Chapter 5
Alec
I watched with narrowed eyes as Cassie did the same thing to me that she had done to Bronson.
What. The. Fuck.
Then I held in a growl when he asked her for her number.
Then I watched as Cassie paid Birdie, who shot Talia a mean side eye, and then I watched as she left.
Then I twisted my head, crossed my arms over my chest, and glared at Talia.
I stood there, glaring at Talia.
I asked, “You know, sometimes, I really wonder if the man above forgot to give you a filter?”
Then I snapped, “Who in the fuck gave you the right to judge her like that? What the fuck is wrong with you?”
She looked at me, “Seriously? You're saying that to me? Do we need to go over history?”
I shook my head, “I never thought I would ever say this, but I’m embarrassed to be your brother.”
Talia scoffed, “Yeah? Well, I’m embarrassed to be your sister. The little sister of the entire town’s good time playboy.”
I scoffed right back, “You know, if you paid attention to anything outside of your own little world, you would see that that isn’t the case. Plus, you would see something that’s right in front of your face.”
She lifted a brow, “Care to elaborate?”
I shook my head, “Nah. You don’t deserve it. And here’s a guess, the reason you can’t find a man to love you, is because you're so high up there on your fucking high horse that you can’t see that the perfect man is standing right beside you.” And when I said that I pointed at Dom.
Then I looked at him, “Get the fuck over what all those cunts have said about you. They’re wrong. We all know better.”
And with that, I turned on my boot and walked out of the bar.
I shook my head as I went.
Bronson
I eyed Talia as I watched Alec leave.
I closed my eyes as I recalled what I had done for Cassie, and what she had done for me, all those years ago.
Then I said, “Let me enlighten you on something, Talia.”
She was biting her lip.
“I think highly of your entire family. I respect every single one of you. But tonight, you just lost my respect. You don’t deserve to know anything about Cassie.” Then I looked at Harlee, “And if you fire her over this one’s stupid mouth, you’ll lose my respect too.”
And with that, I tossed a twenty on the table and left.
Dom
I didn’t get it.
What the fuck was up her ass?
I’ve known Talia for most of her life.
And never has she judged anyone without proof first.
Talia
“What the fuck? What did I say?”
Dom shook his head, then threw down a twenty. “He’s right. Never known you to judge anyone like that.”
Then Dom left too.
Lila sighed, “I get it, you were protecting me, but Talia, what you did was wrong.”
“How am I in the wrong? You all saw what I saw.” I said.
Everly nodded, “Yeah, but I saw the respect and adoration in Bronson’s gaze when he laid eyes on her. Not lust or heat. And it was the same for her.”
Alec
After that went down, my brothers, along with Dom and Bronson, were on my back porch the next night.
They had all shown up with cases of beer.
“Okay, brother, what’s her story?” Garrick asked Bronson.
I had my forearms resting on the tops of my thighs. I wanted to know the story too.
And after what went down at the bar, I wasn’t sure if Cassie would tell me.
He sighed, “It’s really just as much her story as it is mine.”
Garrick nodded, “Get that. But I almost had to sleep on the fucking couch last night. I said one wrong word to her, and she blew the fuck up at me.”
Carter nodded, “Same.”
Dom shook his head, “Nah. You don’t owe any of us an explanation. Talia needs to pull her head out of her ass.”
Bronson sighed, then ran his hand through his hair, “What’s said, stays here, right?”
At all our nods, he said, “When I was four, I was found in a closet in a motel by the cleaning staff. My mother had put me in there so she could meet up with her John. She forgot about me, or whatever the fuck. Shit went down, and I was placed in foster care. I was shuffled around from house to house.”
He took a pull from his beer, then continued. “I was in my eleventh home in four years when a little girl was taken in. And I watched as the dad eyed her. It wasn’t right. Something in my gut had been screaming at me. That was why I slept on her floor.”
He swallowed, then he clenched his fists, “And I had been right. Because one night, while he had been drinking, he had stumbled in her room, and had I not been there, I don’t even want to think about what he would have done.”
We all nodded.
Then he said, “A few months later, his bookie or something came to collect his money. And when he didn’t have the money to pay him, I was big then already, he offered me up to him.
Cassie, in her little six-year-old self, crept in then and planted her little body in front of mine.
Telling him off in her six-year-old wisdom.
” Bronson chuckled as he obviously remembered it all.
“She was the only person up until that point that ever gave a damn about what happened to me.”
“What happened?” I asked.
He looked at me, “I aged out. Then her father got custody of her. Don’t know the rest. Tried to find her, but back then, I didn’t have much. Tried to find her again when I made it big, but my guy couldn’t.”
After we talked some more, they all headed home, but Bronson stopped and said, “Viewed her as my little sister. Still do. Saw the way you looked at her. You want someone in your corner... she’ll do that, in fucking spades.”
I jerked my chin up at him, then sat back down in my chair, took a beer, popped the top, and took a long pull.
My phone rang.
