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“Here’s to you two fuckers, alive and still giving me a headache. And here’s to Ricky, our fallen brother, but never forgotten.”
Brothers raise their drinks to Cas’s little speech, and I lift mine along with theirs. Mason doesn’t move.
Conversations are struck up, but I’m focused on my brother. There hasn’t been a single time he’s scared me, but he’s terrifying me right now.
I’ve always been able to reach him. Aspen has too. Between the two of us, it’s us who know him inside and out. If he won’t talk to us, he isn’t talking to anyone. If we can’t reach him, there isn’t anyone else alive who can.
He leans back, still staring at his phone, and says, “When me and dad were out looking for you, he told me how he felt about our relationship with Grumps.”
“Yeah?”
“He was jealous. I told him he was being stupid, and now I’m never gonna be able to tell him he had no reason to be.”
Before I can say a word, Sparky opens his mouth. “Victoria was the apple of his eye, but you two, you were both the light that shone around him. There wasn’t a day that went by that he wasn’t proud of you both. Believe that.”
“I don’t know, he was pretty pissed when they blew up their teacher’s car during high school,” Zach reminds everybody, and I snort at the memory.
Cas shakes his head. “Only in front of them. When he was telling us about it later that night in the club, he liked that they didn’t take any shit from anyone.”
I didn’t know that. Both Mom and Dad tried grounding us for six months for that minor inconvenience, and it lasted two hours before my mom snapped for us to get out of her sight. We turned up at the club, and Dad simply shook his head and continued his business.
I’d give anything to bring him back. No price is too high.
“I need a piss,” Mason grunts and eases himself out of the booth. Brothers move their chairs out of his way as he passes, and I watch his back.
“How’s he really doing?” Leo asks me quietly.
“I wish I knew, brother.”
It’s Mason’s battle cry, I hear first, then a thud, someone being hit with something hard.
Cas, Sparky, and Dex stay in their seats while the next generation gets up to their feet. I go to slide out when Leo stops me.
“No fighting for you. Don’t need you popping a stitch and ending up back in the hospital.”
I don’t argue. The pain meds may have kicked in, but so has the fatigue, and I trust my brothers will have my brother’s back in my place.
The next generation piles onto the locals, and Mason throws one hell of a punch, knocking one of them down and out cold.
“Has he got a death wish?” Sparky asks genuinely. “Seriously, he’s off lately, and after this week with your dad dyin’, and Aspen leaving, he’s getting’ worse.”
“I’ve noticed,” I grate out. “He just needs to vent.”
“This isn’t the time or place,” Leo states.
“Shit’s going down regardless,” I say, shrugging.
I avert my eyes back to the scrap and see the bartender reaching for a gun from behind the bar.
Kicking at Leo’s boot, I get his attention and tip my chin in the direction of the bar.
“For fuck’s sake.” He stands and puts his fingers to his mouth. His whistle gets through to every Lost Soul in the fight, apart from my brother. He continues to lay into the local until JJ and Zach pull him away. I’m all too familiar with the violence dancing in his eyes. He’s nowhere near done.
“All damage will be paid for, or I call the cops. Anyone else swings, I shoot,” the bartender yells, and the locals step back. Chairs are put back on their feet, tables are righted, and a local takes a broom from the bartender and sweeps up the broken glass.
This is my kind of bar. It’s obviously not the first time it’s kicked off. I admire the bartender for dealing with it and not calling in the cops.
JJ whispers in Mase’s ear, but my brother shrugs him away. He’s shoved toward our table and slumps beside me, immediately reaching for his beer. Leo swipes it out of his reach and points it at him.
