Damaged Elite (The Darlington Elite Book 2) Page 3

  I’m pulled out of my thoughts by my phone buzzing, my alarm telling me it’s time to go to the gym. I have a sinking feeling the little bits of remaining normalcy, like designated gym times, are about to be ripped away, too. I flip it off and lean back in the uncomfortable waiting room chair, my eyes finding Kennedy just like they always do. She’s sitting next to Miles now, but her eyes are trained on Patrick as he holds Everly to his chest. They’re standing over by the exit, and while it’s impossible to hear what he’s saying, it’s clear by the way she relaxes into his hold that he’s telling her everything will be okay. I see the hopefulness in Kennedy’s gaze, and I know that’s what she wants, too. My stomach twists because I know I can never give that to her. I can never give her the security she needs, I’m far too possessive and reactive when it comes to her. I’ve been obsessed with her since the moment I laid eyes on her, and it’s been a struggle to keep her at a distance.

  I’m teetering on the edge of losing any willpower I might still have when she glances up, big brown eyes washing over me.

  Fuck it. I’ll be a better man tomorrow.

  I’m up and across the aisle, pulling her to me. Her small body curls into mine, and I feel her breathe out with what sounds like relief.

  “Do you think they’re going to be okay?” Kennedy’s voice is small, and it’s so unlike her that it makes me so fucking angry at myself that I’ve brought her into the middle of all of this shit. If it weren't for our friendship, and people knowing how close we are, she wouldn’t be in danger. She’d be running around town trying to save every stray animal she could find instead of waiting here to see if one of her friends is going to live.

  I can’t lie to her, I don’t know if Cassandra or Beth will make it.

  “I don’t know,” I say honestly, pulling her closer to me and tipping her chin up, wordlessly asking her to let me look her in the eyes while I tell her this. “But what I do know is that we’ll get through whatever happens together. You got me?”

  She tries to smile, but it ends up just being a sad upturn of her lips as she nods. “I got you,” she whispers, and I lean down, pressing a kiss to her forehead like it’s the most natural fucking thing in the world. I really need to stop doing that. It gives her the wrong idea, it makes it seem like I can be what she needs me to be—and I can’t.

  “Fuck no.” I snap my head over to see what made Miles jerk out of his chair and growl the words. It’s Coach Leary, and Miles is already across the lobby and in his face.

  “Get out of my way O’Conner,” Coach spits the words at Miles, trying to move around him, but Miles blocks him.

  I quickly look over at Patrick, and his eyes are already on me. He points to Kennedy, indicating he wants the girls to stay together. I nod and grab Kennedy’s hand, pulling her toward Everly.

  “Stay together.” My voice isn’t gentle because I’m in fight mode, and their safety is my first priority. Patrick and I move together to back up Miles.

  “Get the fuck out of here,” Patrick barks at Coach.

  “Carter, don’t test my patience.” Coach grits his teeth, glaring at Patrick like he isn’t aware that any of us could snap him in half if we wanted to.

  “You gave up any rights to Cassandra the minute you let your sons beat the shit out of her.” Miles’s voice is low, calm and deadly, but when I put my hand on his shoulder, I can feel his whole body trembling with anger.

  “I own you assholes. Out of my way.” Coach tries to push past us, but Patrick grabs him by the arm, pulling it behind him and making him grit his teeth in pain. Just as quickly as Coach appeared, we’re escorting him into the parking lot.

  “Your days of fucking with everyone are over. Tell your asshole sons to leave us the fuck alone,” I say as Patrick lets him go, shoving him to the pavement.

  “You can’t keep me away, she’s my daughter.”

  “I will camp out in front of her room if I need to,” Miles seethes. “Your whole family is going down. She’s our family now, not yours.”

  Coach gets to his feet and scrambles to his car.

  “They won’t get to her, man,” I say to Miles as we turn to walk back inside. I notice Henry, over by the Escalade, still on his phone. To anyone else, it would seem like he has no idea what just went down, but I know him better than that. He saw everything but knew we had it handled.

  “She has to be okay,” Miles breathes out the words as we head back inside to get the girls, but we stop short, allowing two police officers to exit.

