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"Yavin!" I shrieked, sighing in relief when Lino dodged the blow.
"I mean it, Vin. I don't want to fight you. I want you to man up and think about what your sister wants. Put her first for once," Lino growled.
"She has no place with you. You do not get to drag her into your world. You want some sick fuck to take her? Like they took Ivory?" With those words, the insinuation that Lino couldn't protect me, I stepped away from the two men. I knew, from their fights when we'd been children, that getting in the way would only result in me getting hurt.
Which made them fight more, when they argued over who caused my injury.
They may have been older now but given the way the tension rose between them I had to wonder if they'd ever gotten any wiser. Lino lunged; his shoulder connected with Yavin's gut until they went sprawling to the floor with Lino on top of him. "Stop it! Both of you!"
Lino landed his first punch, connected with Yavin's cheekbone with a thump that made me wince. "Samara is my fucking wife. Nobody is going to tell me that isn't right where she was always supposed to be. Not even you." Another fist to Yavin's face.
"Lino, stop it!" I yelled, taking a step forward and hesitating. They'd both kill me if I got involved, but I couldn't just let them fight it out. Lino hauled to his feet, holding out a hand for Yavin to help him up. But my stubborn ass brother ignored it and hauled himself to his feet. I ran to Lino's side, touching a finger to the blood at the corner of his mouth and fussing over him like I always had.
Yavin stared at me like I'd grown a second head. "You go to him?" I flinched, turning my eyes to Yavin who looked like he'd have a black eye and blood trickled from his nose.
"He's my husband," I said in answer.
"So was Connor," Yavin spat. "Look where that got you."
"Get the fuck out of my house," I snarled, leaving Lino's side to shove Yavin back with two hands on his chest. "You're his best friend, and you dare to compare him to a man who beat me and raped me?"
Yavin blanched, and I knew in that moment Lino hadn't shared that last tidbit of my secret. "Samara—"
"What exactly does this say about you that you think your best friend is capable of doing something like that? To his wife, no less?" Lino stayed back, but I could feel him vibrating in fury. If he'd thought Yavin capable of hurting me, there was no way I'd be so close to him. But even with his harsh words, as horrible as they were, Lino's beast didn't see Yavin as a threat to me.
"Smalls—" Yavin wheezed, and I knew he'd reached ultimate desperation when his childhood nickname for me slipped free.
"Do not Smalls me. I have never in my life been more ashamed of you than I am in this moment. I am a grown ass woman. You do not get to piss on me and act like you own me. Lino has never touched me in a way I didn't give explicit consent to, and that is my choice to make. Not yours!"
"But it's Lino!" Yavin protested. "He's been my best friend since we were—"
"And who brought him home, Yavin?" I whispered. "Who introduced you to Lino? Who used to sit inside with Lino when he wasn't allowed to go play sports outside? Who kept him company when he did his hours and hours’ worth of extra homework his father assigned him?" Tears st
ung my eyes, and I tried to choke them back, but failed when I shook my head at Yavin. "Who hugged him? Who listened to his stories about his father and kissed his boo boos when his father hit him, even if he was ten fucking years old and too old for that shit?"
Yavin took a step closer, wrapping a hand around the back of my head. "Can you give us a minute?" I asked Lino, who looked like he wanted to hesitate and looked to Yavin.
"If you try to take her from this house, I'll kill you myself," Lino warned. "She stays with me, always."
"I got it," Yavin grunted, not even bothering to look at him.
As soon as Lino had left the room, giving us the privacy I needed to openly talk to Yavin without worrying about how Lino might react, I rounded back on my idiot brother. "He was never yours, Yavin."
"I get that," he sighed, and for a moment I thought maybe that would be the end of it, that maybe he'd understand that what Lino and I had stemmed from all the moments we'd shared as children. That it had built through decades of me loving him. "But I've gone to clubs with the guy. I've seen the way women throw themselves at him, and yes, little sister, I've seen him take them home. I'm supposed to just accept that now he's fucking my sister and not be bothered by that?"
I held up a hand, closing my eyes against the torrent of images that I needed to fight off. "We weren't together, Yavin. You can't hold him accountable for something he did when he wasn't with me. He never so much as kissed me until a couple weeks ago, and I was married to another man. Was he supposed to become a priest?"
"It's just not the image I want to have. My best friend and my sister."
"Well for once, maybe consider the fact that this isn't about you," I hissed. "He makes me happy. He makes me feel whole again. Do you have any idea what it's like to want to be with someone for two decades and never have them? To watch them go about their life while you go about yours and be friends like it's enough? Because it's not, and it never would have been. I loved him enough to take him however I could have him, but I won't go back to that for you. And if you ask me to do that, I'll never forgive you."
Yavin sighed, tugging me into his chest and pressing his chin into the top of my head. "You're my baby sister. I just want what's best for you. Our life is dangerous, you have to be sure he's worth—"
"He's worth it," I returned, my voice muffled by his chest in my face.
We stood in silence for a few moments, and then he finally spoke the words I'd hoped for. "Okay."
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