AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“You don’t get what I’m upset about?” Michael’s voice was low and dangerous.
“It’s not like they charged us with anything.”
Chris looked out the tiny backseat window. The cops had threatened to—but thank god they’d bought some stupid story about a prank gone wrong. They’d searched them and handcuffed them, then made them sit on the wet pavement to wait while rain threaded through his hair and dripped into his eyes.
They’d done the same to Seth and Tyler.
Chris didn’t regret a minute of it.
“You don’t get,” Michael said, his voice a bit louder, “what I’m upset about?”
Thunder cracked in the sky overhead. A bolt of lightning struck beyond the trees ahead of them, lighting Gabriel’s eyes. “You mean, besides the fact that you’re a big pu**y?”
“Don’t start with me.”
Gabriel made a disgusted sound and looked out the window. “What are you going to do, ground me? Send me to my room without my frozen dinner?”
“You don’t like it? Leave.”
“Fine. Pull over.”
Michael didn’t.
Gabriel snorted. “See.”
“Cut the crap. If I let you out, you’ll just get in with Nick.”
Chris almost wished they’d left him with the policemen. When his brothers got going, it was usually better to be somewhere else.
Michael glanced in the rearview mirror. “Care to weigh in?”
Chris kept his mouth shut and shook his head.
Michael turned his head to look at Gabriel. “The worst part is that you dragged Chris into this. It’s bad enough the crap you pull with Nick—”
“He didn’t drag me,” Chris snapped. “I wanted to go.” He hated the way Michael said that, as if Chris came along like a stray dog, coaxed by a piece of meat and a pat on the head.
Didn’t you?
He shoved the thought away. Maybe Gabriel’s plan had been over the top—Chris knew he should have been more suspicious that Nick wasn’t in on it. But Chris didn’t blame Gabriel. He was grateful. Christ, for the first time, he felt like one of his brothers understood him.
“It wasn’t his fault,” Chris said.
Gabriel glanced into the backseat, caught Chris’s eye, and smiled.
Solidarity. Chris smiled back.
“You know I can lose custody, right?” Michael said. “You all start acting like a bunch of delinquents, and they’ll yank the court order so quick—”
“Boo hoo,” said Gabriel. That smile was gone.
Michael glanced over at him. “What were you thinking?” When he didn’t get an answer, he reached over and smacked Gabriel on the back of the head. “Seriously. What the hell were you thinking?”
Gabriel drew back and practically snarled at him. “They beat the crap out of Chris. It’s time for them to remember we can strike back.”
“So wait.” Michael raised his eyebrows, the sarcasm thick. “Getting arrested—that wasn’t part of the plan?”
“Fuck you.”
