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“Hawk, for fuck’s sake! Really? You’re gambling to get money?”
“Well, if you know of a better way to clear my debt with Rivera, I am all ears.”
I hadn’t told him about the proposition. If he knew, he’d begged me to take it because he could be selfish like that. I understood fear was driving a lot of his words and behaviors, but I still felt that nagging sense of responsibility.
We’d been on our own since I was sixteen and Hawk was twelve. After bouncing from foster home to foster home together, I became emancipated at eighteen, got us an apartment, and took care of him ever since. That need to protect him was as strong as a mother’s instinct, and I couldn’t shake this ingrained need so easily.
I arrived at the shop, unlocked the door, and slipped inside. After shutting off the alarm, I told him, “I don’t, but I’m going to go and talk to the bank to see if they’ll offer me an emergency business loan.”
He blew out a breath, then said the words I’d been waiting to hear from him. “I’m so fucking scared, Wren.”
“I know. We’ll figure it out, though.” I glanced up as my nine o’clock client came in with her poodle. “I have to go, Hawk. I’ll let you know how I go with the bank.”
* * *
I finally flippedthe sign closed on the shop front and breathed a sigh of relief. I was officially in weekend territory, and I couldn’t wait to get home. After scrubbing the place down and setting the alarm, I grabbed my bag, locked up the shop, and began the short walk home. I stopped in at the liquor store and picked up some wine, but as I walked past a display of champagne, I paused. A champagne kiss was all I could think about. That, along with the man who had given them to me.
“They’re on sale right now,” the clerk said, giving me a warm smile.
I returned it but shook my head. I couldn’t afford champagne right now. I clutched my cheap bottle of red wine more tightly and brought it to the counter. “Maybe next time,” I told him with a small shrug.
“Big plans for tonight?”
“I’m not sure. Unless you count a long soak in the tub and Netflix as big plans.”
He grinned. “You sound just like my girlfriend. She does the same.”
“Smart woman,” I replied, digging into my purse for some cash. I scraped together the last of my money to pay for the booze, then said goodbye to the clerk.
When I got to my apartment, I unlocked the door, then went through the re-locking routine before placing the wine on the kitchen counter. I’d just toed off my Vans when there was a loud banging on my apartment door. Walking over, I yanked the thing open, staring at my brother who was breathing like a racehorse.
The irony was not lost on me.
He burst into my apartment, slamming the door shut behind him. I narrowed my eyes at him, bracing myself for the next words out of his motherfucking mouth. “I fucked up, Wren.”
I was suddenly getting flashbacks to when he’d said those words to me only a few nights ago. “What the fuck have you done this time, Hawk?”
“I owe a bookie some money.” I stared at him in disbelief, trying to file all his words into my mind in an orderly fashion. They made sense on their own, but thrown together, I couldn’t quite grasp how fuckingstupidhe was being.
“You’re kidding, right? Tell me you’re fucking laughing at my expense.”
He shook his head, his expression serious. “No, sis.”
Rage bubbled up inside me, this dormant beast of emotions that Hawk seemed to tap into every time he did something like this. “Fuck! How much do you owe?”
He actually winced. “Twenty thousand.”
I blinked. “If you owe Bane-fucking-Rivera fifty thousand dollars, why thefuckwould you bet another twenty you don’t even have?”
“I was desperate, okay. And it was a sure thing. Come on, you have to believe me.”
“I do believe you. I believe you’re a gigantic asshole who doesn’t think about how this shit impacts his sister. What am I supposed to do with this information?”
He began to pace, spearing his fingers through his blond hair. “I don’t know. I don’t know,” he muttered. “Did you speak to the bank about that loan?”
“Are you fucking serious, Hawk?” My voice had hit screeching levels, and I wasn’t even apologizing for it.
“Well, have you? You could borrow enough to cover both debts.”
