The Fight In Us: A Brother's Best Friend College Romance (The Four Book 4) by Becca Steele (little readers .txt) 📕

that’s my therapist, helped me to work through it all. That’s why I started the martial arts classes, too, so that I could always fight my way out of a situation. Anyway. I thought I’d put it all behind me, until now.”

Winter glanced at Cassius, then studied me intently. “Cass, can you give me a minute with Lena, alone? Please.”

He met her eyes over the top of my head, then nodded, releasing me. “Course. Shout for me when you’re done.”

When we were alone, Winter spoke softly, her eyes never leaving mine.

“Tell me to bugger off if you don’t want to talk about it, but…did something trigger it?”

“West.” His name fell from my lips as a sigh, and she nodded.

“I assumed so. You know, he’s refused to take any of our calls or reply to our messages, yet today he called me, pretty much ordering me to drop everything and come to you. Do you want to talk about what happened?”

Might as well. She already knew the rest of it. “It was something he said. It was the exact same words that—” I swallowed hard.

“I get it.” She squeezed my arm.

“Yeah, and at the time he had me pinned on the bed—” Winter raised a brow at that. “—and it just, I don’t know, triggered the memory, and I panicked. I owe him a huge apology. All of you, in fact.”

“Wait, what? You don’t owe anyone anything. You went through something that no one should have to experience, and no one has any right to tell you how you should or shouldn’t react.”

“No, I’m actually not talking about that.” I took a deep breath. “Cass?” I called out, and he immediately re-entered the room, crossing over to us and taking a seat next to me again. “I have something I need to tell you both.”

Steeling myself, I let the words fall from my mouth.

“I’m Mercury.”

Complete and utter silence.

Then—

“What?”

“Not only that,” I continued before Cassius could say anything else, “I sent Weston the footage from the docks. That’s how he found out about his mum.”

“Oh, fuck.” Winter’s anguished tone cut through the room. “Okay, let me think about this for a minute. Forgetting the whole secret-identity thing, because I don’t think we need to go into that right now, what with everything else that’s happened.”

Cassius sat forwards on the sofa, shooting me a hard look. Or trying to, at least, although his eyes were still soft with concern. “Yeah, I won’t be forgetting that one.”

“Didn’t think so,” I muttered.

“Firstly, it wasn’t your fault, so don’t feel like you should apologise. The docks footage thing. We should’ve told him sooner. I’ve been saying that to Cade for ages, and he…well, I know he’d planned with Arlo to tell West.”

“Too late, now,” I said sadly.

“How did he react when you told him?”

“About as well as you’d expect. One more secret exposed, one more person that’s betrayed him.”

“This is such a mess.” Winter pinched her brow. “Okay, I need to find him. I don’t want him to be alone in this state.” She pulled her phone from the small bag that rested by her feet, tapping at the screen. “He’s got his location turned off. I can’t find him.”

A small smile tugged at my lips. “It’s a good thing you have Mercury here. Give me a few, and I’ll get you his exact location.”

She sat back, looking relieved. “While you do that, I’ll call Cade to pick me up. I’m guessing you want to stay here, Cass?”

She guessed correctly. “Yeah. I think we have some stuff to talk about, don’t we?” My brother looked at me, his eyes full of emotion, and I nodded.

“We do.”

FIFTEEN

Blissfully numb. At last. Eyes closed, I let the room spin as the bottle fell from my grasp. I couldn’t smoke here, but I was well on my way to emptying out the hotel minibar. My phone was off, and the drone of the TV distracted me from my thoughts. I wasn’t stupid enough to think that no one would find me here, but I knew that the hotel’s strict security should at least stop them from getting to my room.

The hotel phone blared loudly, disrupting my peace. Gritting my teeth, I fumbled for the handset, barking out a “What?” into the speaker.

“Excuse me, sir.” The voice at the other end was completely unfazed by my rudeness. “I have a Miss Huntington here at the front desk, asking to speak with you. Would you like me to send her up?”

I froze. “No. Fuck, no. I don’t want to see anyone.”

“Very good, sir. Would you like me to relay a message?”

“No.” With that, I replaced the handset in its cradle with a crash and flopped back on the bed.

My eyes flew open at the click of my door unlocking, and I bolted upright.

“West!” Winter flung herself across the room and onto the bed. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” Her voice cracked.

My arms went around her automatically, but I held myself tense, in fight-or-flight mode as I met the eyes of two people over her shoulder. Two people that I definitely wasn’t ready to face yet.

My dad and my brother.

“Get. Out.”

“No.” Caiden folded his arms, staring at me challengingly. “Not until you hear what we have to say.”

I’d seen that look on my brother’s face many times over the years, and because I knew what a stubborn bastard he was, I capitulated with a growl. “Fine. Say what you came here to say, then leave me alone.”

He frowned but didn’t argue with me.

“How did you get in here, anyway?”

My dad was the one to reply. “Did you realise you were in a hotel owned by Credence Pope?”

“Creed let you break into my room? Brilliant.”

“Technically, we didn’t break in. We had a key,” my brother oh-so-fucking-helpfully pointed out.

“Whatever. Just tell me what you wanted to say.”

Winter shuffled off my lap and rearranged herself cross-legged next to me, as my brother perched himself on the side of my bed