Page 192 of Revv

You kids.

Like we were the fucking problem.

Like Lena and I arrived broken and he was just another poor adult trying his best.

I set the flowers and wine down on the nearest display before I crush one and smash the other across the floor.

Travis watches me put the flowers and wine down, and whatever fake patience he was wearing finally cracks.

“You always were a fucking problem,” he mutters. “You and that lying little bitch.”

Everything in me goes still.

“What did you call her?”

His jaw tightens, like now that the nice-guy act is gone, he can’t be bothered putting it back on. “Lena. Always crying, always making shit up when she didn’t get her way. You both knew exactly what to say to those caseworkers.”

I step toward him before I even realize I’m moving. “She wasn’t fucking lying.”

“Oh, please.”

“I heard her.”

That shuts him up.

“I was right across the hall, remember?” My voice drops, but there’s nothing calm about it. “I heard her crying through those walls while you did shit to her no adult should ever do to a kid. I heard her trying not to make noise because she was fucking terrified of you.”

His face changes, but he covers it fast with anger.

“You don’t know what the fuck you heard.”

“I heard enough.”

“You were thirteen. You were a fucked-up foster kid looking for someone to blame.”

My hands curl into fists at my sides.

“And you were the grown fucking man who was supposed to protect us.”

Travis steps closer now, defensive and pissed instead of pretending to be reasonable.

“Watch your fucking mouth.”

I almost laugh.

As a kid, that voice could freeze me in place.

Now I’m six-three, standing over him, and all I can see is how fucking small he actually is.

“Or what?”

His nostrils flare.

I lean closer. “Go ahead. Call Lena a liar again.”

“Fuck you.”

“Say it.”