  One of the officers speaks into his radio as they move swiftly into the parking lot. “One is stable, the other critical. Doesn’t look good. We’ve got a warrant for Andre Leary.”

  3

  Kennedy

  "How you holding up?" I ask Miles later that night as I take a seat next to him at the dining room table. I’m not sure if he really wants my company, but I feel like I need to offer it just in case he does. Miles can fuck any guy up on the ice just like the rest of the boys, but he’s the sweetheart out of the five of them. While Tommy is the clown with all his sarcastic one-liners, Miles is the optimistic one, always looking on the bright side...unless it involves his snacks. We're waiting for the rest of the crew to head in for a much-needed discussion. This is a ‘family meeting’, and Henry is in charge per usual. It's not really that he's domineering, it's just that he's always so calm and collected, it's difficult not to think of him as the leader. I guess all the boys have unique leadership traits, ones that the others don't possess, and they balance each other out in a way I've never seen before.

  Miles doesn't answer me, but he leans into my hand when I put it on his back, trying to soothe him. I don't know if he and Cassandra have something going on that the rest of us didn't know about, or what. We all care about her, we're all shaken up, but this has hit Miles so much harder than everyone else. We're all in fight mode, but it seems like all he can focus on is Cassandra.

  "How long have you guys been together?" I ask, hedging, and my suspicions are confirmed when his surprised blue eyes flash to mine.

  "We're not together." He denies it immediately, sitting up a little straighter in the chair. I flick him on the shoulder, and his bloodshot eyes meet mine again. "She’s gotta be okay, Kennedy."

  I open my mouth to tell him I’m here to listen to whatever he needs to say, but his stare turns hard as he looks at the wall. "I should have been there to protect her. I should have been there, Kennedy." His voice is barely audible, but the grief lacing his words makes my chest ache.

  Before I can think about my actions too hard, I stand up and throw my arms around his shoulders. Holding him tightly, I let the tears fall that have been building up since we got the news about Cassandra and Beth. I haven't felt this helpless since the summer my brother died. Even though we were very different people and did not see eye to eye on anything, he was still my brother. I didn’t have anyone there for me at the time when I felt helpless and needed someone to lean on, so I’m glad I can be here now for Miles. He feels like a brother to me. One that cares about me in return. Something about this group of people I’ve come to love really grounds me in a way I’ve never experienced before. Miles’s hand comes up and grips my forearm in a silent thank you.

  "Asshole." Tommy shoves Patrick as they walk in together, Everly tightly wrapped under one of Patrick’s arms. Tommy holds up a piece of cold sausage he swiped from the fridge to show me and rubs his stomach as if to say it’s delicious. Patrick lets out a chuckle but then sobers, realizing it’s probably not an appropriate time to be giving me shit for being vegan. I roll my eyes because they’re such dumbasses. I swapped that nasty microwavable sausage and bacon out with an even nastier meat-free version. That’s one thing about boys, they’ll eat anything and never bother reading the package.

  "Dipshit," Patrick spars, suddenly remembering that Tommy called him an asshole. He pulls out the chair on the other side of me for Everly and gently deposits her in it. For as much of a Neanderthal as he normally is, the
sweet things I see him do for Everly make me think he's a little soft on the inside, at least for her.

  "Can you two stop bickering for like three minutes?" I chide them.

  "Sorry, Kimmy," Patrick says with a serious expression, as if he really thinks that's my name. He's been doing that lately to get a rise out of me, and I've stopped correcting him. Instead, I grin at him. Asshole.

  Zach finally enters the dining room, with Henry moving at a glacial, unfazed pace behind him, and I have to force myself to look away. I can read him so easily as he eyes the available chairs, irritated that none of them are directly next to me. And maybe that's a good thing—we need to put some space between us because being so intimate with him and then having him push me away is pure agony. I don't know what his deal is because his signals are all over the place and in fifty different languages. He's attracted to me. I know that much, but why he won't act on it makes no sense, because I don't buy that he's afraid he'll ruin our friendship. I bite my lip and scoot closer to the table. I shouldn't be thinking about things like that right now. My relationship status with Zach should be the last thing on my mind while Cassandra and Beth are recovering in the hospital from gunshot wounds.

