Keep From Falling (Markson Grove Series Book 1) (39 page)

“Let’s just say I have a history with him and it’s not a good one,” I say.

“With him?”

“Oh, come on, don’t tell me you didn’t know about Skylar’s past before Bree.”

“Rumors, yeah. But the only person I’ve ever actually seen her with is Bree,” she says.

“Well turns out she’s into guys too. One particular guy actually.”

“Who you have a history with…”

“Yep.”

“Don’t tell me that it’s Tristan,” She says with a huge grin.

“Pretty fucking close, but no, not him.”

“Parker?” She asks, uncertainly.

“You got it,” I reply dryly.

“You’re kidding!”

“Nope.”

“I thought Skylar and Bree were still together.”

“Skylar found out about us a week ago apparently,” I say. “But she only confronted us about it last night.”

“How did that go?”

I shrug, “She ran off to be with Parker.”

Kelsie doesn’t look convinced. “She gets with him the instant she finds out about the two of you? I find that a little hard to believe.”

“He’s the one who told her about us,” I say defensively, attempting to prove my case. “Apparently they have a history.” I’m careful not to elaborate on who actually told me that little piece of information, though. I can’t break my promise to Derrick.

“He told her? Was their history…like, physical?”

I cringe. “I don’t know Kelsie! Jeez…I guess so.” That is seriously not an image I want to think about, especially after having walked in on the both of them half naked last night. Not to mention that damn video. I’ve seen enough of Parker’s body to last me a lifetime of nightmares as far as I’m concerned.

“Before Adrienne and Tris, or after?”

She just had to ask. It’s such a touchy subject for me and she says it like it’s the most casual thing in the world. I groan. “I don’t know for sure, Kels. It seems like Skylar knows about it though, so my guess is after.”

“Why? Did she say something to you about it?”

I squeeze my eyes shut trying to stay calm through her series of ridiculous questions. I mean, seriously, who asks this many questions about people they don’t even know?

I don’t want to tell her about my confrontation with Parker because I can’t have her knowing I was at the mansion last night. There are too many possible questions she could ask me and too many opportunities for me to slip up. “Something like that,” I eventually decide to reply, hoping she’ll digress.

“So then if Skylar is living happily ever after with Parker now, why do you feel so guilty?”

I think about that for a moment because she’s right. Technically, Skylar’s said her piece and seems to have moved on. I shouldn’t be feeling guilty anymore, and yet I do. “I guess it’s because Bree’s so sad,” I say finally. “Skylar’s out of her life now and it’s… hurting her.” Do I want to go more into it than that? Should I tell her that I suspect Bree isn’t over Skylar?

Kelsie nods but doesn’t speak right away. I can tell she’s thinking over her words carefully. She doesn’t want us to start fighting again and I’m grateful for that. “Maybe she’s finally realizing what the price of choosing you really is. It seems like at first she thought she could have the both of you and now she sees that she can’t, so she’s dealing with the loss.”

“Maybe,” I mumble, not really liking her reply but respecting it. Kelsie doesn’t believe in sugar coating something, she says it like she sees it.

I look to the ground and she squeezes my hand to get me to look up at her. “You’re a good person,” she says once she has my eye.

“I’m not so sure about that anymore,” I confess, honestly feeling like I’ve lost a part of myself since the day I decided to be a bastard and steal someone’s girlfriend away. And now karma’s paying me back full force because Bree still has feelings for Skylar and I put myself right in the middle of it.

I look ahead of us once again and realize that we’ve reached the basketball park. It’s dark and quiet; no one is playing at this time of night. But off in the distance I see a small group of people gathered on the bleachers.

Kelsie stops in her tracks. “Maybe we should turn around,” she suggests cautiously, eyeing the circle of four before us.

I don’t take my eyes off of the small group, trying to figure out who they are. Three guys and one girl, I realize. And then I freeze in my tracks the minute it occurs to me who two of the four people are.

“It’s Tris.” I say, “and Parker.”

Kelsie shifts her weight from one foot to the other, unsure of what I’m planning on doing with that information. “Let’s just turn around.”

