37. Luc
37
LUC
HEART PAIN. HEAD PAIN. NOT REALLY SAME SAME.
“ N o broken bones that I can find. Ya know, like with my hands, and not an x-ray which we totally have access to down at the hospital.” Mitch firms his lips and runs his fingertips along my arm. My head thuds with an ache so fucking deep, I’m not sure if there’s a drum line somewhere in the back, or if a train is using my skull for a set of tracks.
He sits on the edge of Kari’s bed—first and last time—and examines my tender body. “I can’t find anything while probing your bones, Lenaghan. But you could have a million hairline fractures, and we won’t know until you get the damn scan.”
“Not getting a scan.” My words are slurred. Heavy. And my eyes don’t open all the way. But I spy a quietly crying Kari in my peripherals. Her eyes are swollen too. Red and puffy, albeit for a different reason. “Hey, Bear.” Weak, I reach across and tap her hip to draw her attention. “You okay over there, beautiful?”
“He’s going to prison,” she chokes out, twisting to look me up and down. “And you’re going to the hospital.”
I shake my head, slowing the movement when it feels like my brain rattles inside my skull. “Neither of those things are happening.”
“They should be,” Mitchell snarls. “You need to have your head scanned, at the very least. And he needs a little time in a cage to cool off. Ten to twenty-five oughta do it. ”
“Oh god.” Kari sobs into her hands, her back bouncing from the tears wracking her frame. “He was so mad. So mad!”
“We knew he would be. Hey?” I pinch the fabric of her shirt between my stiff, aching fingers, and tug it to get her attention. “Bear? Look at me.”
“I can’t. I’m so ashamed.”
A long, silent growl reverberates in the back of my throat. Then I bark out a non-playful, “Look at me!”
Dragging her face from her hands, she glances across and blinks fresh tears onto her cheeks.
“It’s gonna be okay. I’ve known Marcus most of my life, Bear. He flashes hot, then he cools down. It’s gonna be fine.”
“He deserves to go to jail for what he did,” Mitchell growls. “I get the big brother thing, Luc. I really do. But this is next-fucking-level unhinged.”
“He’s not going to jail on my account.” Swallowing the acid creeping along my throat, I set my least-painful arm on the bed and use it to hitch myself up to sitting. A long moan rolls through my throbbing chest and erupts with a side of a whimper, and when I try to force my eyes open, the whole world swims.
It’s momentary and dizzying.
But then things slow. The nausea bubbling in my belly settles. The universe calms the fuck down. Then my lips curl into a small, teeny tiny so the splits don’t split more , smile that still sends shards of glass through my veins. “See?” I swallow the lump in my throat and ignore the pain radiating along my forearm. “Everything is okay.”
“Luca!”
“I’m not going to the hospital. I’m not making a statement with the cops. And I’m not?—”
“The cops already know!” Mitchell sneers. “The chief of fucking police is the same dude you eat Sunday dinner with, stupid. He knows!”
“And he won’t press charges if I don’t ask for them. He knows Marcus, too.” I bring my hand up and gently probe my swollen jaw. “That’s his foster brother, Mitch. He knows Marcus just as well as I do.”
“Which means he knows he has a fuckin’ danger on his streets. What happens next time someone pisses Marcus off, and a world champ fighter isn’t there to pull him away?”
“Dude…”
“He would have killed you,” he grits. “He wasn’t thinking with his brain in that moment, Luc. He was just… doing. He couldn’t control it. So what happens next time his temper is triggered, and he can’t switch it of f?? Do you wanna explain to that person’s family you could have prevented someone’s death, but you didn’t, because you wanna protect your friend?”
“The only person on this planet at risk of a beat down from him is me.” I run the pads of my fingers over my cheekbone, examining my damn self, since Mitch is more concerned with arguing than he is with his off-the-books patient. “His only trigger is Kari. He’s not a risk to anyone else, so calm the fuck down and stop talking.” I massage my temple. “You’re hurting my head.”
“You probably have a concussion, stupid. You’ll go to sleep in a few hours and never wake up again.” He claps my shoulder and grumbles when a long hiss ricochets along my throat. “Once you die, the cops will pursue charges. And I guess I’ll have to get used to having a new partner on the bus with me. Which fuckin’ sucks, by the way. It took me easily ten years to get used to the way you hum along to the radio.”
“You’re so fucking dramatic.” I slump, too tired to sit up straight, but I reach across and grab Kari’s shirt. “You need to chill out, Bear. It’s gonna be okay.”
“It’s not gonna be okay!” Her eyes spill over, drenching her cheeks and dribbling off the ledge of her jaw. “He hates us, Luc. He’s pissed at me for lying. And he’s gonna try to hurt you again. Every single time you’re in the same room, he’s gonna hurt you, because we snuck around and broke his heart.”
“I have strong bones.” I hook my hand in the back of her hair, twisting until her tears stop and her eyes widen, then I pull her back and lie down so we land together, her head resting on my tender shoulder. Instantly, like she knows how she fits, her thigh comes up to rest on mine and her arm slings across to cover my throbbing ribs. “Give me today to rest. Give him today to cool down. He can go back to Meg, and she’ll talk him off the ledge, then tomorrow, we’ll figure it out.”