  "I want to bring up the elephant in the room," Henry starts, not bothering to sit down like the rest of us. I know Henry isn’t like the other boys, but there’s something about the coolness in his tone today that makes me more on edge.

  "You're going to tell us that your dad works for the secret service," Tommy jokes, only to get smacked on the back of the head by Zach. "Oh, like you didn't fucking think it, asshole."

  "Yes, I’ve decided that you’re the one who can be trusted with top-secret government information." Henry's voice is even, just like always, but the look he pins Tommy with is enough to get him to shut up. Henry glances around the table before adding, "But it does have to do with our parents. Is everyone here on board with keeping all of this between the seven of us? I need to know if there's any chance other people could be brought into this."

  "My uncle Malcolm is the only one who knows on my end, but he doesn't know the details." Tommy leans back in his chair, stretching his arms above his head. "That's the perks of having an uncle in the mafia. You say you need weapons, and he delivers, no questions asked."

  "What about you, Kennedy?" Henry's voice softens a tad, and I wonder if I'm the reason this meeting has been called—do they not trust me? I'm still the newcomer, and something about not being thought of as one of the group as much as Everly disappoints me more than it should.

  "She won't say anything," Zach cuts in, and I shoot him a glare because he knows I hate when he and the boys talk over Everly and me. He ignores the look, pushing his chair back and standing up. His broad shoulders are bunched with apprehension, chest puffed defensively, and that has a whole other sensation running through my body.

  "I don't want my parents to know anything. They would get involved, and I don't want them targeted. They've been through enough already, between losing my brother and having a huge disappointment for a daughter," I say to Henry with a forced chuckle, crossing my arms across my chest nervously and leaning back in my chair. I don’t know why I blurted that out, but it’s not like I’m hiding it. Both of my parents wanted me to stay in my tiny hometown in Virginia, marry Mark, and settle down where my mother could meddle in our marriage and tell me how to raise my kids. And of course, don’t forget the daily lectures about how forgoing meat in my diet isn’t healthy, and somehow all of my choices were a direct attack on her parenting. Honestly, I’d rather die.

  "I wasn't implying that we couldn't trust you, Kennedy, I just didn't know your situation, and we need to be as cautious as possible." I nod at Henry’s assertion, and he quickly moves on, saying, "Miles?"

  "I'm not saying shit." Miles sounds so unlike himself, and even though I haven't known him very long, the pain I hear in his voice is heart-wrenching. I understand now why Henry was worried about Miles and me. We're the only two that have close relationships with our parents. Zach's relationship with his mother is strained, but I don't know the whole story. I don't think anyone knows the story, except maybe Everly since she’s his cousin, but she's loyal to the core. She'd never reveal a part of his past that he didn't want anyone to know.

  "Then it's settled." Henry looks pleased, which is an uncommon occurrence lately. It seems like every time I've seen him, he looks either put out or disinterested in whatever’s happening around him. " So, let’s cover the facts. It's fairly obvious that Cassandra was the real target and that it wasn't a random carjacking."

  "They must have shot Beth in the arm so that she'd be stunned enough to not be able to give an accurate account," Everly says softly. "I also hate to bring this up, but what you guys said about the police looking for Andre—" she starts, but I cut in because I can see the apprehension on Patrick's face.

  "I agree. Cassandra is the only one Andre seems to care about. He wouldn't hurt her." I look directly at Patrick when I say it, and then glance over at Everly because if he's going to get huffy with anyone, it might as well be me. He must realize I’m worried that he’s going to take his frustration out on her, and I'm pleased when the scowl on his faces softens. He rests his palm on Everly's upper back as if to tell her that he's not upset, and I have to admit he’s been working really hard lately to gain her trust and show her that he’s trying to change his explosive reactions. I totally get that Andre is a hot button for him because up until recently, he did anything and everything he could to get a rise out of Patrick. And also because his sister was sneaking around behind his back with Andre before she died, but none of those things are reasons to believe Andre would be capable of attempted murder.

  "As much as I hate the guy, Kendall is right," Patrick says, and Tommy is the only one who laughs.

