Twelve

Pov

Bennet

I'm so damn angry at Tessa. We could avoid all this bullshit if she just chooses. Choose me. But no, she wants both of us, and I love my brother, but I've shared everything my whole life with him, and I want something for myself.
Now the redheaded bitch of my dreams has both of us out here in the mountain forest, getting us ready to scare her ass into obedience.
Gray won't settle for anything less, and we follow suit as usual.
There's not much I disagree with Gray on, and once again, that's something we agree on.
Nobody leaves the mountain.
Nobody leaves the Ravens.
The girls might not be part of the seedier side of what our parents started, but they're Ravens nonetheless.
There's no escaping for any of us.
"You should have pulled the trigger," I hear my brother grunt at me, and I roll my eyes. If I had pulled the damn trigger, the next bullet would have gone into one of us or both.
Either by our hands or by a Bishop.
"You and I both know why I didn't. We need to come to some kind of decision about what we're going to do with Tessa. We can't keep playing the same game indefinitely. It's exhausting, and neither of us is satisfied. Think about it, Mase."
"Are we really doing this? Having a little brotherly chat while we trek through the vegetation? I have a fucking lot to say. I'm tired of everything, and sometimes I wish Dad had kicked me out of Violent Peak years ago." I should be horrified by what he's saying, asking if he needs help, but my brother isn't suicidal. We're both experiencing that deep fatigue of having to deal with Eric Slade, and we're just biding our time until Rhett gives us the green light to do the job.
Patricide?
It's not the worst thing on my sin list.
Tessa Clarke. She may not carry the Bishop name, but she still has Bishop blood. Rhett's sister was the first female born into the family in three generations and she left.
She left this mountain and started a family with a normal man in Arbor Ridge.
Never straying too far from Hollow Hill and her family, just in case she needed them.
It's because of her that nobody is allowed to leave again.
Like mother, like daughter.
Except now, a different Slade is hunting a Raven woman.
"Want to make a bet, brother? I know Tessa better than you do. I know how she thinks, how she feels. I can predict what she'll do and when. The first one to find her can claim the first fuck. I already know I'll win, but rubbing the victory in your face makes it all the sweeter." Mason is delusional if he thinks any of this is true.
"Dad must have hit you over the head plenty of times because you're talking nonsense left and right, and that's the only way to rationalize it?"
"Think about it, Bennett. You all think I'm reckless and unhinged... to be fair, that's accurate, but what none of you seem to understand is that I've been gathering information left and right for years. Did you know that late at night she sneaks off to the old treehouse and her diaries?" I hate that he knows something I don't. My anger is boiling, and I don't know how I didn't know this about her, and how the hell did he find out?
"What are you doing, being a creeper spying on her windows and shit hoping to catch her naked? We're fucked up, but that's a new level reached, Mase." I bite out of anger, but there's no disgust in my tone. Damn, I wish I had been the one to do that.
He stops abruptly, throwing an arm out, catching me in the chest, "Ummpphhh. What the fuck?"
"No, you cheap-ass beer drinker. You know I don't sleep, damn it. I saw her nearly every night when I sat on the porch. She'd slip out like Gray didn't always know where she was going. He's got more eyes on everything than his dad. And you idiot, I don't need to creep to see Tessa naked." He scoffs at me, but I'm already irritated at him catching me off guard.
Throwing an arm around his neck, I lock him with my other arm and take him down to the ground.
"Stop talking about my bitch like that."
"Your bitch? You still think she's going to choose you. A literal gun pointed at your head and she didn't choose you. How the hell do you think you're going to convince her you're the best choice?" He gets riled up and hits me in the stomach, and I think we're going for a second round of Slade showdown tonight.