Pieces of Me (The Wilder Brothers #9)

Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

brIAR

“S top it. Both of you. I am not a prize. Stop fighting!” I shouted. I tried to move forward, but Mal knocked into me as he pushed his way back to Gabriel. I staggered back before catching myself.

I couldn’t believe the two of them were doing this, and yet I could. Because of course best friends were going to freaking fight like this without thinking. Only it wasn’t exactly that, was it? No, Gabriel hadn’t hit back. Instead, he had taken two punches to the face, one to his cheekbone, the other to his jaw, and stood there, letting it happen.

Men . They were ridiculous. Stupid cavemen who didn’t understand that I made my own choices. Of course, the fact that Gabriel had shouted that it wasn’t what he thought, made me want to scream. Of course, it was exactly what he thought.

Damn it. I was already tired of this. “Mal. Get ahold of yourself.”

“Back the fuck off, Briar. This is between me and him.” And then Mal did the one thing he had never done, and shoved me out of the way. Because I had been leaning forward, I was off balance already, and fell back, hitting my head on the top of the bottom bunk.

“Okay, fuck that,” Gabriel growled and stood between us.

Apparently, me nearly knocking myself out was the only thing that was going to get Gabriel out of whatever haze he was just in. I wasn’t quite sure what I felt about that. Honestly, I was never sure how I felt about Gabriel Wilder. I’d spent most of the past few years not thinking about him in particular.

“Don’t you fucking put your hands on her. You can hit me all you want, and I’ll take it. Because I did the one thing that you’re not supposed to do. I’m sorry. But you do not put your hands on your sister. Do you understand me, bro?” Gabriel snapped, his voice dangerously low.

I stood up, rubbing the back of my head, as Mal met my gaze. All anger washed out of him, and he shook his head. “I didn’t mean to hurt you. Are you okay, Bug?”

I narrowed my gaze at him, because Mal was younger than me but always acted as if he were older—just like all of my brothers. Whenever we were out of the house, they did their best to be their overprotective selves. There was no posturing when it came to actually being in our childhood home. Not that I was going to think about that too hard right now.

“I’m fine, Mal. Don’t call me Bug.”

“I’m going to call you Bug if I feel like it. Did he hurt you? You know. Before.”

Gabriel muttered something under his breath and I glared at my brother, even as mortification settled in. “Are you kidding me? Of course he didn’t hurt me. And you don’t even know what went on. This has nothing to do with you. Gabriel and I were just having a chat, and then we were going to go on our merry way. You only have me for one more tour stop before I have to head out. You’re leaving the country for a while and I won’t see you. I wanted to spend some time with you. But I’m not going to if you’re just going to yell at me.”

“I’m not yelling at you.” He turned away from me as if I didn’t matter and glared at his best friend. “I’m mad at you.”

Gabriel raised his bruising chin. “You should be. I fucked up.”

“Did you take advantage of her?” Mal asked slowly, and I moved forward, putting my hand on Gabriel’s arm to try to get him out of the way. That was the wrong thing to do though, because Gabriel stiffened, and Mal’s cheeks reddened.

“You’re going to want to stop touching him, sister of mine.”

This had gone on long enough. “Mal. We’re all friends here. You don’t need to act like this.”

He breathed through his nose, and then glowered at Gabriel while he spoke to me. “You think I’m an asshole when it comes to women? He’s ten times worse. He’s the slut of this band. Do you know how many women he’s been with? Hell, he practically had a foursome on the way to the bus. It’s what we do , Briar. You know that better than anyone, being in this business. Why the fuck would you sleep with him?”

“I’m so glad that you think so highly of me,” Gabriel said, and I wasn’t sure that Mal heard the hurt in his tone. But I did.

I also didn’t like hearing about Gabriel or Mal’s past—or current —exploits. “Mal. It’s none of your business. I can sleep with whoever I’d like. Hell, I could have a foursome on this bus with your roadies, and it’s none of your business. So do not fight with your best friend over this. Do not ruin everything.”

Because I was afraid I had been the one to do that.

Mal just scowled at Gabriel before stepping forward, nose to nose. I sucked in my breath, afraid of what was going to happen next, before Mal’s shoulders fell.

“Fuck you, man. You had one job. Don’t fuck with my sisters. But you couldn’t even do that. I can’t be here. I’m going to go to the other bus.”

“Mal. Don’t leave,” I pleaded, but he ignored me, moving off the bus as he turned his back to us. Gabriel followed, and I didn’t hear what was said, but somebody shouted, and then Gabriel moved back, rubbing his hands over his face. He winced as he did so, and I immediately went to the small kitchen area to get ice.

“Your poor face.”

“It’s fine. I’ll heal. It’s not the first time I’ve taken a punch in the face.” He flinched as he touched his jaw, and then moved it around. “It hurts like a bitch, though. Don’t think he knocked any teeth loose at least.”

“I can’t believe he did that. Mal doesn’t hit. He doesn’t get in fights. Especially not after...” I cut myself off, not wanting to get into that family trauma. I didn’t know what Gabriel knew about our family, and I wasn’t about to get into it now.

I moved forward, pushing at his very rock-hard chest so he would sit down. He did so, and I knew it was only because he let me. When I put ice on his face, he cursed again.