I shake Kelsie’s hand from mine and clench my fists tightly as I inhale deeply. I should turn around. I don’t want another knee to the nose from that asshole. And four on two is pretty shitty odds anyway. Derrick is not anywhere near; it would be a bad idea to get mouthy tonight. “Yeah, I think that’s a pretty good idea,” I say finally.

She lets out a sigh of relief. “Good,” she says, starting in the other direction.

And then I see her.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I say, feeling a sudden rush of anger and adrenalin coursing through me. No way this is happening!

She has her arms wrapped around the neck of the guy I don’t recognize, provocatively pushing her body up against him. He kisses her with a roughness that makes me want to punch the little shit right in the face! Who the fuck does this guy think he is?

“I’ll fucking kill them!” I growl, storming toward the four of them with so much anger boiling up inside of me that I can’t be sure that I won’t actually kill them once I reach them.

“Evan!” Kelsie hisses after me in a panic. “What the hell are you doing?”

“It’s Ellie!” I somehow manage to reply through my rage.

Kelsie’s eyes grow wide, “Fuck,” she says before hurrying after me. She knows very well that if Ellie’s with them there’s no way I’ll be turning around and pretending I didn’t see them.

“Tris!” I call out angrily. I make it very clear in my tone that I know my sister is with him, that it’s probably a drug-related meeting, and that I’m now going to kill him.

He turns around and, the minute he sees it’s me, smiles tauntingly. He leans into Parker and says something to him. Parker turns around, his permanently obnoxious smirk growing twice the size.

Ellie scrambles off of the bleachers, giving the other guy one last kiss before taking off in the opposite direction. I shake my head.
What a fucking idiot.

“Well, if it isn’t Evan Daniels,” Parker says once I approach them closer. “You’d think after the ass kicking I gave you last night you’d want to wait a bit before round two.”

I see Kelsie's face distort into a frown. Well, there goes my plan to keep her guessing. Now she knows.

“You’re dealing drugs to my sister,” I accuse them, ignoring Parker’s attempt to unravel me.

Tris shrugs, “That’s between us and your sister.”

“She’s fourteen, you piece of shit!” I growl.

“She’s fifteen, actually,” the guy who was kissing her throws in.

“Whatever!” I snap. “Who the hell are you anyway? You keep your dirtbag hands off of my sister, or I’ll kill you myself! Actually, I’ll kill you all, you bunch of perves!”

Parker scowls as Tris begins to laugh. The other guy, who’s honestly probably only Ellie’s age or not much older, looks over to Parker uncertainly. Parker simply nudges his chin toward the exit of the park where Ellie ran, and without another word, the guy heads in that direction.

A dealer in training I bet. Yeah, Ellie sure knows how to pick them. I shake my head in disgust.

“What did you sell her?” I demand.

“Who says we sold her anything?” Tris replies with a shrug. I want to punch him in the face so bad right now.

“Don’t play games with me Tris, tell me what you sold her!”

“Take it up with Ellie,” Parker says, getting right into my face. “We don’t have time for this shit right now.”

Hearing Parker call her by name pushes me over the edge for some reason, and I shove him away from me. He steps backward, catching his balance with his left foot. He shakes his head in what seems like disappointment, but that doesn’t seem right. Maybe it’s a headshake of annoyance because that would make a hell of a lot more sense.

Before I have a chance to figure out what it is that’s going on with Parker, Tris begins to charge me. But before he actually reaches me, Parker physically stops him with a swing of his arm, knocking Tris to the ground. “We have a lot more venues to hit, man. No time for this right now. Add him to your shit list and get him when you aren’t working on
my
time,” he says calmly, giving Tris a little kick in the shin to force him back to his feet.

Tris scrambles to his feet at the same moment realization strikes me that Parker and Tris don’t stand on equal ground with whoever it is they work for. This realization surprises me because I know that Tris was the one who took Parker under his wing in the beginning. How the hell did everything change?

I turn to Kelsie who’s standing behind me glaring at Tris and Parker with so much distaste that I feel kind of proud of her. Who needs Derrick watching your back when you have this much attitude backing you up?

“Kelsie,” Tris says to her with a small nod, seeming to have only noticed now that she was here the entire time.

“Tristan,” she almost spits.

“What brings your fine ass here?” Tris says with a smooth drawl, as he moves toward her.

