Fall Guy (A Youngblood Book) by Reinhardt, Liz (knowledgeable books to read TXT) 📕

"That's it. That's it, Winch. Let. The. Hell. Go," she whispers, nodding her encouragement. "Let go."

"Fine!" I snap, yanking my shirt over my head. "You want me to let go? You want it! Fucking fine, Evan. How's this for you? My douchebag brother just got himself into some deep shit, okay? He took Alayah, my niece. He violated a court agreement to limited visitation and took her, and he wound up getting drunk with her in the house. He hired some high school girl to babysit, so Alayah is fine. But the girl answered his phone, since it never stopped ringing and he'd passed out. It was Delphine, and she threatened to call the cops if the girl didn't put Remy on the goddamn phone, but she couldn't, since my shit-for-brains brother was passed out. Benelli got there before Delphine showed up, and now my family wants me to take the fall, because, otherwise, Remy could lose custody of Alayah and none of us would be able to see her again. So what the fuck am I supposed to say?" I scream, my last word echoing, my chest rising and falling, and a tremendous, splitting headache crushing down in my skull.

Evan stalks the two or three feet between us and sticks her beautiful face so close to mine, I can see every curling, black eyelash around her blue eyes. "No."

"No?"

I can smell her skin, I know what her lips feel like, and I want to jump over everything and kiss her, hard and long, so I can forget this all, finally.

"No," she repeats. "Tell them ‘no.’"

"Did you not just listen to what I said?" I ask. "He'll lose custody of Alayah. No one will be able to see her."

"Good," she says, grabbing me by the shirtfront. "Stop buying into their bullshit and think about this like a rational person for once, Winch. Does your brother deserve custody of that little girl?"

Obvious as it may seem, the thought never occurred to me. He’s my brother. Alayah is his daughter. They’re both my blood. The word is out of my mouth before I have a chance to process.

"No."

"Tell me what needs to happen, Winch. Not what your family is telling you to do. What needs to happen?"

Her hands unfist from my shirt and she wraps her arms around me.

I cup her shoulders with my hands and squeeze. "Remy needs help."

"Okay. Like what?" she asks.

I take a deep breath and say what needs more than just to be said. I say what needs to happen.

"Remy needs rehab or counseling or something. Or he's gonna kill himself. My parents need to stop covering for him. I need to stop covering for him."

"Okay. Good. So how do we do this?" Her words are soft and sure.

"Do what?" I'm lost in the smell of her, the feel of her curves, the sound of her voice. How can I miss someone so badly when we're in the same room?

"Get Remy into a rehab? Stage an intervention? Get you fired from your position as Youngblood family fall guy?"

She tries to ask it all with bravado, but she swallows so hard, I know she's afraid of what I'll say.

And I want to thank her. I want to rewind time. I want to hold Remy's breakdown off, just so I could have a few days of living out the dream of all those fantasies.

"Evan, I know it seems like it should be that easy, but it's compli--"

"Shut the fuck up!" she yells. Shock presses my words back down my throat. "Fine! Fine, you want this to be goodbye? You wanna end this, Winch, then end it with me. But if you think this is the worst that will happen with your family, you're delusional. Remy is going to kill himself, and maybe his daughter or girlfriend or someone else in the process. He's out of control, and you know it. If you don't step in, maybe you deserve to do time. Because you're as good as guilty for anything he does."

"Evan--" She's snapped and is right back to the rage that propelled her off the bed and straight at my jugular before.

"Don't! Don't try to rationalize! I tried ignoring it! I tried accepting it! I tried letting you handle it! Nothing worked and nothing will until you're ready. And if you're not ready to do this, you're sure as hell not ready to be with me and fight for us!"

She straightens her shoulders and juts her chin out, her rage tampered and replaced by something way sadder.

I realize she's about to steal my goodbye.

And I have a second.

A split second where my life can continue to careen out of control while I sit back and watch. I'll keep my family happy, in a way, but lose Evan, and, most likely, Remy.

Because she's right, of course. He's going to kill himself, and I might as well be holding the bottle or the steering wheel or the knife or whatever it's going to take to finally break him.

"Fine," I say, and she pulls her bottom lip in and chews, ready for this to be it, after one long hell of a fight.

But I'm a Youngblood.

We don't give up that easily.

"So what do you think, smartass? How do I do this intervention shit?" I reach for her hand, and her eyes fly up to my face, surprised and ecstatic.

"Winch!"

She pulls me into her arms, and I kiss her, scared as hell, but ready to change the path that's been running me to nothing good way too fast. I'm ready to change my path with her, even if it scares the shit out of me. Even if I know it's not going to be pretty.

"First we need allies. We need your family on board."

I feel like suggesting we run away, hop a plane to anywhere, start a whole new life over in some foreign place, because starting completely fresh seems a thousand times better than facing