Twenty One
September Twenty-Fourth
Whitney
Whitney stood at her brother’s dinner table, unstacking takeout boxes. “How are you guys liking it here?”
“It’s nice.”
Aldous shrugged.
“I don’t know.”
Orion grabbed his box. “It’s alright.”
She paused, watching them. “Do you guys really have the same tattoos?”
Orion laughed. “Yeah. It’s fun tricking the ladies.”
“Why am I even surprised?”
she muttered, not waiting for an answer. “So what happened after I left home?”
Aldous’s eyes met hers. “Nothing different. Dad drank every night. Instead of taking it out on three kids, he took it out on two.”
“I’m sorry.”
Her forehead creased.
“Don’t be.”
Aldous took a drink. “You did what you had to. We did what we had to. That’s why we joined the army the day we turned eighteen.”
“No, I’m sorry I never came back.”
Her voice softened. “I stopped by after a few months, but I couldn’t get out of the car. After that, I’d drive by every few years to see if you guys were around, but I never saw either of you. Eventually, I figured you’d have different cars than that old square-body Chevy you kept sinking money into. I wouldn’t even know what to look for.”
“No,”
Orion said, shoving the last of his fries into his mouth. “We never went back. Even on leave, we visited each other—or just killed time at the local strip clubs.”
He smirked, brushing salt off his fingers. “When I joined LVPD, I looked up Dad’s file. Him and Mom are still alive. She was in Reno for a while. Before we came here, she was in Tonopah. I didn’t care enough to check on Dad.”
Aldous closed his box. “What about you?”
“I bounced around Vegas. Went to UNLV for a few years.”
“For what?”
Aldous stood, tossing his trash.
“Mechanical engineering.”
“Wow.”
Orion chuckled. “Nerd.”
Whitney sighed. “Well, I flunked out.”
She turned her back to them, voice dry. “Ended up stripping.”
“Where?”
Orion’s eyes locked on her as Aldous sat back down.
“Don’t worry about it.”
“Just tell me.”
“Nope. I have no interest in finding out if you slept with any of my old coworkers.”
She dumped her trash in the bin, ignoring his scoff. As she sat back down, she asked, “Orion, tell me your version of what happened with Justin.”
He leaned back in his chair like he’d lost his appetite. “Why? What did he tell you?”
She shrugged. “You slept with his ex, fought with him, and that’s what landed him in prison. But how did you know he went to prison? Wouldn’t that have been the county’s district?”
Orion licked his lips. “You don’t forget the guy who fractures two ribs and leaves you needing stitches.”
He tapped his eyebrow with his fork’s handle. “It was a real good day for me when the paperwork came through that he was gone. Didn’t expect to find him here, let alone in bed with big sis.”
“Tell me your version.”
“I took that Mitzy bitch back to her place. She never said she was engaged, and the dumb fucker walked in on us. He didn’t say much and stopped hitting me after a minute, probably weirded him out having a naked dude hit back. She’s the one who called the cops, so I don’t know why he’s still holding a grudge.”
“I think he thought you knew they were engaged.”
“Nope.”
Orion shook his head. “She wasn’t even worth the hospital bill.”
“She wasn’t worth the prison time either,”
Whitney mumbled, then cleared her throat. “Can you at least try to get along with him?”
Orion shrugged. “Sure.”
But his eyes stayed on his empty box.
She swallowed. “What happened with the military?”
She shifted her attention to Aldous.
“We got out almost two years ago.”
“You went back to Vegas after? Both of you? Did you live together?”
Aldous wiped his mouth. “Yeah.”
“And you became a mechanic?”
“That’s what I did in the army. Might as well stick with it.”
He pushed his hair back from his face.
Whitney folded her arms on the table. “Why’d you guys come here? How?”
“Jay found us.”
Aldous’s voice softened. “He came to my shop first, gave me this whole speech about a calm, small community on this island and steady work with decent pay. When I was intrigued enough, he mentioned you were here. That sealed the deal for me. I just had to get Owen on board.”
She looked over at Orion, who grinned. “I didn’t have anything better to do. Figured it was time to see what you were up to.”
Whitney grabbed his box and closed it to throw away. “What about that roommate of yours? What’s her story?”
Her chair scraped against the floor. “She’s not available.”
“She seemed available at your place.”
Orion rose, too.
Whitney dumped the last of the trash and spun around. “Orion, I’m serious. Brittanya is off-limits.”
Orion rounded the table, heading toward his bedroom. “Last I checked, you’re not in charge of me. Haven’t been for over ten years. Even then, you did a shit job.”
She ignored the jab, her voice calm but firm as his hand hit the doorknob. “Brittanya’s spent her life dealing with assholes. And I’ll be damned if the next one who hurts her is my own brother looking for a good time.”
