Keep From Falling (Markson Grove Series Book 1) (33 page)

Bree

Surprisingly, getting into the back property of
The Misfit Mansion
was practically effortless. Spencer was right when he told me that there wouldn’t be anyone patrolling and that it would look like any other normal house from the outside. Apparently Spencer has connections with some big people in there. I don’t even want to know, so I didn’t ask, but those connections are the reason someone is turning a blind eye as he sneaks us in. He made that clear to me on the phone. He had a five-minute window, and that was all, so we couldn’t be late.

Once we are in the basement of the mansion, Spencer hurriedly leads us to the room Parker has Skylar in. I’m in a panic, and my entire body is shaking with worry.

“How long has he had her in there?” I ask as I place the looped end of a bobby pin into the keyhole. With a second pin, I feel around for all the little notches until I find the one I’m looking for. I hear the click, tighten the loop around the little notch, and pull the second pin back out. Very slowly, so as not to loosen the grip I have on the notch, I start to crank the first pin upwards clockwise.

“About fifteen minutes,” Spencer replies and my stomach does flip-flops. He could do a lot to her in fifteen minutes.

I crank the pin up just a little bit more until I feel the deadbolt finally release itself. I don’t even think after that. I throw the door open and it crashes against the wall behind it.

“Get away from her!” I exclaim the moment I see, to my utter horror, Parker lying on top of Skylar in front of me.

He gradually moves his partially naked body away from Skylar and raises his hands up in the air. He’s smiling that patronizing half smile that he knows I can’t stand. He gets up off the bed and moves to the reading chair under the window without taking his eyes off of me. He looks like he’s going to say something, but at the very last second seems to decide against it.

I watch him carefully as he reaches for his t-shirt lying next to Skylar and pulls it over his head, covering up his extremely tattooed upper body.

I turn to Skylar who’s sitting herself up on the bed and looking at me like I have two heads. “What’s going on, Sky?” I ask uneasily, suddenly becoming unsure of what it is I’ve just walked into.

Skylar doesn’t seem happy or relieved to see us in the least. She reaches for her shirt at the foot of the bed and pulls it over her head, covering up her black lace bra; my favorite one.

“I’m not your girlfriend anymore. I can do whatever I want with whoever I want,” she tells me with a casual shrug.

“With him?!” I yell in disbelief, pointing at his smug face.

“Maybe. It doesn’t matter. I’m not yours anymore, remember?”

“You’re drunk,” I say, grabbing her hand and attempting to pull her off of the bed. She resists and yanks her hand away from my grasp.

“I’m drunk. I’m not unconscious,” she snaps. “I know who I’m with and I know what I’m doing with him.”

I glare at Parker, feeling as though I’m about to be sick. “You fucking asshole!”

“Hey, I didn’t force her to do anything.
She
came to me,” he replies. I scan his face for a smile or a smirk, any sign that he might be saying what he’s saying just to get under my skin. But there isn’t a smile this time, and it occurs to me that his seriousness is even more unsettling to me than his obnoxiousness.

“Oh, don’t give me that bullshit. You knew she was drunk!”

“It’s a party. Everyone’s drunk,” he says, the smirk on his lips returning.

I shake my head. This is ridiculous. “Come on Skylar, let’s go home,” I say, reaching for her hand.

“Seriously, fuck off. I’m not leaving with you.”

The anger in her tone makes me cringe. I shift my weight from one foot to the other awkwardly. More and more I begin to feel as though I’m barging into a private moment I have no reason to be barging into.

“Are you actually telling me that you’d rather stay here with
him
than come home with me?” I hiss. The words are directed at Skylar, but I’m staring at Parker as I say them.

He shakes his head slightly and his little annoying smirk falters for just a moment. I can see a flinch of something emotional in his facial features that makes me think I might have actually upset him, as impossible as that might be.

“I’m staying with Parker,” she says firmly, staring me down angrily.

I can’t believe what I am hearing and what I am seeing! How is this even happening? I turn to Spencer hoping he can help me put some sense into her; help me make sense of this entire situation, actually. But as soon as I catch his eye, he shakes his head and looks to the floor uncomfortably. I don’t know what to think, but every emotion that is going through my body is making me feel incredibly out of control and scared of what this all means.

I glance over at Evan. He seems uneasy and I can tell he’s trying very hard not to get himself wrapped up in the middle of this.

“I’m not letting you stay here with him. You’re completely wasted,” I say to Skylar finally, keeping my voice low.

“Just go home. You’re embarrassing yourself. Why are you even here?”

“Spencer said you were in trouble,” I snap. “He asked me to come. Said you were locked in a room with Parker and you weren’t answering the door!”

Skylar peers over at Spencer with a visibly pained expression on her face. “You don’t trust me, Spenc?”

He tilts his head to the side and exhales loudly. “I trust you, I just don’t know if I trust him,” he tells her apologetically.

“You
don’t know
if you trust him?” I exclaim in disbelief. Like there’s even an option. “What’s to trust, Spencer? He’s a fucking rapist!”

Parker gets up off of the chair and starts toward me angrily, but Evan moves himself in front of me the very same instant.

“Daniels, get the fuck out of my face,” Parker says. “This doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

“Like hell it doesn’t. You’re not getting anywhere near her,” Evan replies, holding his ground.

“Your boyfriend is a fucking moron and I don’t want to be around either one of you,” Skylar says to me.