  "Knock it off, Carter," Zach says, but there's no bite in his tone. And as dumb as it probably sounds, the fact that Patrick goes out of his way to annoy me makes me feel like he's accepting me into their tight-knit circle. Zach looks at Henry when he asks, "What's our plan?"

  "Business as usual until we can find a way to stop them," Henry replies easily. I wonder if he has emotions that he doesn't show, or if he truly isn't affected by anything.

  “We could get the fuck out of here. When Cassandra is able to leave the hospital, we could just forget this fucking school,” Miles says, his jaw set. “Fuck everybody else.”

  “It’s not a half-bad idea,” Tommy says easily because that’s how he is. He doesn’t care either way, as long as we’re all okay.

  “I’m not going anywhere until I find out what happened to my sister.” Patrick’s tone is final when he speaks to Miles. Only I’m not used to anyone challenging him, and I have the urge to make a stupid joke to ease the tension I feel rising in my body.

  Mile's chair screeches as he shoves back from the table and storms out of the room. I hear his shoes clunking down the basement stairs, and I assume he's going down to the gym to work off his feelings about Cassandra.

  “Well, Dad, are we excused?” Tommy grins, shoving his chair back, and I don’t think he even sees the look of disdain on Henry’s face before he’s through the kitchen and clomping down the stairs to check on Miles.

  I head outside, partly to check on the fox, and partly to cleanse myself of all the broody tension that comes along with living with four hard-headed hockey players…and whatever the hell Henry is.

  “Hey, want some company?” Everly calls, approaching across the lawn as I pour my water bottle out into the bowl I left for the fox. I give her a quick nod before I get down on my belly to look under the shed, which is lifted up on two-by-fours to accommodate the slight slope of the yard. No sign of the fox, but all the chicken is gone.

  “I can’t believe today,” I say as Everly extends her hand and helps me up from the ground.

  “Tell me about it,” she says, rubbing her cold fingers together. I reach into the pocket of my plaid coat then hand her my spare pair of gloves
. She smiles, taking them and quickly putting them on before adding, “I didn’t get to tell you yet, because of everything going on…”

  “Tell me what?” I tug on my beanie and cross my arms, trying to stay warm.

  “Jackie Bower has a son, and Tommy’s the father.” Everly bites her lip and pushes her long blonde hair over her shoulder. “I figured it out the other night, but I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure.

  “Tommy has a son?” My head feels foggy because too much is happening. College is supposed to be stressful because of classes, boys, and parties. Not sex tapes, staged carjackings, and a secret baby. I can’t believe Tommy has a son, and he’s not in his life. Tommy is a grade-A fuckboy, and he’d be the first to admit it, but he’s loyal. His family and the Elite mean everything to him. I can’t believe he would…I gasp. “He doesn’t know!”

  Everly takes in a sharp breath through her nose and nods. “The guys haven’t had a chance to tell him yet, and I’m not sure how he’s going to take it. I mean, clearly not well, but I just hope he can keep his temper in check.”

  “Jackie Bower is awful, he’s going to go through the roof.” I put my gloved palms on my cheeks, rubbing my temples with my pointer fingers. My head feels like it's going to explode with this new information, like it's the last straw my poor brain can take. “Where’s the baby? I mean, is he a baby? How old is he?”

  I don’t realize how loud and panicked I am until Everly shushes me and moves closer so we can speak at a more reasonable secret-keeping volume.

  “She’s been wretched, but when I called her out on it, I saw the way she panicked. She’s hiding more than just a secret pregnancy. She’s really terrified, and I don’t buy that she’s only afraid Tommy will find out. But if I’ve learned anything over the last few weeks, it’s that no one is who they say they are. So unless it’s you, Cassandra, or one of the boys, I need proof before I make any judgments,” Everly says, before elaborating, “I think the son is with her sister because I found pictures on Facebook. He looks just like Tommy, like you’d think it was a toddler photo of Tommy. I don’t know his exact age, but I did the math from when she missed a semester of classes freshman year, I think he’s probably two, going on three, maybe?” She swallows hard, and I know she’s worried about how Tommy will take the news. Her voice cracks when she says, “She named him Thomas.”