The Beats in Rift (23 page)

A haunted look creeps over her face and my temper begins a slow sizzle.

“Well, you remember my Mom’s wedding, the night we went to out to the club?”

Max smiles. “Yeah, I remember the red dress you wore and the next day when I first met the scary version of Jared.”

“I will become a lot scarier if you mention what she wears with that smile on your face again.” Fucking little shit.

Beats places her hand on my chest. “Yeah, well I left the apartment that morning with three heartbeats.”

I want to punch his face in when his brow furrows.

“I don’t understand.”

“Are you fucking stupid? Justin knocked her up that night.”

If it’s possible, his face twists with confusion even more.

“But you didn’t sleep together, so how can that be possible?”

Feeling comes back into my body when I realize he may not have known that they had actually done the deed.

“DNA results beg to differ, jackass,” I growl at him.

“What do you mean we never slept together?” Beats asks. “You shared that apartment with us that night.”

“The fact that I shared the suite is how I know, Meadow. I came in just after you two did, and you were arguing about something he said. Shit, let me think… oh yeah, he asked if you would know who it was this time, whatever that meant. You freaked out on him and threw shit. Started stripping your clothes off and crying, saying you were going to bed alone. I sat up with him while he nursed a bottle of whiskey. He had just gone into your room when ten minutes later,
he
showed.” He points at me. “Unless ten minutes was enough. But then why was he bitching the other night about how he was meant to be your first and how ironic it is that he still…” His eyes shoot to me and he looks sheepish when he continues. “Hasn’t felt what it’s like to be inside you.”

Beats drops into a chair and I start pacing. None of this makes sense.

“They did a paternity test.” Her voice is laced with shock.

Max shifts, scooting back his chair and standing to get himself a beer. He tilts the bottle towards me as he pulls it from the fridge. I shake my head.

“Is that the swab thing he was fucking around with a few weeks ago?” Max asks.

Beats’ back straightens and her head swings in my direction. I shake my head and shrug. “What do you mean?” she asks.

Max seems unfazed by all this as he slowly lowers himself back into his chair. “He was messing around with these envelopes that had cotton wool type swap sticks in them. He acted all skittish and secretive when I asked what they were and stuffed them in his bag.” He tilts his chin towards Justin’s black duffle bag propped up against the couch.

My pulse accelerates in my veins. Things don’t add up, and before I can process anything, Beats propels herself across the room and starts pulling things from the bag. She falls back on her ass and pulls our tests out. I stride over to her and grab them from her hands; they’re both here, the ones we both completed at Beats’ house, her handwriting on the front. Justin’s is still sealed but mine is open and the swab is gone.

“I don’t understand.” Her voice is barely a whisper.

The front door opens and in walks Justin, looking dishevelled. His eyes drop to Beats sitting in front of his bag, his clothes in her lap, and then his eyes rise to meet me and he pales.

I hold the tests up. “What the hell’s going on, Justin?”

He throws his keys on a console table and sighs, closing the door with his foot. I follow him in to the kitchen where he pulls a glass from the cupboard and pours himself a drink.

“Start fucking talking, Justin.”

His eyes fall on Beats as she comes into view standing next to me. “I don’t understand,” she murmurs, pain evident in her tone.

“I’ve always loved you from the first day you stepped from that creaky rust bucket car and your violet eyes smiled at us. Even before your lips did. Damn, you were beautiful and you just got more stunning, Med.”

I pace and glare at him. Beats steps closer to him. He knocks back the drink and pours another. “It stung like a bitch when you and Jared finally admitted your feelings for each other, but to see the light in your eyes made it bearable.” He looks at me. “Then you fucking left us, turning out that light.” He closes his eyes for a few seconds and pounds the full glass back. “You took my brother and my Mom when you left, but you also took a part of Meds, too.” I hear a small sob break from Beats. He smiles at her. “You cried so much for him, I had to keep tissues in my bag for when you would break down all of a sudden if someone mentioned him in school, or if a song came on the radio. Then finally, little by little, you stopped crying and began to live again. I waited for you and God, you were worth the wait.” He steps towards her, lifting her chin with his finger. “Every touch, Meds. Every kiss was worth how long I waited to have you, to finally feel your love.”

I step towards him, forcing him to drop his hand from her and step back. He glares at me. “Then
he
came back and stole your love back.”

She shakes her head. “That’s not true, I’ll always love you,” she whispers.

“Just not the right kind of love. Not like you love him,” he spits, glaring at me.

“Get to the fucking point, Justin” I say.

“The fucking point is, you took everything from me. My brother and Mom when I was sixteen, and Meadow over and over again. And then finally, you took Dad.”

“Dad is a violent asshole, he isn’t worth your bitterness. Mom was ill and needed to get away from him. As for your brother and Meadow, we’re both standing in front of you.”

His face screws up. “You know Dad blames Meadow for us hating each other, and I let him convince me that maybe Meds is evil.”

She gasps and I step closer to Justin so we’re almost nose to nose. “Evil?” I growl.

He shoves me backwards. “Yeah, Dad’s convinced Meadow’s Mom raised her to get revenge on him. He said that’s why Meds was with us.”

He’s not making sense. “But he didn’t know her Mom before the day we met Beats.”

He laughs, tipping the glass to his mouth. “Nope, that’s not true. Dad said he knew her when she was pregnant. Apparently she tried to lie and say the baby was his.”

Beats steps forward, her expression has gone from sad to angry. “That’s bullshit. She was already pregnant when she moved there, so how is that possible?”

“I don’t care about the details, Meds. All I know is Dad thinks you’ve been playing us for revenge. He said you came on to him, flaunting your body around our house whenever you stayed. Playing me and Jared against each other to divide us, making Jared leave and take our Mom to punish Dad for choosing her over your Mom.”

