Beyond Broken(86)

"I deserved that," he mumbled at Thomas, looking back at the man in front of him. Time had hardly changed the carefree boy he'd known a decade ago. He'd always been the charming one, the life of the party out of their group of friends.



       
         
       
        

"You're damn right you deserved that, you son-of-a-bitch," Thomas snarled. "If Maddie hadn't stopped me when I found out, I would've delivered that hit a whole lot earlier."

There would be a bruise tomorrow, but Caleb shook off the pain. "You wanna hit me again?"

"Don't tempt me," Thomas said, narrowing his eyes.

"Do it," Caleb said, voice quiet. "I knocked up your sister. That has to make you-"

He was cut off by another punch and Caleb gritted his teeth, but he did nothing to stop him. He just took the hit.

"It makes me fucking furious," Thomas hissed, clutching his right hand. Caleb could see his red knuckles, but even though they had to be killing him, Caleb knew that Thomas could keep this up all day if he wanted to. "She had everything going for her until you ruined everything!"

"You don't think I know that? You don't think I know I fucked up her life?" he asked, staring Thomas right in the eye. "I care about Maddie. And I wish that things had turned out differently for her, but I can't change what's already happened."

"You could let her go," Thomas grated.

"I'll never let her go. Or our child," Caleb said quietly, just as he spotted a familiar car pull into its parking space. A second later, the woman of the hour raced out of her car. And she looked pissed.

"I told you not to come here," Maddie said to her brother, striding up to him and poking him in the chest. "And I told you … " she trailed off when she caught sight of her brother's knuckles and then she swung around to look at Caleb. Whatever she saw made her cheeks flush in anger. She whipped back around to her brother. "You hit him? What the hell is wrong with you?"

"What the hell is wrong with me?" her brother yelled down at her. "Do you not see how fucked up this situation is? Do you not know how fucked up he is?" he asked, stabbing a finger at Caleb.

Caleb's lips pressed together, shame creeping over him. His skin crawled.

Maddie went eerily silent and when she spoke, her voice was hardly more than a whisper. "How dare you come here and do this. You're my brother. I didn't expect you to be happy about this, but you need to accept it. I already have. Caleb already has." She sucked in a breath, trying to calm down. "I love you, Thomas. But this is my life now. And I really hope you'll still want a place in it."

Thomas stared down at her, but the rage still hadn't left his eyes. Caleb knew that feeling only too well.

"This is a mistake," Thomas said, shaking his head. "He's bad news, Maddie. He's not right for you. And he'll bring you down with him. That I can promise you." 

With those parting words, Thomas stormed back to his car and peeled out of the lot, leaving Maddie, Caleb, and his employees staring after him.





THIRTY-ONE





"He's wrong, you know," Maddie murmured, her words breaking the silence that had descended between them as Maddie gently tended to his scraped jaw. Caleb had tried to dissuade her fussing, but at the sight of blood from the skin Thomas had scraped off, she'd insisted. So now, she made herself feel better by blotting away the blood and holding an ice pack Brian's wife always packed in his lunch to his face, trying to keep his jaw from swelling too much. The garage's bathroom wasn't the cleanest of places, but Caleb let her tend to him as he sat on the closed toilet lid.

He hadn't said much since Thomas left, but she knew that her brother's cutting words had wormed their way inside his head. Maddie could just slap her brother for saying what he did. They'd hurt Caleb, but Maddie felt the pain as acutely as if they'd been flung at herself.

"Is he?" Caleb asked, his tone hard. "Thomas spoke the truth."

Maddie sighed, knowing Caleb believed it, even if she didn't. She gently brushed the other side of Caleb's jaw, the side Thomas hadn't hit, liking that he no longer flinched away when she touched him. That was progress, wasn't it?

"Thomas is angry. But I think he's more angry at himself than anyone," Maddie confided. "He thinks that he's failed me in some way. He still thinks that I'm his kid sister and that it's his job to protect me and make sure I get through life untouched and unhurt. But that's not realistic, is it?"

"You can't blame the man for trying," Caleb murmured, his eyes burning into her own. Their bodies were close and every time Maddie shifted, her thigh brushed his knee.