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CHAPTER NINETEEN
Ares
“What the hell is wrong with you!”
I nearly dropped the bricks I had. I’d been stacking them out back for the dads’ burn pit with Dorian, Wells, and Thatcher. Bru hadn’t been a part of the help, but I could see why now as he stalked toward me, yelling at me.
Fuck.
I was regretting letting my friends help with the bricks. The guys had seen me out back here moving at a snail’s pace. Bru and I had unloaded them into the shed earlier today, but as I knew my dad would ask me to move them to the site where the pit would be, I decided to get a jump on that. It was probably stupid not to ask for help in the first place, but I’d been doing some stupid shit.
Epically stupid.
That was all coming full circle, as I set the bricks down. Bru pushed himself between Thatcher and Wells to get to me. Everyone had stopped, even Bow and Sloane who were playing a game of checkers nearby. They had one of those oversize sets in the grass nearby, the ones that unrolled into a rug. They’d been playing for something to do since Sloane was waiting for Dorian to finish up with the bricks. She still wasn’t trying to be around me and frowned from the ground when Bru passed her. “Bru?”
The kid ignored her. He ignored everyone to cross the five or so feet to get to me. He was amped the hell up, his face beet red, and it was all aimed in my direction.
Fuck, she talked to him.
That much was a given, and though I’d anticipated this, I didn’t aim to have this talk in front of the guys and our sisters. I was still trying to wrap my head around what happened between Red and me earlier that day.
“You really just can’t not treat people like shit, can you?” Bru barked at me, and I’d never seen him this way. I mean, I’d seen him pretty pissed, but this appeared to be another level. He had his teeth bared, snarling. “What about make your intentions clear did you not understand?”
The siblings and friends had made their way over. They clustered behind Bru, but Dorian eased his way to the front of the group. Rather quickly, he was between the kid and me, and I didn’t need my buddy hearing this. I didn’t need any of them hearing this. Dorian raised his hands. “What’s going on?”
It was like the kid hadn’t heard him and only got closer to me. I kept my focus on him. “Let’s go talk.”
“We are talking.”
“Bru? What’s happening?” Sloane made her way to her boyfriend, then quickly intercepted her brothers. She expressed concern in Bru’s direction. Probably because he was red as fuck. Again, I hadn’t seen him this way, and Sloane’s eyes twitched. She faced me. “What did you do?”
What didn’t I do to piss people off? What wasn’t I doing to fuck up everything royally in my life? I’d literally fucked over everything. Everything good. Everything worthwhile. Everything I loved. It was starting to not feel worth it, and I hadn’t made my intentions clear with Red. I’d made things confusing as shit, and she was right.
I just didn’t care.
I was so fucking tired. I was done, and if things were going to be fucked up, I might as well get a shred of something good. I should get something I wanted, needed.
I wet my lips, ignoring Sloane, the guys, Bow, and their probing eyes. I angled in front of Bru. “This is between her and me, okay? I’ll talk to her.”
I loved these people, but this conversation wasn’t for them. It was for Red and me, and the only reason we weren’t having that was because she’d kicked me out. I was trying to respect that and give her distance, but I would not be discussing any of this in front of my friends and family.
No sooner had the words left my mouth than the kid started to laugh at me. Like right in my face, he laughed. He laced his fingers above his head. “I really got out of the way for you to do this shit.”
I blanched. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, this is all my fault. I actually suggested she talk to you. Go to you…” He was clenching his fists like he’d punch something, and that something felt like it was about to be my face. He was physically shaking for some reason, and I wasn’t the only one to see this.
Dorian stepped in then, but he wasn’t pushing between myself and the kid. He faced Sloane. “We need to let them talk. They’ve obviously got something to talk about.”
I wasn’t surprised he was backing me up. Especially because the two of us were clearly talking about Red. Dorian still had his theories about that situation, and he was protecting me now, again, in front of the group.
He really was too good of a friend to me, him, Thatcher, and Wells. Thatch and Wells had been all questions when Red came into their room the way she had yesterday, but they dropped them when I refused to talk about it. I was sure all the guys knew what was up at this point when it came to Red and me.
My gaze averted, lost, but I was rocked back into the conversation when my brother snorted like a bull in front of my face. He laughed. “You know, I actually thought you cared about someone else besides yourself. Thought it made sense with how crazy you’ve been acting, but that was clearly bullshit. The start of this whole trip should have told me that.”
I swallowed. “Kid—”
He basically got nose to nose with me, mere inches between us. “You stay away from her. You understand me?” His throat flicked. “You’re killing her.”
