Redemption and Regrets (Chastity Falls, #4) (2 page)

“Fuck, Braiden.” Briony eyed me, and I saw disappointment there ... or regret; it was always difficult to tell exactly what was going through my twin’s mind. “You’re out for two hours and that’s what you want to know?”

I held my sister’s glare. “Who. Is. He. To. You?”

“Bastard,” she murmured under her breath, her eyes ablaze. Briony started to turn away from me, but I stepped forward and caught her arm, a sliver of guilt pulsing through me.

“Wait. I’m sorry, okay? It’s just ... four years is a long time, and you turn up with some guy and I’m just supposed to play ball? Come on, B, you know me better than that.”

Briony’s eyes clamped shut, and she inhaled deeply. “He’s all I have, and we’re all you have.” Shrugging me off, Briony didn’t look back as she went into her room and slammed the door. The sound ricocheted off the walls and I flinched, the ounce of guilt growing into something more. Something I didn’t want to feel.

It might have been four years, but I still knew my sister well enough to know that she needed to cool off. Hell, perhaps I did too. After all, she was right; all I had right now was Briony and Luke.

I made my way into the spare bedroom. It was barely furnished, just a single bed and a single wardrobe pushed up against one wall, but clean towels and some shower gel, a toothbrush, and toothpaste were in a neat pile on the bed. Nothing had ever looked better. I grabbed everything and went in search of the shower.

Twenty minutes later, I still didn’t feel ready to leave the shower. The jets of hot water streamed over my skin, washing away four years of blood and sweat. When I’d first arrived at Oregon State, I thought I’d serve a few months of easy time before Petrelli, the family lawyer, got me out or Dad paid off the right people.

Dad.

Palms flat against the cool tile, I pressed my forehead against the wall and shut down that train of thought. I wasn’t ready to go there, not yet. Maybe not ever. Four years wasn’t long enough to forget—or forgive—his betrayal.

Voices out in the living room caught my attention, and I switched off the shower and stepped out, wrapping a towel around my waist.

“... what did they say?”

“They want to meet with him. As soon as possible.”

“Luke, he’s not ready. He’s suspicious of you, us. You saw the scar. What they tried to do to him ...” Briony’s voice trailed off. I moved closer to the door to hear better, instinctively rubbing a hand over the scar running from the underside of my jaw to my ear, but their voices had quieted to nothing more than an indecipherable whisper.

I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, which was really just an extension of the main living space. Luke and Briony looked up from their conversation.

“Better?” Briony asked a hint of concern in her voice, and I wondered exactly what she was referring to.

I responded with a curt nod, and Luke glanced me up and down. “Clean clothes are on the bed. You can thank me later.”

Ignoring him, I headed for my room.

~

A
fter I dressed and towel dried my hair, I rummaged through my small bag of personal effects. To my surprise, four years wasn’t enough to render the cell phone battery dead, and it flashed to life. The number had been long disconnected, but I still found myself searching the room for an outlet. With the phone charging, I turned my attention to the remaining items. My wallet, watch, and a silver chain depicting the Chastity Falls crest. Our family’s crest. The watch was a goner, but the chain was still intact. I unclasped it and hung it around my neck feeling its familiar weight rest against my skin.

I almost felt like myself.

The old me.

A flicker of rage bubbled up in my chest. Back then, I would have barged into the next room and demanded answers, demanded to know what the fuck was going on—had been going on in my absence. But I was tired and confused and had no fucking clue what was going on.

And, honestly, I didn’t know what the hell I wanted anymore.

“Braiden.” A soft knock on the door. “Are you coming out? We ordered pizza.”

My stomach grumbled, and I found myself reaching for the door handle. Briony stood on the other side. Caution shining in her eyes, she smiled. “You look more like you.”

I looked down at the black t-shirt and jeans. I guess it was an improvement from the non-descript clothes I’d left Oregon State in.

“Your hair is darker.”

I shrugged following Briony into the living room.

