Page 88 of Beni

Because there stood Bene.

Except his twin looked two seconds away from a total, and complete meltdown. The dark circles under his twin’s eyes spoke of no sleep. The slight trembling in his hands told him something was wrong.

Very wrong.

Bene was a mess.

His clothes rumpled.

Hair wild.

Panicked stare.

“Bene?”

Bene’s gaze darted to the bruise that was still ugly looking on the side of Beni’s head. “I called. A lot, Beni.”

Shit.

His phone hadn’t stopped ringing.

August turned it off for him.

“The phone was shut off so I could—”

“I felt that,” Bene said, pointing a finger at his brother’s head. “That right there—I fucking felt it.”

Yeah, damn.

Beni hadn’t even given his twin a second thought the day before when the attack happened. Although, he figured his excuse was justifiable considering the whack he took to the head, and the concussion he suffered because of it. Not that any of those excuses would make his twin feel any better about the situation.

“I figured Tommaso would get someone to call Ma and Dad, and that they would let you know what was going on. I should have picked up the phone, and let you know shit was okay. Did you drive all the way here, or catch a late flight?”

“Drove.”

Yikes.

That was a good sixteen hours or more.

Depending on traffic, and other shit.

“You couldn’t call me back this morning or something?” Bene asked.

“I haven’t even turned my phone back on. We were just cooking, and—”

“We?”

“Everything okay?”

Fucking hell.

Beni was able to watch the way his brother’s features morphed from worry and panic to something else entirely. That understanding washed over Bene’s face, replacing his pain and fear with anger and disbelief.

Bene didn’t even look past Beni to see August standing down the hall. Instead, he just glared at his brother. Like he blamed him for this. Like it was Beni’s fault this had happened. And shit, maybe it was, but he still didn’t have the first clue what was going on with his brother, never mind how to help him through it.

If he even could …

“Oh, now I fucking get it,” Bene muttered, nodding as he took a wide step backward. “Now I get why you were too busy to call me, yeah.”