11. Luc
11
LUC
TIME TO PAY THE PIPER
“ L uca!” A door slams, startling me from my sleep as I shove up in bed and process Marcus’ enraged voice tearing through my house. Remembering Kari on my lips, her hand on my chest, and my fingers in her hair, my soul shrivels up.
The end is here.
“Luc!” Marcus calls again. I don’t know where the rest of my family is. Why is no one intervening? Why do they so willingly step aside and allow me to be murdered by my own best friend? “Hey! Are you in bed?”
Yes. Fuck. Alone.
Thank god .
I look to my right to make a hundred percent certain I haven’t had a stroke over night and brought Kari to my bed. But there’s no one else here with me. No one whose presence would make my inevitable death exponentially more painful.
“Luc!”
“I’m up here.” I pull my sheet up and shuffle back on the bed until I can rest against the headboard. Then I rub my eyes and spy the clock on my bedside table. It’s barely seven in the damn morning. “What the hell, Marcus? I’m on night shift tonight.”
He stomps through the door, swinging it open without knocking and skidding to a stop on the threshold to look me up and down. He hasn’t changed a lot from when he was twelve. His hair is still midnight black, his eyes, green. The chiseled lines of his cheekbones and jaw have become more angular. And his right hook… more powerful. But all in all, he’s still mostly the same tall, broad-shouldered soldier who stands in front of Kari every second of every day.
“What?”
He doesn’t speak. Doesn’t dive over my bed and pound my face in for kissing his sister. He doesn’t even appear to be overly angry, which is a welcome relief.
“Why are you stomping into my house at this godawful hour and waking my family?”
“Your parents are at work, and the twins are already at Turner’s place.” He wanders into my room, digging his hands into his pockets and scanning my walls. He’s like a fucking cop, and I’m his suspect.
Or maybe that’s just guilt eating me up.
“Kari called a girl’s meeting or some shit. Had something exciting to share with everyone.”
“Oh?” Calm down, dickhead. Calm the hell down . “W-what exciting thing?”
“I don’t know. That’s why I’m here.” He stops by my old drum kit in the corner of my room and runs his finger across the layer of dust that has collected since I replaced it with a newer, better set a while back. “Do you have any clue what’s going on?” Suspicious, like Mulder and Scully—I have no fucking clue which one is which—he glances over his shoulder and pins me with a knowing stare. “Have you heard anything from the twins?”
“No.” Jesus christ. Kari swore she wouldn’t tell Marcus about our kiss. But did she swear not to tell the girls?
No !
“I don’t know…” I swallow to lubricate my painfully dry throat. “Um… what do you think it could be?”
He shrugs and turns, setting his hands on his hips. “She’s going to college in a few weeks. She’s pretty fuckin’ thrilled about it,” he adds bitterly. “Got her dorm assignment already. We’re in the middle of ordering textbooks. Nothing new is going on with all that.” He kicks one ankle over the other and sneers. “It’s a guy.”
My stomach lurches, threatening to make a fool of me and mess up my bed. “What?”
“She must be seeing someone, right? Girls don’t get squealy and weird except about men. Then they lose their absolute fucking minds and regress back to the school-girl giggles. ”
“Um…” Push it down. Push all the vomit down. “I dunno, man. They’re not in seventh grade anymore. I’m not sure these girls do that stuff.”
“Maybe not the twins.”
His instant dismissal has my brows shooting high in question. Excuse, the fuck, me ?
“Jess and Laine, and even Britt, are constantly talking to guys,” he continues. “It’s like you and Scotch don’t give a single fuck about their dating lives.”
“It’s not that we don’t care. It’s that we don’t feel the need to control everything.”
“It’s not control.” He brushes me off again. “It’s precaution. Kari is the quiet one in that group of girls. She’s not out there chatting up guys every damn day. She’s not as outgoing or as confident. So if one caught her eye, then that would be exciting news to share, no? And considering what we know about her being shy and all that, chances are the guy is some opportunistic prick we need to protect her from.”
