“Don’t we?” Nate questions. “You don’t think we’ve been keeping tabs on him, making sure he’s been staying away from our mom?” Nate looks her up and down. “You’re just like him,” he says. “A fucking, good for nothing, slimy low life. You know he’s cheating on your mom, right?”
I look to Phoenix in shock. Her eyes don’t widen and shock never registers, only intense anger remains, making it clear she already knows, and that’s exactly what’s got her knickers in a twist.
Nate picks up on it instantly and I’m left wondering how the hell he knows this shit. “Ah, so you do know,” he grins. “So, what’s the matter then? You knew what he was before he moved in with you. Did you think you were special? Did you think you were going to be a happy family?”
“Stop it,” she yells.
“Or what?” Jesse grins.
Phoenix snaps her mouth shut and I watch on with wide eyes as my boys completely annihilate her and shut her down, just like they always knew would happen. She took something from them even though it was something neither of them wanted. She rubbed it in and tried to make them look pathetic. And for that, she will pay.
“Here’s what you’re going to do,” Nate says, stepping back into her. Phoenix tilts her head to look up into his eyes. “You’re going to go back home and you’re going to play happy family with daddy dearest just like you always wanted. You’re going to smile and laugh and you’re not going to tell a damn soul that he’s cheating and when your pathetic excuse of a mother realizes that she’s been played, you’re going to fight for him to stay and deal with it just like my mom did for eighteen years. He’s your problem now.”
Her mouth drops open and I see the argument on her tongue, but Nate’s not finished. He lowers his voice even more. “And while you’re at it, you’re going to clear Jesse’s name. By the end of the day, every single person here will know that you lied about what you did to him.”
“But-”
“I don’t care what truth is behind it. You’re going to tell them you lied, that you never fucked him, and you’ll say whatever the hell you need to make them believe it. You’re going to stay the fuck away from me and my brother, and you’re going to stop cornering Tora. Got it?”
“Or what?” she scoffs, trying to hold on to whatever piece of dignity she has left.
“You saw what I did to Ashley this morning. You may be blood, but you are not family and don’t think for one second that I won’t destroy you too.”
Phoenix looks around the ground and presses her lips together. She’s up against the wall with nowhere to turn, just the way Nate manipulated it. “Can’t we just start over?” she asks quietly.
Nate scoffs as Jesse barks out a harsh laugh. “Over my dead fucking body,” Jesse says. “Not after the bullshit you pulled with me. You made your bed and now it’s time to lay the fuck down. You had your chance to come clean, and I’m assuming that was years ago when your first found out. Things probably would have been different, but you fucked that up. Big time.”
She lets out a heavy breath as her eyes drop to the ground. Finally realizing just how far gone these two are. I mean, she doesn’t stand a chance mending a relationship here. Maybe in ten, twenty years when the sting from eighteen years of betrayal starts to fade away, but not now.
Phoenix looks up at Nate before flicking her eyes across to Jess. “I’ll tell them I lied.”
“You did lie,” he grunts. “To me.”
She nods her head before ducking it down and stepping away. Sensing things are over, Tyson and Puck make an opening for her to escape and the second she’s gone I find myself gawking at Nate. “How’d you know Caden was cheating?”
A perfect smirk lights up his face. “I didn’t,” he tells me. “It was a good guess though.”
I shake my head as Jesse throws his arm over Nate’s shoulder. “Mom’s going to get a fucking kick out of this.”
“Damn straight, she is.”
Chapter 20
“You sleazy, little, cock sucker,” is screamed from somewhere in the house, waking me and Nate way too early on a Saturday morning.
“What the hell is that?” I groan as I rub a hand over my eyes. We were out at the races last night where Nate absolutely killed it in his Mustang and even broke the record which he set a few months ago in the Camaro.
Following that, we spent the night at Tyson’s place at one of the biggest parties Broken Hill has ever seen. It was incredible. We only got home a few hours ago and after Nate screwed me up against the wall, we’ve maybe been asleep for an hour or two.