“That’s cold.”

“It’s ice. It’s doing its job. You have another show in two nights and how many photographers waiting to see what happened? They’re going to have questions.”

“They’ll make up something. They always do.” He let out a deep breath. “I just hope he didn’t fuck up his hands.”

The bus started moving then, and I rocked forward. Gabriel reached out and gripped my hips. “Be careful. Don’t have your sea legs?” he quipped, but there wasn’t any humor in it.

I swallowed hard, aware that he was still touching me. I didn’t think about Gabriel like that. I wouldn’t let myself. We were friends of a sort. In other words, I was sometimes around, and we hung out when Mal wanted to. But I didn’t know Gabriel. Other than one night when we had gone too far.

“Can you hold this?” I asked, my voice stiff, and he nodded, letting the ice settle on his cheek.

“I’m sure his hands are fine. He takes care of himself.” We both knew that was a lie. Because Mal drank more than Gabriel, and I knew he had tried drugs a few times. But the band was clean in that sense. Especially after David had OD’d a few years before. But now he was a family man, and Wilder was as clean as possible. Yes, they drank, but they didn’t do anything else.

At least I hoped to hell they didn’t.

“I can’t believe you just let him hit you.”

“What was I supposed to do? I fucked his sister. I deserve to be hit.”

I whirled on him, my chest tightening. “Seriously? That’s what you’re going to go with. He didn’t even know until you’re the one who blurted it out. For all he knew, we could have just been fighting. Like we always do.”

“We don’t always fight. I don’t fucking talk to you.”

I let the hurt wash away at that. There was no need to allow it to sting. “Fine. But you shouldn’t have let him hit you. Should have fought back.”

“And hit your brother? My best friend? I already did enough to him, thanks.”

“There were two of us there, you know. And it shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t understand the territorial wars when it comes to brothers and best friends.” Though I did. Because Gabriel was Mal’s.

The one person that he had had as a constant over the years when everything had turned to shit. Because Mal had left home, left us all behind, and for good reasons. Shame coated me as guilt curdled in my stomach.

I started to pace even as the bus moved. “I’m sorry. I can’t have him hate me. I can’t believe I did this.”

“Don’t blame yourself. We were drunk.”

I nodded, wondering why he was comforting me when he wasn’t even taking care of himself.

I had wanted one night where I could just be someone else. So I drank and leaned into pretend a little too much, and I let go. I let go for the first time in my life, and now my brother hated me and couldn’t even look at me. And I had just ruined Mal’s best friendship.

It shouldn’t matter that he was my brother’s best friend. It shouldn’t. But it did.

“You’re Mal’s. I get that. I shouldn’t have poached.”

I reeled on him, before stomping forward and moving the ice to his chin.

He shuddered. “Hey, are you trying to make it worse?”

“No, but you are. I’m not someone to claim.”

“I didn’t say you were.”

“You sure as hell did. Especially with how you’re acting. Why did you sleep with me?” I blurted.

He froze, eyes widening for a moment, before shrugging. “I don’t know.”

“Really? That’s what you’re going with? Because I was there? Would you have just stuck your dick in anything?”

“Fuck no. We both were into it. And we weren’t that drunk,” he mumbled, and he was right.

Because if we had been that drunk, we wouldn’t have done anything. We would’ve just passed out, and I would’ve had so many more regrets in the morning.

But the alcohol had just been an excuse, and I wasn’t ready to face that.

“It can’t happen again.”

“It was never going to, Briar.”

Once again, I ignore the sting. “Good. Because Mal is one of the best things in my life. And I’m so stupid.”

“Well, we can be stupid together.”

I shook my head. “Oh no, we can’t. We’ll just go back to the way things were. He has to forgive us, right?”

He met my gaze, and I couldn’t read it. Couldn’t read those beautiful eyes of his. “He’s going to forgive you. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

I didn’t understand men at all. “If you did, then I did. There were two of us.”

“I’ll fix it. I’ll figure it out. For the band, at least.”

“That’s not a good excuse. He’s your best friend. I’m sorry.”

Gabriel sighed, before standing up abruptly and letting out a deep breath. “Fuck!” he shouted, before punching the fake wall. It caved in, and he cursed again.

“Oh my God Gabriel. What the hell?”

He pulled his fist out of the wall, and stretched his hands, blood coating them. “Well hell. It looks like Mal’s not the only one with a fucked-up hand.”

“Why did you do that?”

He looked at me then, his eyes so bleak, but didn’t say anything. Instead of getting an answer, I got another ice pack out and put it over his hand.

“You’re a mess.” My chest tightened, tears stinging. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I’m the sorry one. I just need to fix this. And I will. As soon as we see him.”

I pressed my lips together and hoped that was the case. I hoped that I hadn’t just broken a friendship, or worse, broken the band.

Though I wasn’t quite sure that was in the right order.

I let out a breath, finally letting go of him. Because touching Gabriel Wilder was always a mistake.

I turned, deciding to go sit up front since nobody else had made it to this particular bus, when the sound of grinding metal hit my ears.

The bus lurched to the left, and then to the right, and then Gabriel’s arm was around my waist, and someone was screaming. I didn’t know if it was him, or me, but he covered my body with his as we slammed down to the ground, and everything shattered.