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Bru rubbed his hands, rocking. “I know your moms said that your dads were going after him, but…” His expression changed, hardening. “I also heard them say Callum had security, and it’d be hard for any of them to get to him. But if Callum knew it was me, just me… that I came to see him, I knew he’d see me. If anything, just to use me. Use me against Sloane, and he wasn’t going to fucking use her anymore!”
The bathroom silenced, Bru’s face red.
He snarled. “He wasn’t going to use her anymore. Me.” He glanced up. “I wasn’t going to let him, and when I got there, he let me right in. I shot him. Shot him three times.” He lifted his hands, clean now, but he analyzed them as if he still saw blood. “He went down, but I didn’t see what happened after that. I just left like a little bitch.”
“Kid…” I swallowed, and he cringed.
“I came back here after. Took a ride share and the guy’s probably wondering about that too. I had blood all over me.” His lips moved, quivering. “I’m going to go to prison and—”
I grabbed his arms, making him look at me. “What did you do with the gun?”
“Tossed it.”
“Do you remember where?”
He nodded. “In a lake. Why?”
“We just need all the facts,” I said, putting off that I was calmer than I actually was. I grabbed Thatch. “Go get my parents. My dad’s back. He’s with my mom, and, Wells, you go get the rest of the moms.”
They both started to go without question, but Bru leaped toward them. “No. No, if you do that, they’ll call the cops. I’ll get locked up. I don’t want to go to prison, Ares.”
“Hey. Hey.” I got his shoulders, keeping his focus. “Our parents are going to help. My mom and dad are going to help, and they’re not going to let anything happen to you. None of our parents will.”
“But Callum,” he started, his eyes coated in a wet sheen. “He’s going to send someone after me. He’s going to kill me, Ares.”
I shook my head. “My parents told me tonight things are safe,” I said, telling the group. “They’re actually bringing Sloane and D home in the morning. They wouldn’t be doing that if Callum was still an issue.”
More than one person went quiet, silent. My parents had told me the situation had been taken care of, but it seemed only the four of us in the room knew how. Bruno Sloane had taken someone out for my sister…
His sister.
The kid and I were connected, and he’d done something for her I could never thank him enough for. If it was true and he’d done what he had, that was something none of us kids had been able to do. We’d been forced to sit back while our parents took care of things. They’d wanted to protect us.
Meanwhile, Bruno Sloane had protected all of us.
“He’s dead?” Bru said the words in a haunted state. I was sure he’d wanted to protect Sloane tonight, but who ever wanted to take a life? The kid had a good heart, a pure heart, so doing what he’d done had to have taken something deep inside him.
It might have even taken something from him.
I think Wells, Thatcher, and I all saw what that same sacrifice had done to Dorian. He’d been different after he’d gotten back, darker.
Bru looked at us. “I’m scared.”
He’d said that outside, but he didn’t need to be. We had his back. I had his back. “Nothing is going to happen to you. I’m going to take care of you. You understand?”
“But why?” He shook his head, cringing. “I’ve been nothing but an asshole to you lately. Trusted Callum. Let him hurt her. Hurt you and your family.”
He kept getting this wrong. Dorian’s grandpa didn’t just hurt my family. He hurt our family, the kid’s and mine. “You’ve had my sister’s back basically her whole life. You were with her when I couldn’t be, so as far as I’m concerned, that makes us boys for life.”
“Brothers,” Wells said, taking one of the kid’s shoulders. “We’re brothers. All of us.”
“We are.” Thatcher completed the circle, and if D was here, he’d be doing the same. Our brotherhood wasn’t just biological, and we weren’t just friends. We were champions for each other and protected in whatever way we had to because that was what family did for each other. The kid was one of us.
He was legacy just as much as any of us.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Prom Night
