Tiny Dark Deeds: A Dark High School Bully Romance (Court Legacy Book 3)

Sloane

“So, does anyone want to talk about what happened today?” Ramses asked, and it was one of few dinners where it was only the five of us. Dorian had been eating at home recently, and Bow, Thatcher, and Wells only came over sometimes. Ramses opened his hands. “At school?”

Though the question had been open to the table, it was directed at Ares. I knew because Ramses’s sight didn’t leave his son, and neither did Brielle’s. She had her arms folded beside her husband, and I was sure security had told her all about what happened in the halls of her school today.

I mean, clearly.

Bru, beside me, was picking at his food. I had tried to talk to him about what happened today when I’d finally caught up to him, but he wasn’t having it. I’d texted Ares right after. I’d kind of blown up at him, and he hadn’t completely deserved it. All I’d gotten from him was a text message bubble for about two seconds before he never actually sent anything.

And here we were now.

Ares, on my other side, hadn’t bothered to pick at his food. He simply sat there under Ramses’s and Brielle’s gaze.

At least, until he pulled the napkin off his lap.

“Can I be excused?” he asked, not waiting for their response. He merely got up, his chair squeaking across their polished, hardwood floor. He walked right around the table, passing Ramses, who angled around.

“Actually, no—” Ramses started, but Brielle put her hand on his arm.

“I’ll go talk to him,” she said, sighing. She tossed her napkin on the table as well at the same time Bru removed his.

“May I be excused too?” my brother asked, and I shot him a look.

Ramses sighed. Instead of responding, he gestured his permission to go, and Bru took full advantage.

“Bruno,” I gritted, but he ignored me. He headed out of the dining room as Brielle was making her way back in, mentioning something about Ares needing a minute to stew. I didn’t know what was said, but either she didn’t like what her son had had to say to her, or Ares really had asked for some time.

I hoped it was the latter, but despite wanting to excuse myself too, I stayed. I cuffed my arms. “I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what I was apologizing for, but once again, I was at the base of all this crap. I chewed my lip. “We were going over stuff for Bru’s birthday party, and things kind of got out of hand after that.”

I proceeded to tell them the fallout and confirmed that security had told Brielle all about the fight itself. They’d obviously talked to students, even though security themselves had arrived late.

I frowned. “And it wasn’t Ares’s fault. Bru was already feeling weird about the security.” I told them about that too, sighing. “Ares offered to go talk to Bru after he walked away, and Ares only tried to deescalate things before the fight happened.”

All this only sounded worse rehashed, and I covered my face. Brielle touched hers. “I’m sorry, honey. I didn’t realize the security was adding so much tension for you and Bruno.” She took Ramses’s hand. “I’m sure we can figure out something with that.”

“It’s not a problem,” Ramses continued. “But as far as the fighting, Ares does know better. We’ll talk to him.”

“Please don’t punish him. I…” My jaw moved. “He didn’t do anything wrong. He was just trying to help.” If anything, I needed to talk to him.

Ramses nodded, but his own tense expression didn’t lighten. “And we didn’t know Bru felt that way about the party. We can cancel that too if he’d like, but this gathering is for him equally. Even if we weren’t celebrating his birthday, it would be. I told you how important both of you are to this family, and I mean that. We mean it.”

He exchanged a look with Brielle, and I did know they both meant that.

I ended up telling them both I’d talk to my brother, but the party needed to continue. Bru wouldn’t want them to cancel it and definitely not because of him. He was just going through things right now.

I did excuse myself to go talk to him but didn’t make it past the stairs. Ares sat there, and despite sitting several steps up, his feet still touched the floor with his long legs.

His curly head popped up when I entered the foyer, and I sat beside him.

“I’m sorry I was so hard on you,” I cut in first, my hands on my knees. “I overreacted, and it wasn’t cool. You did try to help.”

“I heard.” He rubbed his hands, and I wondered how much he had heard. Probably the whole thing. He leaned back, elbows touching the stairs. “But I overreacted too. Poorly.”

We both had, and I shook my head again.

Ares swung his head in my direction. “I’m not asking you to choose between Bru and me, or us and him.” His lips thinned, his expression tight. “I’m not stupid. I know we’d all lose, and it’s not fair for any of us to put you in that position anyway.”

I winced. He was being so honest with me, and that was one good thing about my twin brother. When he was honest, he was to a fault.

My twin brother.

I think that was the first time my thoughts actually did that, things between Ares and I so different lately, and I wasn’t sure he was so right about what he’d said. Honestly, I wouldn’t even let my thoughts go there, a choice between Bru and him…

And everyone else.

“I’m trying to be strong, little.”

I glanced his way, his expression hard.

