“It wasn't like that, man. I didn't know what the fuck was going on back then. We were just kids, we couldn't control what our parents—”
“Step the fuck back, Long.” One of the cops shouted at me. I hadn't realized I'd even moved away from the hood of the cruiser I was leaning on. I recognized the cop. Drew Winter was the meathead I gave the black eyes to that got me suspended in high school. There was no love lost between us.
I put my hands up and leaned back against the hood. I just had the night of my life with the woman of my dreams. I didn't come back to start problems, I reminded myself.
“You check him?” Brendan asked, walking toward the officer that took my stuff.
“He's clean.”
Brendan opened my phone and began browsing the contacts. “Ten contacts? You are not a popular man, Malik— Ah, and there she is.”
Dammit.
I should've known better than to put Kait's number in my phone under her own name. I wasn't thinking straight when I dropped her off at her family's house. My mind was too wrapped up in the sex and when I'd see her again.
“You're going to stay away from my little sister.” Brendan dropped my phone and crushed it under the heel if his boot.
The crunching sound made me grimace. I didn't care about the phone. It was the loss of Kait's number that stung the worst. She had just given it to me and didn't have time to memorize it. Another mistake. I'd only been out of the Marines two years and I'd already gone soft on mental training.
Anger started to rise in me. Physically I was as strong as I'd ever been. Glancing around, if I was fast enough could probably take down all six officers.
“Kait's not little anymore, she's a grown woman.” But that would only make everything worse for Kait and I. That's not why I'm here. I'd need to find another way to get a hold of her. “She can make her own decisions.”
“Just like my dad, right? Maybe you don't know because you left in the middle of the fucking night.” Brendan's face grew twice as hard and started to boil. “Your mom took everything from him. She wiped out his bank account, the savings. That bitch even took our fucking college money! Kait's college money.”
“Brendan, I didn't know—”
“No. You shut the fuck up and listen!” Brendan screamed. “He never pressed charges against her because he was so ashamed. My father was a great man, and she brought him so low.” Brendan paused, choking on the words. “He hung himself in the garage a year later.”
A heavy silence gripped the air. The cops averted their eyes from Brendan, who was nearly in tears. I heard something had happened to their father, but I never knew the full story. It was heart wrenching.
And it made me hate my estranged mother even more than I already had.
“I am so sorry.” I broke the deafening silence. “But that wasn't me. I haven't talked to Tonya in years.” I didn't even think of her as my mother anymore. To me, she was just some selfish, heartless woman named Tonya. I felt terrible for what had happened, but I was only seventeen. What could I have done? “I was your friend, Brendan. You and Kait.”
“That's why I hate you, Mal.” Brendan's face was a mess. His eyes and nose ran with barely contained rage and hurt. “Eight years and you didn't do a damn thing to help your friends. Do you have any idea how much you hurt Kait? She was in love with you. Why didn't you come back when you turned eighteen?”
“I wanted to! More than anything. But it was complicated. My brother was—”
“I was your brother too!” Brendan shoved a finger into my chest and screamed in my face. “And I will be damned, if I let you do to my sister what your mom did to my father. You should never have come back and reopened old wounds. Leave town. Tonight. Or so help me, I will run you out of it.”
The words hung ominously for a few seconds, before Brendan turned his back on me and started to walk away.
“No.” My declaration was softly spoken, yet steadfast in its resolve. I would not be swayed. I hated to cause my old friend pain, but I just couldn't abandon Kait. Not again. Never again.
Brendan stopped, even his breathing was audible and full of rage. He whirled, his back hand a blur of motion and steel. Everyone recoiled from the gunshots that Brendan pumped into my bike. He walked toward it, emptying the magazine until it clicked. Brendan then kicked it over.
He locked eyes with me while deftly reloading his pistol. A few strong strides put him within arms-length. I didn't make any moves to stop whatever was coming next.
The hot gun barrel sizzled against the side of my head. Brendan's eyes were dulled from booze and rage, but sharp enough to cross a line that you never came back from. Even his cop buddies rushed to talk their friend down.