Fuck. Me. Sideways.
“I think you’re jumping way ahead of yourself.” I slump back into bed and flop my arm over my eyes, blinding myself and pressing down until stars float in my vision. “Your sister wants to hang with her girlfriends. And you’re catastrophizing that until it’s a situation where she’s being taken advantage of by some fuckin’ Chad you don’t even know.”
“Exactly.” He grabs my sheet and yanks it off my legs until I’m completely exposed in the middle of my bed. The cool morning air, prickling my skin. “Let’s go for a drive and see what we see.”
“You’re insane. And I have a shift tonight. If I’m tired and someone dies on my watch, who do you think the board will hold accountable? Me?” I lift my arm and eye him across the room. “Or my best friend who wants to sneak around and make sure his adult sister isn’t having any fun?”
“She’s allowed to have fun. In fact, she’s allowed to have as much fun as she wants.” He snatches up a pair of my jeans and tosses them at my legs. “It’s the guy we’re keeping on a leash. Get dressed. We’re heading out for a bit.”
K ane’s lips curl high, a taunting smirk like daggers straight to the center of my gut. “You were banging his sister and playing sleuth with him on the side?” He sets Billy’s empty bottle on the counter and lifts her until her cheek rests on his chest. “You’re a fuckin’ clown, Lenaghan. You should have just told him you were the exciting news.”
“Dude! You don’t understand the beat down he had planned for any guy who looked at her. No way was I volunteering that information.”
“Makes you a pussy,” he snickers. “I knew Jess had a brother. I had even crossed paths with you in my former thug life.”
“Current,” I grumble. “You’ve yet to leave that life.”
“Can’t say I gave you a single fuckin’ thought when I was getting to know her.” Like a pro, he pats Billy’s back and grins when she releases small bubbles of air. “I knew you existed. But you didn’t get even a second of consideration within my relationship.”
“Makes you disrespectful.”
“Funny, Jess held the same sentiments. Still,” he shakes his head. “Didn’t care. When a man loves a woman, it’s about him and her. It’s between them, and only them, and once they’ve got their shit figured out, then the rest of the world may be invited in. But they don’t get a say on what happens.”
“My daughter is eleven days old and already knows seventeen different cuss words because of you. Wanna cool it?”
Thoughtful, he pulls back and looks down to study my sleepy baby. Then he chuckles and brings her in again. “I think she’s gonna be okay. Her cousins will teach her whatever we don’t. And when the time comes, I bet none of them will care about your opinion on whoever she’s dating.”
“She doesn’t get to date.” I push up from my chair, the legs scraping on the floor until the baby startles in Kane’s arms. But she settles again. Closing her eyes and snuggling into his chest.
I could leave them alone. I could allow her to rest on her uncle where she’s completely safe and unequivocally loved.
But it’s my turn now. It’s my time. And it’s still the middle of the damn night.
So I move closer and take the tiny bundle from his arms. Unphased by his scowl of disapproval. Unbothered by the danger he represents.
It’s funny. Kane Bishop might literally be the deadliest motherfucker I have ever, or will ever, meet. His military training is so rarely acknowledged verbally, and yet, unavoidable when simply looking at him. The weapons he carries daily, never mentioned. But the threat he poses, and the protection he promises, is absolute.
He, himself, is a weapon created and set free by the US Government, yet somehow, he calls our tiny town home, and my sister, his reason for everything.
But it’s Marcus whose opinion always mattered the most.
Even now, all these years later, his approval helps me sleep at night.
“She wanted to sneak around and have this torrid affair, Bish. The rest of the world saw this quiet, mousy, and shy Kari Macchio. But the woman she showed me…” I continue patting Billy’s rump, wandering across my kitchen with a gentle shake of my head. “The woman she was beneath all that was not the same.”
“Probably not something you wanna tell Marcus,” Kane sniggers. “I don’t have a sister, but I bet if I did, I wouldn’t wanna know who she is behind closed doors. Even Twink?—”
“Laine?”