The door slammed shut without a word.
Whitney let out a slow breath and turned back to Aldous, who was still seated, watching quietly.
“Thank you for letting me come over for dinner,”
she said softly. “I’m gonna head to Fade’s for the night. I love you.”
Aldous stood and wrapped her in a warm hug. “Love you, too. See you later.”
September Thirtieth
Whitney
“I’m glad you guys could make it.”
Whitney stepped aside to let Wolfgang and Juniper inside.
Fade emerged from her bedroom, joining them in the living room for Orion and Aldous’s welcome party. “Hey,”
he greeted, clearly relieved to see their friends and not the twins.
“Hey, guys.”
Brittanya’s voice drifted from the kitchen as she peeked into the pizza boxes while June led Zeppelin outside.
Whitney grabbed a slice. “I am starving — and I cannot wait.”
Fade wrapped his arms around her, his beer bottle cool against her back as he nuzzled into her neck. She smiled until he turned her to face him, his touch a familiar comfort and a distraction from the tension brewing under her skin.
“Promise you’ll behave tonight?”
she asked, her voice soft but serious. It wasn’t his drinking she worried about — she’d never seen him drunk, no matter how much he’d had. Whitney stressed about the fact that Orion was the fuel to Fade’s rage and she was inviting them to the same event to spend time in close proximity.
“Of course.”
He kissed her, but the knock at the door cut through the moment.
Her stomach twisted. “They’re here,”
she announced, slipping from his arms and heading to the door.
Aldous was the first inside, and she reached up to hug him tightly. “Aldous.”
Then she turned to Orion. “Orion.”
She repeated the gesture, though her palms had gone damp, mixing with the oil from the pizza on her fingertips. “Well,”
she said, stepping back with a slightly forced smile. “I guess we can eat.”
The group lined up, filling plates with pizza. Fade kept his distance, slipping outside to avoid the brothers. Wolfgang and June followed him, leaving the twins at the table with Whitney and Brittanya. “How are you guys liking it so far?”
Whitney asked, trying to keep things light.
“It’s nice,”
Aldous said, glancing at Brittanya before catching a pepperoni that slid off his slice.
“There’s not as many girls as I thought there’d be,”
Orion added through a mouthful of pizza. “Single ones, anyway.”
His gaze landed on Brittanya and stayed there.
Whitney resisted the urge to kick him under the table. “They’re always bringing people in. You’ll find someone sooner or later.”
“Or just lower your standards,”
Aldous muttered. “We all know you’re just looking for a piece of ass.”
Orion rolled his eyes but didn’t argue.
“How’s work going?”
Brittanya asked, steering the conversation back to safer ground.
“Definitely quieter than LVPD,”
Orion said, wiping his mouth.
“You should have been here in May.”
Whitney dropped her crust on her plate, “Wolfgang created quite a commotion.”
“I’ve heard.”
“What about you, Aldous?”
Brittanya turned to him. “How’s the garage?”
“It’s interesting, working on older vehicles and converting them to electric. Some of the tech’s stuff I’ve never seen before.”
He wiped his fingers on his napkin.
“What about you?”
Orion cut in, his focus shifting back to Brittanya. “What do you do?”
“I cut hair at the salon.”
His smile turned crooked. “Huh. We might be due for a trim soon.”
Whitney rolled her eyes as Orion kept staring across the table.
Fade
He stayed outside even after Wolfgang went back in. If avoiding her brothers meant avoiding their drama, then he was more than happy to stay put.
“I’ll be back. bathroom,”
Whitney whispered, brushing her hand across his shoulder as she passed him. He watched her slip inside, weaving between her brothers with practiced ease.
June and Brittanya stayed at the table, their laughter drifting across the night air. Fade kept his eyes on his phone, half-playing a card game, half-listening, until a low voice broke through.
“Hey.”
Fade didn’t look up, but his muscles tensed. He didn’t need to see to know which twin had approached the table.
“When can I get that haircut?”
Orion’s voice oozed its usual arrogance, his smirk practically audible. Fade glanced up from his phone just in time to see Orion lean over the table, palms flat, looming toward Brittanya. “Do I schedule it with you, or…?”
Fade was out of his chair before his brain fully caught up. “Hey,”
he snapped, his voice sharp. “Whitney told you Brittanya’s off limits and you’re being disrespectful.”
Orion’s head shot back in mock surprise. “Oh, is that so?”
His mouth curled into a smirk. “Funny. The last time we were here, you took my sister to her room and defiled her loud enough for the whole house to hear. And now you wanna talk about respect?”
Fade’s fists clenched. He felt the heat rising in his chest, that familiar burn of anger waiting to ignite.
Orion wasn’t done. “Almost feels like you only did it to get back at what happened. What better way to settle old scores than proving you can please a woman, when the last one went looking somewhere else?”