Parker smiles obnoxiously in Evan’s face as Skylar continues to bellow her insults. They are only about a foot away from each other now, just staring one another down. Evan’s fists clench even tighter by his sides, as Parker’s smile doesn’t fail to falter.

I start to move myself around Evan with every intention to slap the smug smile right off of Parker’s face, but before I get the chance Evan punches him hard in the jaw, knocking him backward. I gasp, taking a step back and covering my mouth with both hands.

Parker catches his footing quickly and regains his composure in a matter of seconds. He glares at Evan. “Hit me again. I dare you.”

Evan hesitates.

“Don’t do it.” Spencer steps in between them, seemingly concerned. For which guy, I can’t even be sure anymore.

“Come on now, Spenc,” Parker says, without taking his eyes off of Evan. He smirks. “Evan’s a tough guy, right Ev?”

Evan nods, “Tough enough to kick your ass.”

“Then come on, punch me again.”

This time Evan doesn’t hesitate, he takes a swing at Parker’s face but with Parker knowing it’s coming this time, Evan really doesn’t stand a chance. Parker dodges the punch and knees Evan in the gut.

Evan falls to the floor in a kneeling position. I gasp in horror as Parker puts both of his hands behind Evan’s head and smashes his knee into Evan’s face, making his nose immediately gush blood.

“Stop!” I scream at the exact same moment that Evan’s friend, Derrick appears out of nowhere and storms at Parker, knocking him to the ground.

I drop to my knees in shock, and then a moment later crawl my way over to Evan. His face is already beginning to swell and there is so much blood gushing from his nose. I take off the sweater I’m wearing over my shirt and use it to help stop the bleeding.

Spencer quickly gets in the middle of Derrick and Parker, breaking them apart before any more damage can be done. “That’s enough,” he says, glaring at the both of them. “Nobody else needs to get hurt tonight.”

Derrick obliges, giving Parker one final shove before climbing to his feet and crossing the room toward Evan and me.

“You ok, Ev?” he asks, his face filled with concern.

Evan pushes himself up off the ground with one hand as he holds my balled-up sweater to his nose. “I’m fine,” he mumbles.

“What the fuck is wrong with you? You could have killed him!” I scream at Parker.

“If I wanted to kill him, I would have killed him,” Parker replies with so much seriousness in his voice that it sends a chill down my spine.

Skylar encourages Parker to sit down in the chair he had been sitting in earlier and once he finally agrees, she kneels in front of him and whispers something to him.

I’m frozen in place as I watch her kiss his hand next and then see him bring that same hand to her face tenderly. I see him look at her. He looks right at her with his eyes piercing into hers in a way I’ve never seen happen before. This is what Evan saw between the two of them that day at school! This is what he was talking to me about.
Intensely intimate
is what he called it. He wasn’t lying.

I gasp and my stomach begins to churn uncontrollably. Am I going crazy? What the fuck is this? I can’t wrap my mind around any of it. None of it makes sense! Is Parker the person Skylar ‘trusts’ who told her about Evan and me in Queensland? It can’t be. And yet, as I’m watching their interaction with one another, I find myself unsure of anything I thought I knew before this very moment.

Skylar gets up and turns to face me. “You don’t belong here!” She growls angrily, shoving me backward into Spencer who catches me instantly and keeps me from losing my footing.

“He could have killed Evan,” I say again.

“Next time I will,” Parker interjects. His face is serious, and for the first time ever, he’s glaring angrily at us. He’s lost his collected demeanor and this new Parker I see before me, scares the shit out of me more than the old one ever did.

Evan takes the shirt away from his nose and the bleeding seems to have stopped. “Fuck you!” he spits.

Parker laughs loudly, “You got a lot of fucking guts, Daniels. I must have really pissed you off when I was fucking Adrienne, huh?”

I jerk my head to Evan in surprise as my mouth drops open. I can tell he’s trying to pretend the words don’t affect him, but I know that they do. I’m shocked. Parker was one of the guys Evan’s ex cheated on him with.

I look to Skylar next, wanting to see what the information does to her but she appears completely indifferent to it. I shake my head and open my mouth to say something, but Skylar speaks first, “We’re done… for good. I don’t need you saving me. I don’t want you around anymore.” She says it quietly, almost in a whisper, and at first I don’t really register the words. We’re best friends, we can’t just not see each other ever again. Friendship doesn’t work that way.

“I thought you needed help,” I say with a small pout, feeling incredibly pathetic the instant the words slip out of my mouth.

She reaches for Parker’s hand. “I don’t need help,” She replies assuredly, but with a coolness in her voice. Her hand grips Parker’s tightly.

My heart feels like it’s breaking into a million pieces as I watch her fingers intertwine into his with such ease that it’s obvious to everyone in that room, especially me, that those hands are not strangers to one another. A tear escapes my eye and rolls down my cheek, but I brush it away, not wanting her to know she’s getting to me.

“I’m leaving now. With Parker. And you’re going to let me. Everything we were to each other Bree, it’s done. Forever. That was your call… and this is mine.” She walks over to the door, not letting go of Parker’s hand. He smirks at us just before leaving the room and I am filled with so much intense hatred for him that I could scream! But I stand there idly instead, watching her take her final steps out of my life forever, and knowing that nothing will ever be the same from now on. I’ve lost my entire world and it’s all my fault.

Skylar

Parker drives me home after we leave the mansion and insists on walking me up to the top floor once we arrive. I tell him I’m fine and I can make it up to the apartment on my own, but there’s no way he believes me. “Besides,” he points out, “I take care of you, remember.”