“So how does it feel to be out?” Luke motioned to the small gray sectional in the corner of the room.

“Strange, I guess. You get used to it.”

The same four walls.

Same faces.

Same routine.

“Well, you’re free now, man, and damn if we aren’t happy about it.”

Briony sat beside me and flashed Luke a look, but I couldn’t let it go. Not this time.

“We?”

Luke clutched his jaw and rubbed back and forth. “Briony and me, and-”

“Luke, we agreed,” Briony snapped. “Not yet.”

“He should know, babe.”

“Know what?” My voice was perfectly calm, a damn sight different to the war raging inside me.

“Luke,” my sister warned again.

Ignoring her, Luke came to sit opposite me in the chair. “Things were bigger than you ever knew, Braiden. Bigger than Chastity Falls, bigger than Marcus Donohue, bigger than all of us. Marcus’s move against Frankie O’Connor just moved up the timeline. Things are coming, Braiden. Changes. Big fucking changes and we want you with us.”

“Us?” I asked, still processing everything he’d just said. It was as if he was talking in riddles. But as I watched Luke’s eyes sparkle with excitement, I immediately regretted my question.

“We’re taking O’Connor down. Once and for all. Welcome to the revo-fucking-lution.”

Six months ago...

“W
atch it, Donohue.” Solid muscle collided with my shoulder, but I stood my ground. I didn’t want a fight, had been trying my best to lay low, but I wasn’t about to take a beating like some pussy either.

During the first six months inside, I’d had my fair share of run-ins with guys all looking to take me down. Bigger than they were, unwilling to pledge to any one gang, too quiet—they didn’t need much of an excuse. It was always the same; they’d come at me, and I would answer with my fist. Once word got around that I was inside for almost killing a guy, the threats came less often and life in Oregon State was quiet—real fucking boring but quiet.

Until recently.

I didn’t know much about Levi Shaughnessy, but he knew all about me. He and his crew, a bunch of bare-knuckle fighting, dirty criminals out of Portland, singled me out at every opportunity. I’d managed to stay out of their reach for the last year, using my privileges as an excuse, but from the look on Shaughnessy’s face, my time was up.

“You came at me, Shaughnessy,” I ground out, flexing the corded muscles in my neck, fists clenched at my sides.

The fucker turned on his heels and laughed as two of his guys closed in behind me. I glanced to my side. They’d cornered me at one end of the work galley where I washed and folded inmate scrubs. It was a dirty fucking gig, but it kept me out of trouble—for the most part—and earned me brownie points with the guards.

“Word has it you could be up for early release.”

I narrowed my eyes trying to work out his angle.

“Cat got your tongue? Or is that look in your eye your attempt at finding a way out of here? Because we both know there isn’t one.”

Bitter laughter sounded behind me, but I didn’t falter. Inhaling deeply, I filled my lungs with air. It coursed through me firing up my synapses.
Fight or flight, motherfucker
, and I never flew. I inched forward, enough to show them I was all in. I wasn’t about to make a run for it and cry to the guards. I was Braiden Donohue—I didn’t run from anything.

His eyes widened as he realized I didn’t intend to make a break for it. “It’s four on one, Donohue. You’re not walking out of this alive.”

Bring it.
My eyes narrowed at him. Shaughnessy had underestimated one vital thing—I had nothing left to lose.

Instinct took over and my fist flew forward colliding with his face. He groaned and I smirked just as arms pulled me backward and two other guys came at me. A fist hammered into my kidneys and pain exploded up my left side, but I shut it out. I was in survival mode now. The pain only fueled my rage.

The three of us danced; fists flew, bone connected with bone, and blood splattered into the air, but Shaughnessy didn’t come at me again. He stood at a distance, waiting, biding his time—letting his goons wear me down. But I wasn’t done yet, nowhere near done. I yanked the closest of the two guys toward me and snapped my head forward. Bone crunched and the guy’s agonized cries filled the tense air.

“He broke my nose. He broke my fucking nose.”