“That’s insane.”

“Then you continue to play us off against each other over the years. He said I’m more like him and he loves me more so you made me suffer more than Jared. Getting pregnant then only wanting DNA when you knew I came into money so you could take me for every penny.”

I can’t take much more of his insanity. “You’re crazy.”

“What money?” Beats asks, confused.

He laughs and looks to me. “Jared knew I won big. Dad said you planned the killer blow. You and him planned it together well before I turned up that day. Raise my fucking kids together on my money, except those girls aren’t mine, but you didn’t know that did you, Med?”

“Justin, this is absurd. You and Jared found out at the same time. He showed up the day before you.”

His face contorts. He throws his glass across the room and it shatters into pieces; the brown liquid oozes down the wall. “STOP FUCKING LYING,” he roars, making her flinch and step away.

“You better back the hell off!” I warn him.

“He showed me pictures of you two together weeks before, outside a bar.”

My stomach shifts and I feel bile rise in my throat. “What?”

He puts his hands on the counter and his head drops between his shoulders. “You and Med on your bike, like she’s some cheap whore.”

My fist reacts, and before I realize it, Justin’s on the floor, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. “You ever call her that again, I’ll kill you.”

“So, the tests?” Beats asks, her voice weak.

“Dad said we couldn’t let you raise the girls into whores and that I should go for custody. When I told him I couldn’t be their Dad, he came up with the plan to switch the tests, getting revenge on both of you.”

She gasps and drops to her knees. I want to cradle her in my arms and whisk her away from this madness, but then it sinks in that the girls are mine. I feel overwhelmed, my heart swelling for my girls, but my head screaming at me to kill Justin for trying to take them from me.

“Justin,” Beats whispers, scooting closer to him. “How could you believe him? How could you do that to me?” Her sobs break through and she brings her hands to her face as her body shakes with sorrow.

“I wish you never came to the bar that day when we were kids, Med. Not for me, for you. It put you on his radar. He said he hadn’t seen your Mom for years before that day. I remember him asking me about you that night. He said you were sin sent to punish him. I was so busy watching the game I didn’t really pay attention to him but I should have known. Over the years he would say weird shit about you.” He looks lost as he speaks. He gazes at Beats who is cradling herself on the floor.

I reach for her, lifting her into my arms. “When did you speak to Dad, I thought he was AWOL?”

“He was. He said he couldn’t bear what she had done to me, making me give up football, so he left to make plans.”

“I want to see him. None of this makes sense. I want to hear it from him.”

Max is sitting at the table with his mouth open. “You can take her to my room,” he says to me. “I have an en-suite. Go get her sorted. “He walks over to Justin. “I can’t believe what I’ve just heard. I want you out. You’ve lost your fucking mind.”

I take Beats to the bathroom, putting her down on the side of the bath. I turn on the tap and wet a cloth. She looks up at me with her tear-stained face.

“God, Rift. What did I turn him into?” Her voice is barely a whisper.

I swipe her face with the cloth. “Don’t do that, Beats. Dad turned him into that. I should never have left Justin there with him. Fuck, this is crazy. I don’t know what to do.”

“I need to get home to my girls. I need to be near them.”

“Our girls.”

Her eyes shine with unshed tears. As they penetrate into mine a small smile tilts her lips. “Ours.”

She reaches her arms around my neck to bring me to her. I wrap her in my arms and inhale her scent. “I love you, Beats, and I loved the girls even when we thought they weren’t mine. To find out they are, God, I feel complete. We were always meant to be together. You were made for me. Marry me, baby?”

She pulls away to look me in the eyes, her mouth popping open. “Are you serious?” she whispers.

I look around, realizing the time and place suck, but I can’t help the need to put a ring on her finger and bind her to me forever.

“I know the time and place could have been better, but it’s what I feel that matters. I want you now and forever. I want us to be husband and wife, I want to make more babies and finally be together properly as a family with our girls.”

She throws herself into me, making me brace myself before relaxing into her body. “I want that too. Yes, I’ll marry you.”

My heart expands, tightening against my chest. I squeeze her tighter. Fuck, I love this woman. “Call Crystal. Tell her to keep the girls overnight. I want to take you somewhere. The girls are already asleep. We can be there for when they wake up.”

“Okay,” she agrees, pulling her phone from her jeans. I leave her to make the call and walk back into the living space to see Justin packing his bag.

“I could never truly hate you, Justin. You are my brother and I should have never left you, but I can’t change the past. I know you think I don’t deserve to have Beats, but I love her. She’s going to be my wife like she was always meant to be. I’m grateful you picked up the pieces and took care of her when I left, but that didn’t make her yours. She was always mine. We are soul mates and I know that’s hard for you but you need to move on so one day maybe you can be a part of the girls’ lives. We’re family and I love you. I hate some of the things you have done. I hate that you got a piece of her heart but I hate myself for giving you the opportunity too. I’ll never leave her again, not even in death.”

A variety of emotions cross his face. “Take care of them,” is all he says as he slings the bag over his shoulder and leaves the apartment.

Beats’ footsteps pull me from my gaze.

“She said that’s fine, so where are we going?” she asks.

I LOOSEN MY grip from around Rift’s waist as the bike rolls to a stop. He hops off and helps me to slide off. My ass is a little numb from the vibrations of the engine and being on the bike for a few hours.

I stand and rub my hands over my backside, gaining a chuckle from Rift. “Your ass will get used to it eventually. Come here, let me rub that fine ass better for you.”

I grin as his hands grope my ass. He groans as his lips fall on mine, nipping at my bottom lip.