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I turned my ringer off so Parrish couldn’t bother me if he realized I wasn’t coming straight home.
My truck practically drove me to Frank’s house without much thought. I’d made this drive a thousand times in my life, back when I didn’t know who I was or what I wanted. When I’d clung to the idea of a father figure in my life, and Frank had preyed on that, making me feel like I had a dad who loved me and accepted me even though I was a fuckup. And all along, he’d been trying to turn me into even more of a fuckup.
I told myself I hadn’t lied to Parrish. When he said come home, I said see you soon. When he said not to do something stupid, I told him I wouldn’t, and I didn’t consider this stupid. It was a necessity. If they thought they could take advantage of us, if they thought they could hurt us and we wouldn’t protect ourselves, they would take advantage of that. They would see us as weak, and damned if I was going to allow that to happen.
The house looked even more worn down than it had before I’d gotten locked up. There were more beat-up cars in the driveway, the grass needing to be mowed.
I got out of my truck, feeling their eyes on me through the blinds as I stepped toward the door.
It opened before I could knock, Rex standing there looking almost as bad as Parrish did. That’s my guy. He’d given Rex a good fight, and if Rex hadn’t caught him off guard, I figured Rex would look a lot worse.
“What do you want?” Rex gritted out.
“Now is that any way to talk to your best friend?” Frank asked from inside the house.
“Fuck him. He’s not my best friend. He used to be until he turned into a little bitch.” Rex spit at my feet.
“Oh, you mean like spending time in prison for something you did because you were too fucking weak to handle it yourself?” I pushed my way into the house as Rex cursed at me.
Frank and Bill were sitting on the couch, but they stood, the three of them creating a united front against me. “You’re lucky no one else is here right now,” Frank warned.
“Fuck you. Fuck all of you. I did the time. There’s no going back. No changing it. I just want to move on with my life, but I can’t do that when you’re still holding shit over my head!” The walls of the house vibrated with the strength of my bellow.
“Move on by fucking my little brother?”
Mentioning Parrish was the wrong damn move. Frank must have known it ahead of time, must have seen it, because he was already moving toward me when I turned on Rex, nothing but hate in my eyes. “You touch him again, and I’ll kill you with my own two hands. You so much as look at him wrong, and I’ll kill you.”
Frank and Bill both laughed, but it was Frank who spoke, “You don’t sound very much like a changed man to me. You sure you don’t want to come and work with us again?”
I didn’t know what it was about the words he’d just said that flipped something inside me. I pulled my attention away from Rex and lunged at Frank. I managed to catch him off guard, shoving him into the wall with my forearm pressed against this throat.
A gun cocked behind me, one I had no doubt was pointed at my head, but I didn’t pull off, pressing even harder against him.
Frank managed to hold a hand up. “No,” he croaked at whoever was considering shooting me. “You got something to say, you say it,” he gritted out to me.
“I’m done with you. I don’t want anything to do with this. You leave me the fuck alone. More importantly, you leave Betsy and Parrish alone. You don’t want to see what happens if you don’t.” I hated this side of me, hated that there wasn’t a thing I wouldn’t do to them if they hurt the people I loved. Frank was struggling to breathe, clutching at my arm, but I didn’t move it off him, didn’t ease the pressure. “You don’t know what I’m capable of—you didn’t before, and you sure as shit don’t now.”
I pulled off, and Frank gasped, struggling to catch his breath.
“Leave us the fuck alone,” I said again before narrowing my gaze on Rex. “Why don’t you learn how to be a good dad to your kids and treat Becca better. Jesus, you’re a piece of shit.”
It was me who spit at his feet this time.
Frank was still trying to catch his breath, but with broken words managed to say, “Be careful, son. You’re looking for a whole lot of trouble that you can’t handle.”