The other guy paused and glanced back and forth between his bloodied friend and me with my eyebrow raised in a challenge.
Come get some, fucker.
His face paled and he ignored me going to his friend, wrapping an arm around his waist to steady him. Satisfied they were no longer an issue, I turned to the real threat. Adrenaline burned through me, tricking my body into feeling power, not pain. Blood coated my knuckles. Mine, theirs, it didn’t matter—all that mattered was the guy standing between me and my escape.

Shaughnessy swiped his thumb over his forehead. “You know, you should thank me, really. The way I see it, I’m doing you a favor. You have a lot of enemies on the outside.” His eyes flashed with something. “You won’t last two minutes out there.”

He wasn’t telling me anything I didn’t already know. But if he thought I was going to let him end me here and now, the motherfucker obviously didn’t know me all that well.

Eyes locked firmly on his, I said, “When I get the call, I’m walking out of those gates in one piece. Walk away, Levi.”

Shaughnessy tipped his head to the last guy who nodded and moved to the half-open door, peering outside. He gave his boss the okay, and I readied for Shaughnessy’s attack. He came at me like lightning, but I managed to deflect his fist as it careened toward my face. It clipped the side of my head and stars exploded in my vision causing me to lose my balance. I swayed on my feet trying to remain upright, but Levi was quicker than I was and he’d turned and slammed into me before I could blink away the stars. Our bodies crashed into one of the linen carts, and a jagged shard of metal sliced my arm. Shaughnessy caught the corner of the cart, and a thick gash opened up over his eye. He smeared his hand over the open wound and laughed manically. “Oh, you’re going to pay for that, Donohue.”

I stumbled back trying to right myself. Blood oozed out of Levi’s head, dripping down his eye. He looked crazy. The lookout hovered between us but didn’t look too eager to join the rumble.

“They talked about you like you were a fucking god, someone to be feared.”

I rocked on the balls of my feet trying to stay in the game. My head was still spinning, but I couldn’t afford to blink.

“Don’t look so tough now, Donohue.” Levi’s hand dipped into his standard issue light blue denim jeans, and he pulled out a shank. He lunged forward swiping the blade through the air. I dodged to the left feeling the air swish past me. My heart beat in double time. I wasn’t a stranger to a dirty fight—I’d definitely done some questionable things in my life—but being on the end of Levi’s homemade blade, in a small space, wasn’t somewhere I wanted to find myself.

“Come on, Levi.” I tried to talk him down. “You’re in for what, drug offenses? Battery? You don’t want to add murder to your rap sheet.”

Levi dragged the blunt side of the shank across his forehead. Stupid enough to mistake this for him considering my words, I should have known better—once in possession of a shank, the owner would exact his purpose. Over the last forty months, I’d seen my fair share of stabbings, beatings, and fights. I’d even witnessed murder. But since those early days, I’d stayed out of trouble.
Maybe because they wanted you out of it.

In those first few months inside, it had occurred to me more than once that someone had a hand in my preservation inside, and I thought it might have been Dad pulling strings with the warden. Thanks to the rumor mill, I quickly learned it wasn’t.

“This goes bigger than you, Donohue.” Levi came at me again, but this time, he had me cornered. Too focused on the shank, I hadn’t realized he’d back me into the corner of the small space. His arm pulled back ready to strike and I held up my arms ready to defend myself. Blood rushed to my head, and for a split second, I lost it. It was all he needed.

My eyes flickered as the pulse in my temples pounded so hard I felt sure I would pass out any second. But it didn’t come quick enough and the glint of metal came at me followed by a searing pain across my neck.

“Time’s up,” a voice called out, but everything began to fade into darkness as I plummeted into oblivion.

Present...

“For fuck’s sake, B, stop looking at it,” I barked, shooting my sister a pissed look. She’d been doing it all morning, out from under her thick lashes as she sat across the small table. At least then, I could pretend I didn’t notice. Now, with her standing in front of me, it was pretty fucking difficult.