“You’re kidding me, right?” I say, roughly taking the front of his shirt into both of my hands and yanking him to me. “Stay away from Kelsie, stay away from Ellie, or you’re dead! Got me?”

Tris pulls away from my grasp but continues to smile an unwavering grin. Something he’s learned from Parker, no doubt. “What about that fine girlfriend of yours then? Bree Porter, can I tap that?”

That fucking son of a bitch!

There’s no time to hesitate on this one because my emotions simply won’t allow it. I punch him square in the jaw, knocking him to the ground instantly.

Parker’s in my face in a matter of seconds and I know right then that I’m officially dead. He pins me up against the chain-linked fence behind me, his forearm pressed up under my chin with so much strength that it feels like he’s crushing my throat. I grab his forearm with both of my hands, trying to pull it away so that I can at least get in one gulp of breath, but it’s no use. Everything starts to go black.

He pulls away suddenly and I collapse to the ground, choking and coughing and hacking. I gasp for breath. Fuck I suck at fighting. I really have to get my temper in check because this is honestly getting embarrassing.

I look over at Kelsie who’s standing her ground, trying to decide if she should come to me or stay where she is. I can tell she’s scared, but she’s doing a really good job at pretending that she’s not.

“Leave,” Parker says.

I look up at him in confusion. I am still gasping for breath as well as feeling pretty weak in the legs. I can’t get up and walk just yet. But he’s not smiling; he’s not trying to be obnoxious in any way either. He’s serious, and his seriousness is actually kind of scary.

I manage to get up anyway, feeling like I’m going to throw up any minute, but luckily I don’t. I carefully move toward Kelsie.

“Not you,” Parker says, giving me an irritated once over. He motions me toward him again and I’m so confused. He turns to Tris. “Get lost. Go find Colt.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Tris says, rubbing his jawline.

“Go!” Parker barks loudly.

“Fuck!” Tris yells out angrily before stomping off in the same direction as Ellie and her delinquent boyfriend.

Parker sighs, shakes his head, and wearily turns his attention back to Kelsie and me.

“Mind giving me a minute?” he asks Kelsie quietly.

She looks to me uncertainly so I motion for her to go, shooting her a weak smile so that she won’t worry. But I’m not going to lie, I’m fucking worried.

She walks over to the bleachers and takes a seat, keeping her eyes trained on us.

“I don’t want to keep kicking your ass like this so you’ve got to stop giving me reasons to,” he tells me without cracking a smile. That’s unusual, he seems to be completely sincere with his confession.

I don’t reply. I think his words are shocking me too much to respond.

“Tris dissed your girl and he deserved it. I would have done the same thing. He’s an ass and I know you two have a history. We all do… and I’m sorry for that. I really am. But you and me, from now on, don’t have problems with each other anymore, got it?”

What the hell is happening right now? Is Parker trying to call a truce? Can this be for real? And if it is, why is it happening?

“Ok,” I finally manage. Like I have any other choice. But, I have to admit, not getting my ass kicked by him on a regular basis does sound appealing.

“I could have let him fight you back you know, but like I said, you were defending your girl and I get that.”

I narrow my eyes. “Thanks, I guess,” I say, not really sure if that was a backhanded way of him saying that I’m a complete wuss or if he’s honestly trying to make an effort at being nice.

“I’m going to tell you something about your sister, ok?”

I nod uncertainly. “Ok.”

“She’s not doing any hard drugs. She’s smoking some pot, but she hasn’t bought any of my other products. I promise. And I don’t plan on selling her any either. She’s going out with one of my guys. But before you get pissed about it, he’s a good guy, and he cares about her, ok? She’s not with Tris or me. Just Colt.”

I’m still stunned. “Ok,” I manage once again, unsure of where exactly this is going.

He turns to his left and stares off into the distance for a moment. Possibly contemplating if he should say something else or leave it at that. “I didn’t rape Skylar,” he says finally. I already know this, but hearing it right from his mouth is another surprise for me.

“I know.”

He doesn’t ask how I know, but he seems to be wondering it for a second before getting back into his thoughts. “But the people I work for would have and they almost did. You get what I’m saying?”

I don’t.

“Not really,” I answer honestly. I’m incredibly confused by all of this. The whole conversation is just surreal.