“Next week,” Mitchell snarls. “Tomorrow, you’re gonna hurt even more than you’re hurting today. Next week, you’ll probably stop pissing blood.”
“Is that your professional medical opinion?” I close my eyes—I would roll them if I had the energy—and slide my fingertips over the ball of Kari’s shoulder. “Everything’s gonna be fine.”
“You promise?” Kari’s voice trembles, her heart tumbling down, down, down into the pits of despair. “Do you swear, Luca? You’ll make it right between you and my brother?”
“I swear on everything we are. You’re my forever, Bear, and he’s my best friend. Beneath his rage is just a terrified man who wants to protect you.” I turn my face and drop a kiss on her brow. “We have that in common.”
“ W as it better the next week?” Kane leans against the wall and folds his arms. But he looks down at Marcus and Billy and grins. “Was it all over after a good heart to heart sesh with your bestie?”
Marc chuckles, shaking his head and staring down at Billy’s pert nose. “Took about six more months, a lot of bitching and awkward family get-togethers, then almost losing my baby.” He glances up and swallows, his Adam’s apple bobbing with the action. “I felt, amidst my grief, that Luc was part of the reason I was losing my son, too. In my eyes, he was the reason my whole fucking life sucked.”
“Mostly, I was just trying to do the right thing,” I murmur. “I was standing in the middle of a whole bunch of people I loved, and all of those people had a different idea of what the world should look like. If I chose Meg or Kari, then I was hurting Marcus. If I chose Marcus, then I was neglecting the woman I loved, and I would have been on the wrong side of right and wrong.”
“He was breaking my heart, every single day for most of a year.”
“And then?”
Marc snorts, slipping his finger into Billy’s hand and smiling when she closes her fist around the digit. “Then, Meg was nine months pregnant, and I thought I was gonna lose her, too. Luc and I did what Luc and I had grown used to doing—we were arguing over Kari. Months had passed since that day inside the apartment, and she was still with him. I was bleeding and hurting because I’d made it an ultimatum: him or me. And as far as my brain stretched, the fact that she didn’t dump him, meant she chose him. I know differently now,” he amends, leaning in and kissing Billy’s forehead. “I get it all now, but back then, we were all hurting. So Luc and I were bickering, like always, and Kari was putting herself between us. Telling us to knock it off.”
“Next thing we know, Meg is in labor,” I finish. “She’s laid out on the garage floor, screaming for help, and so fucking sure she was gonna die. And Kari and I were… well…”
“A paramedic and a nurse,” Kane nods, firming his lips in thought. “Handy.”
“So we’re calling for an ambulance, and I’m shouting at her not to push. Filthy garage floor. Loads of nasty germs. Keep it in and just wait things out. But of course?—”
“Babies are gonna come whenever they’re gonna come. And my son…” Marc chuckles. “He’s made a name for himself of moving at whatever the fuck speed he wants to move at. Fast or slow, he sets the pace, and the rest of us are scrambling behind to make sure he survives his latest crazy shit.”
“Either way,” I shrug, a small smile rolling across my lips when Marcus looks over, “Meg was screaming, and his baby was crowning. Marcus was still pretty fucking pissed at me, and then I was gonna have to ask his girl to take down her pants in front of me.”
Kane snickers, his shoulders bouncing as he looks at Marcus. “Salt in a wound.”
“He didn’t make it weird though.” Grumbling, Marcus rocks the baby. It’s unnecessary. She might be the most content infant I’ve ever known. But it’s what adults do: they rock the baby. It’s self-soothing just as much, if not more, than it’s infant-soothing. “The baby was coming faster than the ambulance, and I had a paramedic and a nurse right there. So…” He shrugs. “I let him do his thing.”
“He said if I delivered and kept mom and baby safe, he would forgive me forever. It was a deal made during crisis,” I smirk, “and such deals probably shouldn’t be enforced?—”
“Hell they shouldn’t,” Kane declares. “That’s the point of striking while the iron is hot.”
“I genuinely thought I was gonna lose them both,” Marcus adds. “I kept telling Meg she would be fine, but in the back of my panicked mind, I thought that was it for me. The culmination of the worst year of my life, and I was about to lose the woman I loved, and my baby.”
“He swore forgiveness if I helped him,” I finish. “Which worked for me. I was gonna help no matter what, but he made the deal, and I had a chance to get my family back together. So I accepted the terms, kept Meg breathing, delivered Marcus’ son, and then I made damn sure he kept his side of the bargain.”
“Then I asked him to be godfather to my child,” Marcus sighs, gazing down at my daughter much the same way he gazed down at his son years ago. “I told him I’d be cool with him and my sister, since he’d proven he did, in fact, love her. It wasn’t a one-night thing. It was forever. So I said fine. Everything would be cool between us, so long as he and Kari never, ever, ever kissed in front of me or made things weird.”
Grinning, Kane glances over to me. “You sucked her tongue into the back of your throat right then and there, didn’t you?”