Words had never been Fade’s strength. But fists? Fists were a language he spoke fluently. The first punch cracked across Orion’s jaw, sending him stumbling. Fade didn’t stop, following him and landing another blow.
The back door burst open. Wolfgang and Aldous rushed outside as the girls scattered toward the grass. Whitney shot outside. “What the absolute hell is going on?!”
Her furious voice sliced through the chaos.
“Owen was being disrespectful—”
Fade started, still seething.
“Owen?”
Whitney’s face scrunched in confusion. “That’s Aldous, you idiot!”
“How the hell am I supposed to know that?”
he shot back, his chest still heaving.
From the lawn, Juniper’s voice cut in, hesitant. “Whitney… should we call the police or something?”
Every muscle in Fade’s body locked up. Margaret’s warning from his first day here echoed in his mind. “No,”
he said quickly, shaking Wolfgang’s grip off his arm. “No. I’ll leave. Don’t call.”
He pushed past the crowd and headed for the house. “I’m so sorry, Whitney,”
he whispered when he reached her. His lips brushed against hers, but she didn’t move, her face unreadable. He didn’t wait for a response. He just walked through the house and out the front door, and exited the property.
October first
It was just past midnight, hours after the fight, and Fade couldn’t stop thinking about her. He didn’t know exactly what he’d say, just that he needed to make things right. Needed to apologize.
Fade: Will you come over?
He didn’t expect an answer so quickly.
Whitney: I’m already on my way.
Surprised, and maybe a little hopeful, he shoved his phone in his pocket and started straightening up his room. If their conversation was going to be chaotic, his space didn’t need to add to the overstimulation. After a few minutes, he glanced at the time and picked his phone back up.
Fade: Did you fall asleep?
Whitney: I’m walking over. Almost there.
The walk between their houses was a good ten to fifteen minutes, and every one of those minutes dragged. He went to the front door, opening it just in time to see her coming up the sidewalk.
“Hey,”
he said softly, unsure how this was going to go. “Is he okay?”
“Let’s go.”
She didn’t look at him as she brushed past, heading straight to his room. He shut the door behind them, lingering while she perched on the edge of his bed, her bag in her lap and her legs crossed. Her face was unreadable. “What the hell was that about?”
she asked finally, her voice low but sharp.
“You told your brothers Brittanya was off-limits. Whichever one it was, Orion, Aldous, he was flirting with her.”
Her eyes narrowed. “He was asking for a haircut.”
“You’re really going to believe them over me?”
His frustration flared. “Unbelievable.”
“I don’t care what happened, Fade.”
She stood suddenly, dropping her purse on his desk. “I asked you to behave. You didn’t.”
She turned, her arms crossing over her chest. “Is this some kind of weird emotional payback?”
“No!”
He ran a hand through his hair, trying to stay calm. “I don’t like seeing you disrespected, and then being told I was the one being disrespectful. I’m not going to let them say that.”
She kicked off her sandals and faced him fully. “I need you to listen to me. This fight with Orion? It’s not just between you two anymore. It’s dragging me and Aldous into it, and you could’ve hurt Brittanya or June with that stunt you pulled. Do you even realize that?”
“Wait, so this is my fault?”
He took a step toward her, his voice rising. “After everything he said—”
“I didn’t see him attack you!”
she shot back, unbuttoning her jeans as she spoke. “I wasn’t there and I won’t always be. That’s exactly why you two need to figure this shit out.”
She disappeared into his closet, and when she came back, she’d swapped her jeans for pajama shorts. “Fade.”
Her voice softened, and she tucked her hair behind one ear as she looked up at him. “I love you. I hate seeing you fight with my brothers. I hate seeing them antagonize you. Can we please just… leave all of this in the past? Everything up until now, done. Over.”
He held her gaze, his voice low. “I shouldn’t be fighting.”
“No, you sho—”
“I’m serious,”
he cut in. “Margaret knew about my past. She told me I wouldn’t get any warnings if I started fighting.”
Her arms dropped to her sides. “Great. Even more reason to stop.”
She turned toward the bed, adjusting the covers with jerky movements. “Now I get to worry about losing you forever if you can’t keep your fists to yourself. I’ll probably have to stow away like Wolfgang did just to track you down and make you remember me.”
He stepped behind her, sliding his arms around her waist and pulling her back against him. “I love you,”
he whispered into her hair. “I swear, I won’t fight your brothers.”
She turned in his arms, her hands smoothing over his chest. “I love you too.”
Her lips curved into a small, teasing smile. “And if you keep your promise… you’ll be rewarded handsomely.”
He smiled back, the tension in his chest finally easing. And when they fell onto the bed, he let everything else, the anger, the fear, the fight, slip away.