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“Honestly? I don’t know what to think. I feel…fucking…betrayed by Allan, and it’s blindsided me. Before tonight I wouldn’t have thought him capable of being against us, so at this point? If Dad is, then that’s just one more betrayal.”
“He’s been different lately, though, hasn’t he?”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t help hoping he’ll be on our side once we can pin evidence on Christine. Allan, though?” He let out a pained groan. “I can’t get my head around it. He’s always been the one to watch out for us when Dad was working all the time. I trusted him. I don’t know what to do or think.”
“You and me both.”
We lapsed into silence, finishing up our beers.
“I’m proud of you, bro,” Weston suddenly said.
A weird sensation filled me. The ever-present guilt was there, but now there was something else, too. Something I didn’t want to examine too closely. I had enough emotional shit to deal with right now.
“I know you take on a lot of responsibility, but you know you don’t need to, right?” His voice was soft. “I know you see me as someone you need to look out for and protect, and I appreciate that, but you need to share the
burden. It’s not all your responsibility. You scared me, when Mum died. You closed up, and for a while I felt like I’d lost my brother.”
Shit.
This was the most honest conversation we’d ever had.
He continued. “I think that’s why I grew so close to Cass, y’know? You were my best friend, the one person I looked up to more than anyone. But you pushed me away, and I felt like I didn’t have anyone to talk to.”
“Fuck…West.” I took a deep breath, the words pouring out of me without censorship. The most honest words I’d ever said to him. “That wasn’t my plan. I’ve always looked out for you, even when I was pushing you away. I did it because I didn’t want you to be hurt anymore. We’d just lost our mum, Dad was off fucking the bitch Christine, and I didn’t want to infect you with my darkness, so I stepped back.”
Our eyes met, his determined. “I’ve got you back now. And yeah, we can credit Winter with a lot of that, but you’re the one who started to open up and let people in again. I don’t think you give yourself enough credit.”
I shifted in my seat, and he must’ve sensed my awkwardness because he stood. “Anyway, that was all I wanted to say to you. Now come and give your brother a hug before you go back to being an asshole again.”
“Fuck you,” I muttered, but stood, a smile tugging at the corners of my lips. He pulled me into a brief hug before stepping back towards the door.
“Enough of that emotional shit. Let’s get this sorted, then we can move on with our lives. I’m gonna go and see if Mercury’s sent me the Andromeda stuff. And you need to get hold of Z.”
I sat back down, relieved as fuck to change the subject. “Yeah, can’t get hold of him. You know how he is, though; he’ll appear when he’s ready.”
As Weston re-entered the house, I called after him, the unplanned words flying from my mouth. “Proud of you, too, West. I’m lucky to have you as my brother.”
He turned around, a huge grin on his face. “Yeah, and you’d better not forget it, either.”
I returned his grin with one of my own, shaking my head.
Today had been a fucking weird day.
“Z!” Stalking down the hallway, I saw him enter the front door, pulling the motorbike helmet from his head. “Where the fuck have you been? I’ve been trying to contact you for hours.”
“Around. I’ll talk to you later.” He took in my expression. “What’s happened now?”
“Lena happened.”
“Lena?” He raised a brow.
“Yeah. We ran into her down at the docks.”
“What the fuck?”
“My thoughts, too. No fucking idea what’s going on. My head’s spinning, mate.”
