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“Frank will be with me daily, or I’ll have no one,”she finally said, her voice dangerous and low.
“I’m sorry, Stellina. Frank didn’t follow the clear directions set for him. He can’t be trusted.”
Brooklyn’s eyes snapped over to Gideon and I almost had to lean back, feeling the heat from her look. Gideon had the sense to fidget under her focus, feeling the pressure of what was happening.
“How dare you! You don’t get to give instructions about my life and then fire someone because I don’t follow your directive. Iget to be my own person still, Gideon. And that means I’m going to continue taking the Muay Thai classes,”she said harshly.
Whoa, Muay Thai? I thought to myself. I didn’t know much about martial arts, but I knew that one was a serious, competitive sport.
“We’ve only been trying to keep you safe,”Jaxon tried to interject.
Brooklyn’s hand flew up, and she pointed at him.
“You’ve tried to control me. I want to learn to keep myself safe and you said no. That’s not a decision any of you get to make for me,”she said.
“The injury on your ribs…”Gideon started.
“Was the first one I’ve ever gotten. And if I hadn’t been distracted by shit happening in this house, I wouldn’t have gotten hit in the first damn place,”she yelled, standing up.
She went to the sink and dumped her coffee out, standing with her back to us for a split second. I looked around at my brothers and they were all exchanging looks and I could see this going down the wrong direction.
“That’s enough. You’re going to quit the classes and that’s the end of it. Gideon will get a new security guard who can follow instructions and keep you safe,”I said.
I snapped up the newspaper again, considering the matter closed. The paper was ripped from my hands and a red faced Brooklyn stood in front of me.
“I’m not sure who you think you are. You can be with whatever woman is throwing herself at you for the moment and you think you can tell me what the fuck to do? It’s ok for that same woman to be touching Oliver, and calling you all her boys, but I can’t go to a self defense class? You have all lost your fucking minds,”she said, before turning on her heel and storming out of the kitchen.
I stared after her, dumbstruck at the way she had raised her voice, and told us all off. The situation with Missy was a misunderstanding and eventually that would get cleared up. I hadn’t intended for Brooklyn to see her. However, when I saw my brothers taking Brooklyn to the offices, jealousy had risen up in me and I felt angry to not be with her. When Missy appeared, I was already partially drunk and her presence only made me drink more.
My brothers all stood and followed in Brooklyn’s wake, but before they even got out of the kitchen, the front door slammed. I heard the door open and heard raised voices, but a car door slammed and soon the front door closed once more. I sat rooted in my spot, just processing everything I had just learned in ten minutes sitting in the kitchen.
When my brothers came back in, all three of them looked torn and despondent. They all sat down and just looked at each other. The silence was more than I could handle, with only the blood pounding in my head for sound.
“I will admit, I’m pretty confused to what the fuck is going on.”
Chapter
Fourteen
Brooklyn
When I flungopen the front door, I was grateful to find a confused Frank standing next to his usual car. Before I saw him, I didn’t have a solid plan on how I was getting away from the house and getting to work. My vision was blurry with tears that were fighting through, but I pushed them back with all the rage I was feeling.
“Frank, please take me to work,”I said as I stalked toward the sedan.
He watched me warily, making a decision to not say a word, just nodded and opened the backdoor of the car. Just as I was sliding in the, the front door had opened and Gideon, Jaxon and Oliver streamed out. Frank froze and looked between them and me.
“Brooklyn, we aren’t done talking,”Gideon called to me.
“That wasn’t talking. That was dictating. And I’m done with it,”I yelled back.
I reached out and grabbed the door handle, pulled it from Frank’s grasp, and slammed it shut. I manually locked the door, in case any of them got the wild idea to try to pull me out of the car. I stared straight ahead, so I didn’t know what exchange there was with Frank, but it was only a few seconds before he was climbing behind the wheel.
Once we were through the gates, I finally let myself collapse against the seat, laying my head back.
“Are you ok?”Frank asked.
“No. But I guess you already knew what was coming,”I said.
