Page 14 of Forever Relentless

Mason moved his arm, his hand clasping mine, squeezing gently. He knew I struggled as much as he did, just not for the same reason.

He felt guilty about her death. I felt nothing but anger about everything that had happened. That he would always feel that way because she’d left us when there were still so many unanswered questions, and we may never know the answers.

The brief, solemn ceremony was over quickly. We laid flowers, and then we walked quickly to my car.

I heard Tiffany’s dad call after us, but I kept walking. “Don’t do it, Mase,” I warned. “Let it go.”

“He knows not to start this shit,” he muttered darkly beside me. “Not today.”

“And you know better too.” We got to my car, and I opened the passenger door. “In. Don’t fight me.”

His top lip curled up in what I might once have called a smile; now it was just a bitter sneer, and I knew Joe Preacher had caught up with us.

“I called after you,” he said bluntly from behind me.

“I ignored you,” Mason said just as brusquely.

“How dare you—”

I pushed my brother into the car and closed the door with a loud slam, cutting off Diana’s dad.

“Not today, Joe.” I walked around the car. “Fight about it another day.”

I slipped into the driver’s seat, started the engine, and left them behind. I’d apologize to Diana later for stranding her with them. But my brother was my main priority, just as their daughter should have been theirs.

“It’s supposed to get easier,” Mason said as he pulled a hip flask from inside his black jacket.

“Where the heck did you get that?” I demanded.

“Chill. I’m a grown man, you’re not my mom, and you’re not my wife.”

“I am your sister, and it’s ten in the morning, Mason.”

“That makes it five in Paris or something, right?”

I rolled my eyes. “That’s not the point. Getting drunk doesn’t bring her back.”

“Sometimes I feel like she isn’t gone. Don’t you?”

“Like a ghost,” I murmured. “She was so obsessed with you, she’d absolutely haunt your ass.”

He almost choked on his whiskey. He looked over his shoulder as if checking she was in the back seat. “There’s a threat that will keep me up at night,” he said, trying to lighten the mood of the morning.

I tried to hide my smile. “We should probably not joke about it, especially today.”

“Yeah.” His frown deepened. “But still . . . the idea of her watching me, like, in the shower . . .”

“She probably already did that when she was alive,” I told him with a sigh. “She was a handful on her best day.”

He nodded. “Yeah, she could be.” He took another sip. “Still sucks she’s gone.”

“Will always suck,” I agreed.

“I told you not to go there.” He didn’t look at me, and I didn’t get defensive. “I specifically said, ‘Briar, my only sister whom I love with every fiber of my being, don’t go to that shithole of a school and try to get revenge. No good will come of it.’ Remember? Remember when I said that?”

“I remember. And I remember saying something like, ‘Mason, my only brother, who they threw away like garbage, whose reputation they ruined, along with a childhood friend’s life, I’m going to get a job there, I’m going to uncover their secrets, and I’m going to blast them all over social media.’”

“It’s not worth it, Bri.” He took another pull.