He rubbed his jaw. “But this shit is hard, and I’m fighting natural instincts every day. Ones to step up, be there for you above all else.” His throat jumped. “Be there for the kid when I got my own shit. When I’m here and in this too.” He touched his mouth to his fists. “I’m not asking you to choose, but I am asking you to be patient with me. I’m trying to figure out this shit too and how to work my head around it.”

Because he was my brother as well, and he’d been being one to not just me. He had, but Bru and I definitely hadn’t been supporting him.

I hadn’t been.

Ares had been a way better brother than I’d been a sister to him, but before I could apologize for that, he got up.

“I’m going to take a walk,” he said, and I let him because I knew he needed that. The front door closed, and I immediately rerouted on the stairwell. I found Bru in his bedroom, but he was talking on the phone when I came inside. I knocked but he didn’t answer. Probably because he was on the phone.

“Hey, uh, I gotta go,” he said, sitting up on his bed. We had the same setup, full entertainment system and connecting bathrooms. Ramses and Brielle had been really good to us. He stared at me. “It’s Sloane.”

My eyebrow lifted slow, my shoulder closing the door. Bru hung up his phone, then tossed it on the bed. I cocked my head. “Who was that?”

Bru closed the book on his bed, a textbook. At some point, he must have been trying to study. His back touched the headboard. “Does it matter?” he asked, and my brow lifted. He shook his head. “I just don’t think you knowing will make this particular situation better. What happened downstairs and today.”

I sat on the bed, my arms crossed, and Bru rubbed his hands.

“Callum,” he said. “And before you say anything about that, you told me it wasn’t a problem to talk to him, which I have been.” He paused, nodding. “For a while now. I have been.”

My mouth parted, really not clear on what to say.

Or what to think.

I just knew my body had a physical reaction to what he’d said, and it was one that got my throat tight a little. “Okay.”

“Okay?”

“I mean, what do you want me to say to that?” My shoulders lifted. “You’ve been talking to him?” I had said he could talk to Callum, but I thought that conversation had only been that day.

“We’ve been texting,” he said. “Off and on.” His eyes lifted, as if to gauge my reaction to that. “Even more recently. I texted him that day I mentioned it. I wanted to let him know we were okay like I told you, but also just wanted to talk. He had lied, and I wanted to hear from him, you know?” He rocked back and forth, his hands on his arms. “He’d been so cool with us. Cool with me, and he was my friend.”

I swallowed. “What did he say?”

“Took ownership of it like that day he told us everything.” He dropped his arms on his knees. “And believe me, I gave it to him. I thought it was bullshit he lied even though he was trying to help. I didn’t talk to him for a while after that, but recently, I opened up the dialogue again when he checked on me. He just wanted to see how I was doing, and we talked for a while. A long while.”

I moved my legs up on the bed.

“He just gets what it’s like, I guess. Being on the outside, I mean.” He looked up. “He lost his entire family after what he did.”

I figured he had. I mean, he should have. It’d been so wrong, terrible.

“But he doesn’t claim things should be any different. These are the cards he drew for himself, and he deserves that shit. He knows.”

“Bru…”

He glanced over. “He just gets being on the outs, and I honestly believe he wanted to help us, help you. Dad came to him for help, and Callum definitely didn’t have to do the right thing. He did, though. He took care of us, and I know what he did in the past. It was completely fucked, and I know that.” He forced out a breath. “But he did take care of us, and he’s been a friend to me, Sloane. He has, and though others have lied to me, he did to help you. He did, and that’s important.”

His face screwed up, his hands rubbing any and all emotions away from my sight. I maneuvered over to his side of the headboard, but he wouldn’t look at me.

“I get what it’s like to be on those outs,” he said, my heart clenching. “We related on that, but I won’t talk to him anymore if you don’t want me to. I know it’s more complicated for you.”

It was more complicated, severely.

I lay my head on his shoulder. “I’m on the outs too, you know?” I said, cringing. “I don’t know this family.”

“But they’re your family.” He touched my hand. “You can always claim that.”

He was right. I could.

I closed my eyes, looping my arms around his. I didn’t know how I felt about him talking with Callum. I had a physical reaction but saw his conflict. In fact, I believed I only didn’t have my own because I’d pushed that part away. I hadn’t had to deal with it because my priorities lay elsewhere. I did have a family.

I had a choice.

“I’m not sure he’s that same person, Sloane,” Bru said, squeezing my hand. He shook his head. “And he’s only been good to us.”

He was right. He had. Callum could be plagued by his dark past, but for me, I had to be complicated. He’d hurt so many people in my life.

I squeezed my brother’s hand back, knowing what I had to say to him. I really hadn’t been a good sister to him either, let alone a friend. I had no idea all these emotions were going on inside him. I’d had suspicions but nothing like this.

“I won’t get in the way of you talking to him,” I said, because I wouldn’t. My brother felt he had few real friends these days.

So how could I take away the one he felt he had?