Page 82 of Will to Run

“Fuck you right back. It’s not jealousy. Maybe you forgot, but we are still tied up in a lawsuit I brought against our family. So yeah, excuse me for having some questions about motives,” I push him back down in his seat and step back because I don’t trust myself close to him.

“Her motive? Jesus Christ. Are you that blind? Did she look like someone who was there to pull the wool over someone’s eyes?”

“Did Abby?” he spits back. “People are conniving and convincing, Jax. I hate that I had to learn that lesson the hard way, and I don’t want you to be in that spot either.”

Anger is radiating off my body. “Fuck, Cayson, there was nothing she could have done to change your mind because you named yourself judge, jury, and executioner the minute you saw her. Besides the fact that it sounds so cheap to say to me right now, what if I wanted to learn the lessons myself? Do you regret your things?” I push. “Do you regret your fucking relationship with Abby?”

I glare at him knowing the question crosses the line because of the implication, but I’m so livid I don’t care.

“Not a fair question, Jaxon. I wouldn’t trade my kids for anything.”

“Anything?” I push. “So you’d do everything the same again, even knowing the consequences?”

“Anything,” he says menacingly, while taking steps to invade my space. Putting his finger up to my chest, he’s talking through his teeth, trying to keep his own rage at bay. “And if you ever insinuate that again, we’re going to the stalls.”

We used to settle arguments in the stalls, and at this second, it doesn’t sound like a half-bad plan. But I push him off me. “So you can interfere and dictate what happens in my life, my future, because you don’t agree, but I can’t question your past? Got it. Get the fuck out of my house, Cayson, before this tips into territory we both regret.”

He glares back at me, and I return the look. If he thinks I’m backing down from this, he’s dead wrong. He is red in the face, and his nose is flaring with his breath. Good.

“Hey, boys!” My sister and Molly enter my house, completely unaware of what they’re walking into.

Both of us turn to her, and I see the moment she registers that something isn’t right because her smile drops.

“What’s going on here?” Hazel’s voice holds a questioning tone I rarely hear from my confident sister.

“Cayson just ruined everything,” I say as if we’re kids again and I’m tattling to my mother.

“I’m just telling you how it is and helping you avoid the heartbreak, fucker.”

“Oh, first it was stopping her from using me, and now it’s heartbreak? Pick a lane, jerk-off. Just admit you don’t want anyone to be happy.”

I’ve never been angrier with him in my life.

“Fuck you, Jaxon,” he says, shoving me hard with both hands. It’s so unexpected that it makes me lose my balance, but I grab the couch and stay upright.

When I regain my footing, I lunge at him to shove him back. Out of my periphery, I hear Hazel scream stop, but Molly inserts herself between us and holds both her arms in the air, separating us.

“Both of you stop right now,” she says it calmly and so matter-of-factly that I freeze. I’m not pushing past Molly, risking hurting her, so I take huge steps back. Hazel joins the fray and stands next to her, between us.

“Get the fuck out, Cayson,” I say over their heads. “Right now. You aren’t welcome in my house.”

The girls go between us, trying to figure out what happened, but my brother is just glaring.

“You’ll see, Jaxon,” he says while walking towards the door.

“Fuck you, Cayson. I hope some kind of happiness finds you so you can stop trying to fuck everyone else’s life up,” I spit to his back. It’s not a fair comment, but what he did isn’t fair either.

Molly escorts him out, while Hazel looks at me with concern.

“Jax, what’s happening right now?” she asks.

I shake my head, and even though my adrenaline is sky-high, I close my eyes because I can’t look at my sister when I say it. “She’s gone. We’re done.”

I’m met with such silence, I think she’s left, but when I open my eyes, she looking at me with confusion; like I’ve grown a second head.

“Cayson came into my office and pushed me on Della, like he’s been doing since she got here. And I had payroll to do, and needed to figure out how to fill those spots we just lost, so I appeased him… because you know how he is when he just won’t fucking drop something. I said things I didn’t mean. Things that were me being angry with him for being a prick, but were insults to her. And… she heard it.” My body collapses onto my couch, completely defeated. “Fuck, Hazel. She heard it all.”

“What did you say, Jax?” she questions.