Page 37 of Endgame
“Brittany’s problem is that she thinks she owns Rourke.” Molly scrunched her nose up in distaste. “Likeown-owns him. She picks him up when she wants him and tosses him aside when she’s done. Why Rourke puts up with her shit, I willneverunderstand because the boy is beyondbeautiful and could quite easily have any girl in school he wanted.” She huffed out a breath then and I got the sense she meant he could have her, too.
I smirked to myself.
I liked Molly – even if she was a little gossipy. I wasn’t about to flip out and grow jealous bitch claws on the first potential friend I had made since I got here because she happened to like the same guy I did–didn’t! I didn’t like him. Dammit... “She sounds like a bitch.”
“She is.” Molly looked me up and down and grinned. “And I have a feeling that she’s really not going to like you, Mercy James.”
I mewled over Molly’s words for a moment before saying, “First day of school should be a barrel of laughs then.”
“I’d say! Have you met Amelia?”
I nodded. “She’s…nice.” There was no other word to describe Rourke’s younger sister. “It’s hard to believe they’re related.”
She nodded. “Rourke’s super protective of her, huh?”
“Yeah, I gathered that,” I muttered, driving past my house. “How far to your place?”
“Keep going straight. Another couple hundred yards,” Molly confirmed before adding, “That’s because she was abused.”
I almost crashed the car. “Come again?”
“Didn’t you know?”
“No.” I gaped. “When?” I shook my head. “Who?”
“Their stepbrother,” Molly replied quietly. “I’m the next house on the right.”
“Oh, my fucking god,” I whispered as I flicked on my blinker and slowed right down. “I can’t believe this.” I was reeling. Amelia had been abused? And by their stepbrother? God, no wonder Rourke didn’t want me in his home. “Poor Amelia.”
“It all came out last year,” Molly filled in as I pulled into her driveway. Another beach house mansion. “Although, word is it had been going on for a lot longer than that – if you know what I mean.”
I did. I knew exactly what she meant and it made me want to puke. “What happened?” I managed to squeeze out.
“Rourke flipped. He tore up their house and then went and trashed the school. Beat the shit out of his stepbrother. He was almost expelled, but Coach pulled some strings – couldn’t do without their star wide receiver, after all.” Molly shook her head and sighed. “Yeah, Rourke was in a really bad way for a while.”
Jacking the handbrake, I sat back in my seat and stared blindly ahead, barely able to comprehend what I had just learned. “I can’t believe I didn’t know this.”
“Me too,” she told me. “It’s common knowledge around here.”
“Was he arrested?” I turned and looked her in the eye. “The stepbrother?”
“Yeah, but the D.A never took it further.” Molly scrunched her nose up in disgust. “Not enough evidence apparently – and Josh stuck to the same story; they were in a secret relationship and Amelia was too afraid of her violent older brother to admit the truth. Josh was fifteen at the time, and Rourke has a record of losing his temper, so the D.A bought it.”
“That’s bullshit.” My voice rose like my temper. “That’sexactlywhy women don’t come forward; because of assholes like that.” I leaned my head back and sighed. “I don’t know what to think anymore.”
“About Rourke?”
“Yeah.” I nodded. “No wonder he was so allergic to Mom and me moving in with them.” He’d been burned before. Worse than burned; his little sister had been sexually exploited. “Ugh. Okay, now I’m kind of wishing you never told me.”
“Why?”
“Because now, I’m starting to see the man behind the monster and it was much easier when it was just monster.”
“He’s some man though, right?” Molly teased. “Have you seen him without a shirt on?”
“Don’t remind me.” The image of Rourke’s sculpted abs and sexy treasure trail were imprinted in my memory for life. “He has theV, Molly. You know; that really hot V some guys have beneath their navel?” I swallowed deeply. “Rourke’s is the best I’ve ever seen.”
“I know.” Molly sighed. “It’s so defined, I want to lick it.”
