Page 142 of Bene

“Bene,” Vanna whispered, her hands fisting into his jacket, “it’s okay.”

No, it really wasn’t.

Except, he planned for this.

Figured it would happen.

Marcus was who he was—raised by their father differently than the rest of them, really. Sure, all the Guzzi brothers held a strong loyalty to their family and bonds. They protected each other first, and foremost.

Thing was … Marcus couldn’t be the same.

The firstborn.

The only singleton.

He didn’t have a twin to level him out like the rest did. He never had someone else always watching only his back like Bene had with Beni, or even the way Corrado pushed Christopher to be more out going and take risks.

Instead, Marcus had the responsibility of all of them. He took it on himself—did what he had to because he was the oldest brother, and it was his burden to bear, not that he ever complained. He was more protective, and in a way, the same lessons they had learned came in another way for him because his rules had always been different from theirs.

“Marcus, relax,” Corrado snapped, finally catching up with his brother.

The others soon followed.

Chris stayed with his twin.

Beni came to stand beside Bene.

Just like that, the family almost seemed divided in the driveway with two on one side, two brothers on the other, and Marcus right in the middle. It was everything their parents would hate. Even if the cause was justifiable.

It didn’t matter.

“It’s not who we are,” Beni said like he could read his brother’s mind. “This isn’t what we do, Marcus, and you know that.”

Marcus’s stinging gaze flew to Bene, despite his twin being the one who spoke, when he replied, “You know what else we don’t do? Bring home women who got our father put in jail!”

Bene gritted his teeth. “I—”

“Is that what you’ve been doing for the last month? Chasing her ass around when you were supposed to be helping us figure out something for Ma and Papa? Every fucking time I called, and you didn’t pick up, right?”

Every sentence brought Marcus closer to Bene until the two of them were chest to chest and eye to eye. On another day, it might concern him how physical his brother became because that wasn’t like Marcus at all.

Today wasn’t the same.

He got it.

Completely.

Didn’t mean his stance changed.

“Hey, hey,” Chris murmured, quick to leave his twin’s side to slip in between Marcus and Bene, putting at least the space of his body in the middle. “Let’s take a second and—”

“I don’t need a second! I need her gone!”

“She’s the only reason Papa will be getting out of jail, Marcus,” Bene threw at his brother just as viciously as Marcus spoke to him. “Because of her, yeah? Because she was willing to risk herself to help me.”

Marcus straightened, his stare narrowing dangerously. “You went behind our backs and worked with the same bitch that fucked us over the first time?”

Okay.