“Alex, stop!” It’s Freya, and I see her running toward us. I’m about to put myself between Alex and her so I can cover her—I don’t want him to accidentally hit her in this rage wave he’s riding—when Justin grabs her halfway and pulls her back into him. Finally, he’s good for something too.
While I’m watching them, I take another blow to the side of my face, and this one makes me see fuckin’ stars. I’ve forgotten how much damage Alex’s fist can do when he really means it.
“Ken! Please!” Leila cries out, and the sheriff steps between us. At a very bad time considering Alex nearly lands his fist on his brother’s face. Kenneth’s reaction is fast, though, and he ducks just in time…or the blow to land on my face again. All right, I can take a lot of deserved beating, but I’m close to the point of having enough.
Kenneth pushes Alex back and yells, “Calm down.”
“He fucked our sister!” Alex yells as he lunges toward me again. I don’t back away, waiting for him to give me more.
“Calm down, Alex,” Kenneth orders in an authoritative voice.
“No fuckin’ way!” He makes another move to rush me. “I’m gonna kill this fuckin’ asshole.”
“Calm the fuck down, Alex.” Kenneth pushes Alex back harder. They’re both insanely bulky, but Kenneth has a few pounds over Alex. I don’t think that’s what causes him to take a step back, though. I think it’s Leila who suddenly appears by my side.
His attention switches to her, and he steps toward her and yells, “Why did you do that? Why did you play your fuckin’ mind games,” he taps his temple, “withhimtoo? You took my fuckin’ friend away!” he cries.
The diner goes quiet. I don’t think anyone breathes after his declaration. That’s not what I expected. Not at all. I don’t think it’s what Leila expected either because her shoulders sag, and she swallows loud enough for everyone on the other side of the diner to hear.
“I didn’t play games with anyone.” Her voice breaks at the end.
He rolls his eyes. “We all know you love to play games, Miss Smarter-Than-Everyone-Else.”
“Alex,” Kenneth cuts him off curtly. He stands straighter, ready to fight.
“Oh no, not gonna fly.” His crazed eyes are trained on Leila’s face. She looks so tiny here, surrounded by everyone a head or two taller than her, in this diner where she’s probably had breakfast a thousand times. With her family standing around her. Brothers who are supposed to protect her.
“Alex!” Kenneth’s voice rises.
“What?” he barks. “He’s just her new project she wants to fix. But when she chews him up and spits him out, that’s it. We can’t be friends anymore. Because he fucked my sister. So much for bro code, man. Right?” He shifts his attention to me, looking betrayed. And I feel him, I really do—I was the one breakingthe code, though; it’s not her fault. I’m older and clearly more experienced, and I should be the one who suffers, not her.
And bigger than that—we’re brothers in arms. We’ve seen some shit together. It makes what I did worse. Way worse.
But all my guilt fades away when I look at Leila, taking in her small figure and tight fists by her sides. The look of betrayal breaks my heart and mends it back together in an instant.
“Stop it” is the first thing I say.
“What?” Alex looks at me, his head tilted.
“Stop talking to her like that.” My voice is firm; I’m not allowing any arguments.
“Really?” he cackles. “Why? She’s my sister, and I can talk to her however I want. It’s not your place to get involved.”
I take a step forward.
“You have to stop, Alex. You’re going to regret this soon. Once this urge to destroy subsides, you’re going to regret it, but it’ll be too late.”
Kenneth sends me a brief, assessing look but carefully steps to the side. Alex has had severe anger issues since he was a kid, but I thought he reined them in recently. Turns out I was wrong.
He looks at Leila and smiles wickedly. “I can see you worked on his already fucked up brain.”
I move in front of her, shielding her. With her out of sight, he might direct his anger at me. I don’t give a fuck what he throws at me, but his words are doing more damage to her than any physical blows to me ever could. I push onto his chest, and he stumbles back. I haven’t fought back yet, and he may have forgotten what we went through in the Navy. While he was the team leader, I was the vicious enforcer.
He was only landing blows to my face because I let him.
“You need to stop, Alex,” I hiss through gritted teeth.
“Huh.” He looks at me curiously. “Did you suddenly change your stripes? We both know you fuck everything that moves. Ijust didn’t know you have so little respect for me and everything we’ve been through that you’d fuck my sister.”
