bane of my existence, there’s no way he would do that, no way he would drug and rape a girl at a party, a party where I was happily dancing in the next room.

He would tell me he loved me every day, how he couldn’t wait to see me. Sure, he had his asshole moments, which I can see clearly now that I’m through with him, but rape?

No … I can’t believe it, I don’t but—

“FUCK!”

My head spins with everything Tanner just said, trying to replay that night over and over while pushing aside the burning rage pulsing through my veins. How dare he storm in here like that. It’s one thing to accuse Colby of such a heinous crime, but to come barging into my room and suggest that his sister was attacked because I wasn’t spreading my legs enough is an entirely different kind of fucked up.

I’ve never felt anger like this, and Tanner is going to get his ass handed to him for this bullshit, but if it’s true, if Colby did this, then it’s so much bigger than what I’m feeling for Tanner right now. I get it, he was angry and clearly just found out that Colby and I were an item. He’s somehow feeling betrayed by that piece of information, but I at least owe it to his sister to try and remember the details, to piece together the information I haven’t had to think about since that horrendous night.