Page 107 of Fallen Hero

“I fucked up,” I finally admitted.

To my shock, Pete leaned aggressively close and narrowed his eyes. “Wake. Up.”

I reared back to put distance between me and my best bud. It wouldn’t be the first time we’d worked shit out with our fists, but we didn’t have time for that shit.

“Come again?”

“I heard.”

“Heard what?”

“I. Heard,” he repeated. “This place is big, but it’s not a palace.”

Gavin shifted uncomfortably, and I wondered if he’d heard too.

Irrationally, anger hit me square in the chest. Her sounds were mine—all mine. They were just for me and not for anyone else to hear.

“You listened to us,” I growled, intentionally allowing him to hear my displeasure.

“Fuck no. The two of you weren’t exactly quiet. Fallon and I went into the far TV room and put on a movie as soon as we realized what was happening. We were the only two still awake.”

Jesus. Fuck me.

“So why are you getting in my face, telling me to wake up?”

“You know I love you like a brother, but you are a dumb son of a bitch.”

Now he was just being rude, calling my mother names. Not that he was wrong. My mother was a bitch. A lying, grasping bitch, and if I was being thorough in the description of her, I should also add cheating, money hungry, and useless.

“I don’t know why you gotta bring my mother into it.”

Redirection was my new best friend. I no longer wanted to participate in this conversation. I knew what came after Pete’s name-calling—truth bombs. And I was in no mood to be hit with another verbal assault. It would appear Calista and Pete had something in common with their choice of armaments. Neither of them started with a nice small Mk 81—tear through some flesh, cause some injury. No, they went straight to the JDAM and dropped two thousand pounds of mass destruction.

You took something from me I wasn’t offering.

Calista’s blow slammed into me again.

“I’ve waited a long damn time for this moment,” Pete went on.

“What moment?”

My gaze sliced to Fallon, standing next to Pete with his arms crossed over his chest, looking like he’d happily deck me. What was his problem? The only person who should be pissed off at me was Calista, and the only reason her anger was valid was because I’d gone behind her back. I should’ve told her I’d asked Fallon to pull the footage.

Thankfully, the rest of my team hadn’t been around the last few days to witness my downfall, or they’d be in on the riot act too. Although Catarina looked like she wanted to take a swing at me. Was that a sisterhood thing? Did she think I’d hurt Calli, so now she was pissed on her behalf?

“This moment.” He jabbed his finger toward the floor. “When you finally care about a woman enough to put yourself through the emotional wringer. So I’m going to give you some friendly advice—wake the fuck up and deal with your shit before you lose her. She is not your mother.”

“My mother?”

What the hell was he going on about my mother for? I hadn’t seen or spoken to the woman in ages.

“You’re going to let Calista walk out of your life before she can turn into your mother. You think control equals strength. You’re dead-ass wrong, brother. Strength is facing your shit. Strength is besting the ghosts of your past instead of allowing them to haunt you for the rest of your life. You talk a big game about your control, and I’ll give it to you, Mase. No way in hell I could’ve turned down all the ass that’s been thrown your way. There’s not a chance I would’ve gone ten years without a woman. No doubt you have control.”

“Pete,” I warned.

“But you’re weak as fuck, because you’re going to let that woman—the only woman in ten years who, for some magical reason, you let in—walk away. She didn’t break down your walls and storm the gate. You opened those fuckers up wide open and invited her in.

“Now you’re getting cold feet. You’re scared, so you’re trying to push her out and close the gate. But you can’t even do that. She fucking gutted you, and she wasn’t wrong, Mase. Your measure of truth is in place as an excuse to keep everyone locked out. No one can live up to your standards unless they bare their soul.”