He nods. “She’s your sister, but I have this sense of kinship, too. I trust Angelo with my life. He and I are blood in. But he doesn’t give me the details of what they do in private.”
My nose wrinkles with disgust. “Yeah, we don’t need that information.”
“That’s what I’m saying. So Kari’s a viper behind closed doors?” He flashes a wicked grin. “Not that I couldn’t tell. She’s stitched me up a time or two now. I know she’s no simp.”
“She was rebelling,” I sigh. “Eighteen years of being under Marcus’ reign. She had spent her whole life doing what he wanted, when he wanted. Previously, she would go out of her way to make sure he was comfortable. She refused to be the source of his stress. So by the time she was eighteen, she was ready to fuck some shit up.”
“My favorite way of handling things,” he smirks. “And just in case we’re keeping tally, you just said fuck in front of an eleven-day-old baby. So don’t come for me when she’s talking in a couple of years and saying some things that kinda sound like they came from Uncle Bish’s mouth.”
I roll my eyes, but I close them, too, so the action is invisible to everyone except me. Then I tuck my face into the crook of Billy’s neck and inhale. She smells like baby. Like hospital. She even smells a bit like sour milk. Though beneath all that is the faint scent of flowers.
She got that from her momma.
“She didn’t even want a relationship that everyone else could know about. It would bring stress to Marcus, she said. It would complicate everything. So she was completely and hopelessly okay with sneaking around.”
“ L uca?”
Kari wanders into Marcus’ living room, the wood paneling an overwhelming feature in the old A-frame home Marc bought not so long ago. It’s a loft-studio set up, with one bedroom exposed to anyone sitting downstairs. A kitchen. A teeny, tiny little laundry off the side of the house, and a giant barn out back.
We’re not the only people here: Angelo takes up the single recliner, and Scotch sits on the floor in front of the three-seater couch. His shaggy hair dangles in his eyes. His entire body, bowed over a guitar, and his mind, swirling in a depression he’s yet to escape from.
Because Sammy, that girl he swore he would marry and love forever… left.
She got the wedding certificate. She got his heart. But she skipped town the second she could and stomped on his soul on the way out.
Jess and Laine lounge on the couch, and Marcus sits on the end, his feet on the cushions and his hand wrapped around a PlayStation controller. Because this is what we do on the rare, rare nights where the band isn’t playing at the club, Marcus isn’t bussing tables, I’m not on night-shift, and the rest of us have nothing else to do.
We come to Marc’s house and chill the fuck out.
In fact, this is so completely normal, no one even looks up at Kari’s seductive summons.
Though, of course, I doubt anyone else considers it seductive.
I swallow the painful lump of nerves settled in my throat and drag my gaze around. Away from the shoot-‘em-up game on Marc’s flat screen and across to an impossibly beautiful Kari in little shorts and a slouchy sweater.
“Can you help me in the barn for a sec?” Her lips curl high, forcing her cheeks up until they squish beneath her dancing eyes. “Please?”
“I can help you, Kar.” Marcus pauses the game and looks over. “What do you need?”
“It’s okay.” She saunters into the living room and presses her hand to the top of his head. It’s a pat of sorts, but also a caress. An, I love you ruffle of his hair. Then she leans over him and un-pauses the game. “I just need to get something down in the barn, and Luc is the only one not doing anything.” She glances across and stares into my eyes.
How is it possible no one else sees what she is?
How can they not know what she’s doing?
As far as I’m concerned, she walks around with a giant, fucking neon sign flashing over her head.
“Luca?”
“Yeah.” I want to go out there with her. And yet, guilt eats at my soul. But above all else, my body moves. Without my brain openly acknowledging the actions, my feet touch the floor, and my ass leaves the chair. My back crackles as I straighten out and turn in her direction, then my cock hardens when she smiles.
That’s it.
A fucking smile.
