“And we’ve both been punched,” Baxter pointed out, slugging Brock in the shoulder, “which gives us a good excuse. But you know me, I don’t really need an excuse to get shitty, na’mean?” And then he promptly did a third shot.
I was feeling my first two, so I held off. “Why is Sebastian going around hitting everyone?”
“I told you,” Brock said. “Because he’s an emotionally stunted caveman.”
“Oh,” I said.
Baxter laughed. “And because he’s an idiot. Thinks we’re gonna just let him get away with hitting us because he’s all pissy about things.”
I glanced from brother to brother to brother in turn, once more, and noticed each of them had the same expression going on…and Brock was doing a second shot too, and then a third. They were all looking at each other, exchanging those meaningful glances in which men who know each other well have a tendency to do when they want to communicate.
“I’m guessing you’re not planning on letting him get away with it?” I asked, warily.
Zane chuckled darkly. “Hell no.”
Baxter corked the bottle of Patrón, replaced it, and then slammed his fist on the bar. “Ready, brothers?”
Zane and Brock answered in unison. “Ready.”
All three swaggered off toward the stairs, Zane going up first, Brock second, and Baxter third. Baxter reappeared almost immediately, eyeing me. “Dru? If I were you, I would…um…duck.”
I blinked at him, and then he was gone, and I heard his feet on the stairs. A few moments of silence, and then a wordless bellowing roar from Sebastian…
Thuds, bangs, the crash of something breaking, more thuds so hard and loud the walls shook…
And then several pairs of feet stomping on the stairs, more thuds, and then Sebastian’s voice shouting and bellowing and cursing.
“LET ME GO YOU FUCKING ASSHOLES!” I heard him shout, and then Baxter and Zane appeared, each holding one of Sebastian’s thrashing arms, and then Brock with his feet.
They carried him across the bar, and he was kicking and thrashing so hard they were obviously struggling to keep hold of him. Baxter had a bloody lip, Zane’s nose was trickling blood, and Brock’s shirt was ripped…and they didn’t even have him outside yet.
I waited until they got him through the door, and then I followed, tentatively, to stand in the doorway as the brothers unceremoniously tossed Sebastian onto his ass in the middle of the street, and then each of them jumped back a good foot.
Sebastian came up swinging, lunged for Baxter first, and that right hook of his connected with a sickening crunch that sent Baxter stumbling backward. Brock and Zane closed in, and the fight that followed was a brutal knock-down, drag-out bare-knuckle brawl between four massive, powerful men. And even though it was three on one, Sebastian was in such a horrific rage he held his own for a while, snarling, seething, cursing, roaring, lashing out with feet and fists and knees, taking nonstop hits from his brothers without slowing down.
It was still three-on-one, though, and Sebastian, even as powerful as he was, didn’t really stand much of a chance. Eventually Brock got one arm in a lock and Zane the other, and Baxter followed in with a scything uppercut fist to Sebastian’s gut, which took the wind and the fight out of him.
All four brothers were bloodied, by that point. I saw at least two broken noses, everybody’s lips were split, jaws were bruised…
But Sebastian was subdued. They let him fall to the ground, gasping, blood oozing down his chin and nose, and from a cut over his eye. Zane flopped down to sit beside him, and then Brock, and then Baxter, each sitting facing Sebastian so they formed a ring of brothers. For long moments, nobody spoke.
And then, slurred by split, bloody lips, Sebastian spoke. “I miss him, goddammit.” His voice was thick.
“Me too,” Zane said. “I’ll never get over missing his funeral.”
“Nobody blames you for that,” Baxter said. “Not like you had a choice.”
“I lost my best friend that day.” Zane’s voice was quiet, low, rough. “Never told any of you.”
Sebastian looked up at Zane. “You did?”
Zane nodded. “Marco. Took a stray round…it happened so fast—my head wasn’t in the game, it was on Dad, on you guys, missing the fucking funeral…Marco shouldn’t have had his head up and I didn’t say anything to him. I’ve lost guys before, obviously, but Marco, man…we went through BUD/S together.”
“Jesus, dude. I had no idea.” Sebastian wrapped his arm around Zane. “That sucks.”
“Yeah. I lost Dad and Marco within days of each other.”