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Even if everything in my life wasn’t perfect, my day was. Cress and I spent an hour walking the trails, then we had lunch and just talked. It felt so fucking good to just exist without worrying about anything or anyone but us. My problems were still there. They wouldn’t disappear but today, she was the only thing that mattered.
That evening we watched movies or she watched movies. I watched her after she drifted off to sleep midway through the first one. I knew she was exhausted. Could see it in her eyes and feel it in the lack of energy that she usually had but wasn’t there. She had been with me the entire time. Stressed and worried. She wanted me to be okay and that drained her mentally and physically so I was grateful that she was good now. That she could relax enough to get some rest. She needed it.
I hated to leave our bed but I needed to talk to Ez. Needed him to fill in the things I didn’t know or couldn’t remember. So I untangled Cress’s body from mine, tucked her beneath the covers of the new bedding we replaced after stripping the sheets I’d been in for the past three days, and kissed her forehead before I went to find my brother.
He was in his office stretched out on the leather sofa, with a glass in his hand resting on his chest, the half empty bottle on the floor below him. I was sure I had something to do with why that bottle was almost empty.
“I got you down that bad?”
Ez turned his head toward me and laughed lightly. “You can take credit for the empty bottle over there. This one belongs to my wife.”
“Don’t you think it’s time to do something about that?” He narrowed his eyes my way before lifting, lowering his legs to the floor, and refilling his glass. “I’ve been a little busy with other things but I’m working on it.” Ez tipped his glass in my direction before he turned it up until the glass was empty.
“You okay?”
“Are you?” he shot back, barely hiding the emotion laced in his words. That wasn’t about his wife. It was about me.
“I will be.”
He nodded but his eyes never left mine. I heard his voice in my head. Confident and unwavering.
If you die, I die.
There was no need to take it there. My words wouldn’t mean much right now. I had to show him and I fully planned to. But first…
“You handled things?”
“Christian and I did.”
“Reno?”
“Handled. Very slow and very painful.”
“Temple?”
“She’s currently detained and facing federal charges for illegally distributing a controlled substance for no legitimate medical reason. She was soliciting sex in exchange for drugs or at least that’s what the charges are.”
“Charges that you fabricated.”
He shrugged. “It’s far less than she deserved but I’m not on board with killing women. She can hopefully spend the rest of her miserable existence in prison.”
He was right, she deserved far worse. “I wish her the fucking best.”
“I’m sure you do.”
I didn’t. I wanted her to die a slow painful death just like Reno and Samson.
“Are we good?”
My brother stared at me for a long moment before he stood and extended a hand to me. I accepted and he pulled me to my feet and into his chest. He hugged me and I hugged him back. “You’re crushing my fucking ribs.”
He laughed dryly. “Good. Maybe you’ll think logically the next time you think it’s a good idea to take four fights in one night,” he mumbled as he stepped away from me. He lifted the bottle and walked to his desk, placing it on the corner along with the glass.
I couldn’t remember much about that night. That was how mania worked. The rush made hours feel like minutes and that meant not retaining a lot of what happened. “What about Cannon?”
Ez spoke through his irritation. “That little wild muthafucker is still alive and well but he also knows that you don’t fight in his rings anymore.”