But it screams a million naughty things her brother would kill me for.
She licks her bottom lip and grins like the she-devil herself. And when I’m close enough, she turns on her heels and walks by my side, close enough our shoulders touch and her long locks tickle my arms. “Thank you, Luca.”
I want to groan. I want to shout my innocence in all this. But fuck, most of all, I want to sneak out to the barn with her, too. Because she goes to college in a week, and I haven’t had my fill yet.
“You sounded like Mrs. Robinson when you said my name in there, ya know?”
The second we’re outside and the door closes us out, Kari’s lips swing higher, visible even under the bright moonlight.
“You’re trying to get me killed.”
“I’m trying to assert myself.” She ducks around the side of the house, out of my sight for just a single second. But in the dark, in my current frame of mind, it’s a lifetime.
What if she disappears? What if she gets hurt?
I quickly follow her around and step into the shadows, only for my back to hit the external wall of the house, my breath exploding from my lungs as Kari’s arms slide around my neck and her chest crushes against mine.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit.
“Bear—”
“You’re allowed to touch me.” She stands on her toes, nibbling on my bottom lip and stealing from me whatever pitiful willpower I might pretend to cling to. She grabs my hand and slides it down to cup her ass. And fuck, but we both moan when my fingers squeeze and pull her closer. “You’re too hard on yourself, Luca. Always staying away when you should stalk forward.”
“I’m saving you from yourself.” But hell if my resistance doesn’t snap and have our lips clashing. I slide my tongue across hers and moan when she pushes closer. Her body, draped over mine and just feet away, on the other side of this wall, my death lingers. “You’re on a path to destruction right now, Bear. You’re playing with fire and don’t care about the consequences.”
“You’re being overly and annoyingly cautious.” She bites my bottom lip, hard enough to elicit a hiss of pain from the depths of my throat. “I’m leaving soon.”
“I know.” I bring my free hand up and hold her neck. My fingers curl around to touch the top of her spine and my thumb stretches to the front until I feel her pulse and mine racing for superiority. “I know it down to the fucking minute, Bear. The seconds.”
“Because you’re gonna miss me?”
“The way I’d miss my arm if I no longer had it.” I swoop in and taste her neck. No biting allowed. No suckling. No fucking marks left behind. “But I’m so happy you’re going. You deserve this chance to stand on your own two feet. To know what it feels like to be free.”
“I’m gonna come home every weekend.” She twists and drags us around, so her back hits the wall and my body pins her close. I swear, I don’t mean to do it. I don’t mean to hold her up.
But my hands drop to her thighs without thinking, and her feet simply… cease to hold her weight. She wraps her legs around my hips, squeezing until I feel the pinch. Her tongue seduces me. Her lips, playing with mine. She slips her hands into my hair, grabbing fistfuls and tugging until I hiss.
“I’m gonna come back every single weekend,” she repeats. “And we can still see each other. We can text and call and stuff.”
“You’re supposed to be going there single,” I groan. “Independent. Not tethered to Marcus. And sure as shit not tied to me.”
“You don’t want me?”
“With my whole fucking soul.” I bruise her thighs and know she’ll have to wear long pants for the next week, or two, so no one sees. But I don’t stop. And try as I might, I can’t quiet the way my breath races. “I want you, Bear. Like I’ve wanted no one else in my life. But you’re not just a random girl I get to fuck around with and toss aside when I’m done. ”
“So don’t toss me aside.”
“Don’t limit yourself to just this .” I drag her bottom lip between my teeth, tempting fate when I know her plump lip will only swell. Soon, she’ll have to go back inside. “Go to college, Beautiful. Get out of this fucking town and meet some people who aren’t us . See the world. Travel! Do something that doesn’t consider Marcus’ codependence and trauma. I want to see that version of you.”
“Kari?” Marcus’ voice booms from inside his house, but from the back door. “Hey, Kar? You okay out there?”
