Royce is closer now, too far to touch, but close enough to feel.

My silent support.

My lungs expand. “Not being able to be with you, forced, or so I thought, to be separated from you.” A low laugh leaves me. “You were all I ever had, Bass. Did you not feel like half of you is missing when we were apart like I did? Are you really just happy living this lavish life somewhere else? A life I don’t even know about where you have a fancy car and drive around with Miss America in your front seat? I mean, am I nothing to you?”

He slips closer, his eyes pleading. “I have done all of this for us both. I came here alone, sent you there, left, found somewhere to create a brand-new fucking life for us.”

I shake my head. “You might tell yourself this when you’re forced to think about it, but it’s not true. If you understood me at all, you would have known I didn’t need all that. All I needed was my brother.”

Bass swallows, a barely audible ‘Needed’ escaping him.

My back burns with Royce’s presence.

He’s even closer now.

“Yeah. Needed.” I nod. “I don’t need you anymore,” I admit to myself and him. “I love you, and I want to see and talk to you more, like before, but I don’t need you like I need him.”

He licks his lips, a strangled look in his eye. “You’re leaving with me, Brielle.”

My muscles constrict as I stare at my brother. “No. I’m not.”

“And look what being here has gotten you.”

“That’s not fair.”

“It never is, Brielle!” he stresses. “It never is. It never will be.”

Anger swims in my gut. I don’t shout, but I’m stern. “Maybe you should go back to whatever it is you found that became more important to you than me and I’ll do the same.”

My brother, his face falls flat, shocked and he draws back as if I’ve slapped him and maybe it’s wrong, but I’m glad. He should feel that.

“For once in my life, I have something I don’t have to let go of like I had to let go of you. I have the chance to stay and fight for what I want. Don’t ask me not to. You won’t like what follows.”

Bass glares heavy, and then he suddenly darts out, grabbing Royce by the collar, and getting into his face. “You’re not playing your fucking games with my sister.”

This time Maddoc is quick to hop up on the steps and throws himself between them. Their chests hit, but Bass doesn’t push.

Maddoc’s voice is low and clear, a chilling calm. “Touch my brother again, and I’ll roll your car down a hill with the blonde still inside.”

“You both need to fucking breathe a minute.” Cap steps up, looking from Bass to Royce.

Royce shakes his head. “I’m gonna find my fucking necklace this chump ripped off.”

He steps off the porch, his brothers following him, and I turn to my brother, but the girl inside the gorgeous, shiny black vehicle catches my eyes. She winks, refocusing on her phone in the next second.

“Should you maybe see if she wants to get out?”

“No,” Bass answers instantly, frowning her way. “She can sit there.”

“That’s kind of rude.”

“Trust me, she could use a little nudge off of her Prada pedestal,” he grumbles, but a heavy sigh follows. He pins me with a quizzical look, a question he doesn’t have to ask.

I nod, and he drags his hands down his face, a low cursed ‘fuck’ following.

Raven steps down the stairs, now standing off with my brother, her friend. “What the fuck are you doin’, Bishop?”

“That’s my sister, Carver.” Bass frowns.

Raven’s gaze narrows. “It’s Brayshaw, and you might want to remember that.”

His lips twitch, a softness taking over him, and she scoffs a low laugh.

“Congratulations, Brayshaw.” My brother grins at her. “I bet he’s as beautiful and strong as his mother.”

She looks to him, a cloud covering her eyes. “Thank you, for all you did for me and more,” she rasps. “But fuck you for what you’re doing right now. Brielle is family. She stays.”

She walks inside the house, the door slams shut behind her and my brother laughs lightly, but it’s swallowed when he meets my gaze. “You don’t belong here, you heard him say it too, and I’m sorry, but it’s true. You don’t.”

“How can you stand there and say it so sure?” Anger envelops me, but disappointment weighs down my words. “The last time you saw me, you clearly saw a weak little girl, fragile and frail, but that’s not who I am. You hardly know me anymore, Bass.” I begin stepping backward up the steps. “And lately, I’ve realized, that I... I don’t know you at all.”

His shoulders fall with his features, but I don’t stand there and wait for whatever it is that’s weighed him down. Our damaged relationship is his fault, not mine.

“Yo, what’s this shit?”

We turn to find Maddoc lifting the papers off the ground, the one’s Bass threw.

As if his memory was jogged, he makes his way over there, tearing a few off the ground and thrusting them into Royce’s chest. “Ask your fuckin’ brother.”

He’s met with a growl and slight shove.

Royce looks to the papers as I make my way over. “Fuck is this?” He flips through them, his eyes popping up to Bass. “This ain’t me.”

Bass narrows his eyes. “No?”

He walks to the back of his car and pops the trunk, nodding toward it. “This either?”

He doesn’t believe him.

We walk around, and the entire trunk is full of the same sheets of paper.

“My car was over-fucking-flowing with this shit this morning.”

I pick up the calendar sheet, the Brayshaw High logo stamped at the top.

“Every single one is July.” Captain frowns.

“And has the twenty-third circled.” Maddoc looks to my brother. “Why?”

“Figured it was a twisted message.” He glares at Royce. “July twenty-third is my birthday.”

“And the first day of the Leo.”

I don’t realize everyone has frozen around me until I look up and around and all eyes are tight, wide, or worried.

“What?” Maddoc asks slowly.

“July twenty-third.” I look between them. “I’m a Cancer. On the twenty-third, the signs change, and Leo takes reign... why is everyone looking at me like that?”

Maddoc darts past us, running up the porch, and disappears into the house.

I look to the others. “What’s wrong?”

“Remember the guy I told you about, who crashed into Raven and your brother, wrecked his ride?”

“His name was Leo.” My eyes widen and I look at my brother.

Royce and Captain share a private look.

“My team, they said they thought they saw someone watching—” He cut off, looking to me. “You were here when we talked, weren’t you?”

Shit.

I look to Royce and he narrows his eyes, stalking closer.

“Tink?”

I open my mouth, but close it. “I talked to Ciara, and she said someone came to the house after I left.”