Marcus’ nose and lips wrinkle with disgust.
But I laugh and shake my head. “No, though at this point in the story, we were at the hospital, formally meeting Chance Luca Macchio and hearing about the godparent stuff. Kari was feeling sassy after months and months of family drama, so I guess she was going all in. She sat on my lap and kissed me, and though Marc was grinding away at the enamel on his teeth, she was done dealing with the bullshit. We were together and we weren’t hiding anymore.”
Kane presses a hand to his chest and mocks, “The greatest love story of all time.”
“Shut up, Bish.” I roll my eyes and push away from the wall. We’re just three grown ass men, loitering at the top of a staircase when there are better, comfier places in the house to be. So I move past Kane and head onto the stairs. “It was our love story. And even with all the shit we had to go through, even after all the years where we couldn’t be together, it was the greatest love story I would ever know. She was my forever, and I wasn’t stepping aside or quitting her for anyone.”
“Which just so happens to be okay with me.” Marcus follows me down. “Once I moved past the anger, I was okay with how things had turned out. Because if a dude must see his sister with a man, then I suppose that man being his best friend is a decent solution. Twenty years of character assessments. Loyalty. Kindness. Honesty. There are absolute fucking monsters out there, preying on women with the sole intention to isolate her away from her family and fuck shit up.”
“Like with Laine,” Kane snarls. “That prick who fucked her up.”
I drop my chin in acknowledgement and turn off the stairs and head toward the kitchen. “Like Laine. But we dealt with him and got her out of that situation.”
“Who dealt with him?” Kane speeds his steps, brushing past a lazier, slower Marcus, and grabs my shoulder, spinning me back until we’re eye to eye. He stares into my fucking soul and rumbles, “What did you do about Graham?”
I flash a pleased smile and keep walking. “Nothing.” Everything . “I was just there for my sister as much as I could be. As much as she would allow. Though mostly you and Jess owned all that real estate. ”
“The twink needed her sister,” he grumbles. “And I wasn’t going anywhere without Jess. So…”
“And then Ang made his move. Now both of my sisters are hitched and safe. Babies are dropping all across town—Chance, the twins, Laine’s baby, Jay and Soph’s. Spence and Abby, Cap and Katrina. Everyone has made babies in the last ten years, while Kari and I were a little slower off the mark.”
“Probably lingering trauma,” Kane snickers. “Kiss the girl, and Marcus belts you black and blue. Make a baby with her…”
“And we’re hit by a fucking drunk.” I come to a stop in the middle of the kitchen, turning with fresh grief pulsing in my heart. We were joking. Having fun. Reminiscing. And now reality has come crashing down over my head once more. Just another fucking reminder that me and Kari… we have to work for us. All those years of lost time. Then all the years of hiding. Then losing Marc. And now, losing everything.
The universe refuses to give us a clear run. And that… that’s not fair.
“I hurt Graham,” I admit on an almost whisper, “for what he did to my sister. And I’ll hurt that drunk for what he did to my family. Later, when I have time to think and to plan it out. I’m gonna take care of business.”
Kane balls his fist and extends it in offer. “Welcome aboard, son. Uncle Kane will be glad to walk alongside you when you’re getting shit done.”
I look down at his fist, hovering in the air between us, and think of a man who came before the prick in the pickup truck. I think of the life I’ve lived and the pain I’m forced to feel because of someone else’s poor choices. Billy shouldn’t be here without her mom and brother, and I sure as fuck shouldn’t have had to leave the hospital without the other half of my family.
Resolute, I swallow and tap his fist with mine. “When I have time.”
He sets his hands on his hips and chuckles. “Some things are worth making time for. But I’ll be patient. So you were openly banging your girl after that other baby was born? Public exhibitionism and shit?”
“Dude!” Marcus shoulder checks Kane and passes through to me. “No.”
Fuck me. But Marc is a brave man for hitting a Bishop and giving him his back. But that’s who he is, I suppose. Way too fucking reactive when it comes to his baby sister. I tilt to the right and stop on Kane’s eyes, damn near midnight black with revenge. “Down, boy. You just heard how I nearly died because of his reactivity as far as Kari was concerned.”
“He’s lucky he’s holding a baby.” He backs up to lean against the doorframe, smirking and folding his arms as Jess wanders through with one of the girls. “Men have died for less.” He looks at me. “So you and Kari are together. It’s open. Big brother Marcus is accepting… grudgingly, but it’s happening. Now he has a new baby to obsess over.”
“Timing was serendipitous,” I chuckle. “He was focused on Meg and Chance, and so Kari and I had a free run for the next little while. From that point on, we could be completely and totally open about who we were. Seems dumb,” I clarify. “But walking into the diner and sitting together, holding hands, even kissing… all in public. It was a new experience for us.”
“No, it’s not dumb.” Kane’s eyes follow Jess as she stops by the fridge and helps herself. His lips curl into a small, secretive smile. “We had to hide at first, too. So I get it. Having that freedom to be open with the world about who we are…” he shrugs and brings his eyes back to me. “It feels good.”