I checked the call and then answered it.
“Hey, Mom.”
“Hey, baby boy. Now, what is this I hear about you going off on Talia the other night?” she asked me in that tone that said I was about to be in trouble.
Then I heard Dad in the background growl, “Didn’t raise you to treat your sister like that.”
At his words and her tone, I did something I’ve never done before, at least not to my parents, and not to anyone that I knew, personally.
I lowered my tone to the cold, chilled version of me, and I said, “First. You didn’t raise her to be a bitch.
Second. You didn’t raise her to judge someone without having all the facts.
Third, you raised us to respect women. The scene she perpetrated because she’s a judgmental bitch wasn’t okay.
It was so far from okay that it isn’t even funny. ”
“Sweetheart,” my mom started.
“No. Mom. Just no. She owes Cassie one hell of an apology. And quite frankly, the two of you owe me one as well, because neither of you were there. And here you are asking questions over shit that you don’t even know about. Now, I love both of you to the depth of my soul.”
And with that, I hung up the phone.
“You didn’t have to do that,” I heard.
That voice.
Holy. Shit.
It did things to me that have never happened before.
It gave me that adrenaline high I’ve spent my life searching for.
It made my heart stutter a beat.
But to hide all of that, I winked at her, “Yeah. I did. It was the right thing to do.”
Then I tagged a beer and held it out to her, “Want a beer?”
She smiled, then I popped the top and handed it to her as she took a seat beside me.
We were both silent, and then I asked, “So, what’s the deal with Old Man Hooper?”
She giggled, “Before I tell you that, what was that smell?”
I sighed, “He had a possum family under his house. More like an entire village. Guess when he boarded it up, he didn’t see them.”
She winced, “Crap.”
I nodded, “Yeah. The smell apparently stuck to everything in his house. I called a cleaning company, and they went out there today to give him a hand.”
She smiled, “Good.”
Then she took a swallow of her beer and said, “Do you believe in fate?”
I lifted a brow at her and then nodded, “Yeah. In a way. But I believe that everything happens for a reason.”
She tipped her bottle to me, “Right? So, I had just graduated from college. And I was looking for an old trunk for years. One in good condition. You know those old traveling trunks?”
At my nod, she continued.
And I swore that I wished I could freeze that one moment in time, her voice, her smile, how happy she was, and keep it with me for the rest of my days.
“Well, I saw one in an ad at an estate sale. So, I went. I bought it. I got it home to my apartment. And I opened it.”
I nodded.
“Inside there were dresses, knick-knacks, the usual, then I came across a bundle of white envelopes that were weathered and discolored with age, and they were all tied together with a red silky ribbon.”
“I read them. And when I found out what happened, I thought that the owner would like to have the letters back. They were romantic. So romantic that you felt it was you the person was talking to. Anyway, I researched all day and hunted down the man who had written the letters. I found him in an old newspaper clipping that had come out at the end of Vietnam.”
My eyes flared, “No shit?”
She shook her head, “No. It was Jacob Hooper. He was in love with her. And she with him. That red door, the red front porch swing? All for her. It was because of a dress she wore when they met for the first time, and it was red.”
“Fuck. That’s romantic as hell.” I said.
She nodded.
Then she sighed, “Stuff like that doesn’t happen anymore.”
I winked, “It does. You're just too stubborn to see it.”
She giggled, then laughed, “Touche.”
“So, you found Mr. Hooper, then a job?”
She shook her head. “Switch it.”
“Okay, now I get why you said fate.”
She nodded.
Then she asked, “So, you plead the fifth, huh?”
I looked at her and nodded, “Sure do.”
I knew what she was talking about.
Then she asked, “Why?”
I eyed her, then said, “Can you keep a secret?”
At her nod, I decided to trust her.
Don’t ask me why.
I couldn’t tell you.
I was about to tell her something only a select few knew about, but I would never tell her everything.
“I’m in the military. A part of a team. Army. And I do a few odds and ends on the side.” I said.
She nodded. “In other words, don’t ask any more than that?”
I nodded.
“Why doesn’t your family know?” she asked.
I lifted a brow at her, “Why’d you ask that?”
“Because Harlee talked about all of you, she said she didn’t know what you actually did for a living. And seeing as Carter is your brother, he would have told her.”
I nodded, “Always been the black sheep of the family. Don’t know why. Just a thing. They all thought I went off to college. But I really went to basic training. They thought I dropped out when I was selected by an individual for my skills.”
She nodded, “I get it. You wanted something for yourself that you wouldn’t be judged for.”
I tilted my beer at her, “On point.”
We talked for a bit when I recalled a part of her story from Bronson, and I asked, “What’s one thing you’ve never done but wanted to do?”
She tilted her head, smiled, and then said, “Dance in the rain.”
I winked at her. I could make that happen.
Then she yawned and said, “It’s getting late. It’s been a long day.”
I nodded, “Night, Trouble.”
She winked, “Night, Soldier boy.”
I laughed.