“Shit.” I practically throw her off. Slamming her to the wall in a wholly ungentlemanlike way and instantly regretting it when she stumbles to her feet and frantically searches for air. “I’m sorry!” I whisper my words, pressing my hand to her lips, though she’s not the one talking. “Shit, Bear! I’m sorry.”
She bites my palm and snickers when I tear it back on a hiss. Then she reaches up and brushes loose tendrils of hair behind her ear. Her chest heaving for air, her lips, way too fucking swollen for me to still live beyond the next five minutes. But she’s smooth. Innocent. She clears her throat and sweetens her tone, “Around the side, Marc.” She steps out from between me and the wall and fixes her top, so the slouchy fabric sits exactly right on her shoulder. Then she beams when Marc steps around the corner, his expression not nearly as suspicious as I expected.
“We got caught up checking out this crack in your foundation.”
“What?” Instantly panicked, Marc grabs his phone from his pocket and switches the flashlight on. Then he stalks closer, illuminating the concrete footings hidden neatly under the wood siding. “What crack, Kar?”
“Here.” She crouches, her long, long legs like that of a praying mantis. And everyone knows what happens to the male mantis after he gets his rocks off . Leaning in and pointing, her long hair dangling over her bare shoulder, she draws her brother in and hoodwinks him like she’s been practicing her whole life. “Do you see that crack?”
“That one?” Frowning, he reaches out and touches a hair-line mark on the concrete. Then he drags his thumb across it and grins when the line moves. “It’s mud, Kar.” Exhaling a long, relieved sigh, he pushes up straight and drags his sister up. “Scared the shit out of me, though.”
“I was getting to the touching.” She giggles, so, fucking, innocent , and slides under her brother’s arm. “Swear I was. But then you came outside.”
“I’m glad you told me. It could have been really bad if the foundation was actually cracked.” He presses a noisy kiss to her temple and turns away. Leaving me, his best friend , behind like I don’t even exist. “Did you get what you wanted from the barn?”
“Yeah. I put it in my car. That’s when I noticed the crack. Luc and I were heading back to the house when I looked over and noticed it.” She wraps her arm across his hip and snuggles in. “Did you win your game?”
“No. Jess was a total shit and kicked my ass. It’s your turn now, if you want it.”
“Sure.” Kari glances back as they approach the corner of the house. She meets my eyes, her smile, way too fucking devious to not be pure evil. Then she snickers and continues on. “We should order pizza for dinner. I’m starving.”
“I’ll do you one better,” Marcus counters. “I have bases and toppings in the fridge already. I’ll make you pizza. Way nicer, and a fraction of the price.”
“ M arcus often talk shit about my wife?” Kane pulls out a chair at my kitchen table and sits, lazing back so the frame groans, and digging his hands into his pockets. “Does he need a little talking to?”
I cough out a gentle laugh and turn away. “Marcus will talk shit about anyone who doesn’t fit into his life exactly right. He’s not a dick,” I amend. “He’s just wildly unhealed from childhood trauma, and as a result, likes for square pegs to fit into square holes. Jess,” I happily sigh, “has always been a round peg trying to fit into a square hole. And you…” I turn at the counter and meet his fiery eyes. “You’re the grenade, tossed into the room and fucking everything up beyond recognition. It’s just good, I suppose, you fell in love with my sister and not his.”
“You think he’d be a threat to me?”
“I think he’d destroy himself and everyone around him trying to protect her from the unknown.”
“Meanwhile,” he smirks. “You’re out here macking on Kari and fucking her against his house.” He lifts his chin, offering his extended hand and a closed fist. For bumping . “Badass, Lenaghan. I’m proud of you.”
“I wasn’t fucking her.” I leave his hand hanging, and instead, look down at a sleeping Billy. “And this conversation is entirely inappropriate. Don’t listen to the things he says, Sweet Girl. In fact,” I glance up from beneath my brows and eye my brother-in-law. “Don’t listen to anything he says, ever. It’s not safe.”
“Hell it’s not.”