Chapter 15 Blood Brothers
Jake got all giddy as soon as he saw the horse.
“Oh, I’m gonna ride that thing until we leave! I bet it’s a wild one Tommy found. You can tell by the coat; it’s from the Pryor Mountains.”
Nicki rolled her eyes. Done with horses. And wolves.
Vinnie and Luca play-fought roughly on the open-air field.
“Yo, I’ll take you right now, bro!” Vinnie yelled.
“Let’s go, bro! You want a piece of this?” Luca quipped back before putting Vinnie into a headlock. It wasn’t a minute before Luca ended up with his back on the grass.
“Told you!” Vinnie stated.
“Damn it!” Luca yelled defeatedly, wiping himself off and squaring up again.
Their horseplay quickly fell silent when Tommy walked out of the house, the screen door shutting announcing his presence.
The six men and Nicki looked at him as he walked off of the porch and stepped onto the yard toward them. He looked at each of their serious faces one by one. Tyler’s was last.
Tommy walked closer to his brother, who remained stoic. The silence surrounded them.
He stepped up directly in front of Tyler, finally facing his inevitable fate. Tommy opened his mouth to speak.
“I’m sorr—”
PUNCH
Tommy’s face jerked to the side from the blow of Tyler’s fist.
“No!” Nicki shrieked.
Jake wasted no time containing Nicki’s attempt to run in between them. His arms swallowed her body and kept it secured like a straitjacket. She had no chance.
Tyler gripped Tommy’s hair with his fist and dragged him further into the field.
Everybody else stayed back and got comfortable along the rear wooden fence or plastic chairs moved from the porch.
Jake leaned back against the fence with Nicki strapped in front of him.
“Oh, God, what’s he going to do to him, Jake?” Nicki asked.
“What needs to be done, Nicki. Don’t look if you can’t handle it,” Jake replied.
Everybody looked on as the gladiator fight commenced.
Tyler pulled Tommy by the hair forcefully then released his grip.
Tommy stumbled forward but was able to stand up straight, beside his brother. He knew not to open his mouth again, not even to apologize, until he was permitted to.
Tyler looked out, with his brother at his side, and watched the horse in the distance feeding on grass.
He turned back to Tommy as if he was going to say something. But instead, his fist spoke for him.
PUNCH
Right into his eye.
“That’s for running away like a little bitch.”
PUNCH
In the nose.
“That’s for not being there for the first two deliveries. The Leemans asked where the fuck you were, and I covered for you, and then got a pipe in the face for it.”
PUNCH
In the chin.
“That’s for not returning our calls or texts and making us lose our fucking minds thinking the Leemans found you, and skinned you alive.”
Tyler grabbed Tommy by the shirt, and held him up close.
Tommy winced away.
“I’m sorry to see that they didn’t fucking do it,” Tyler whispered into his ear.
Tyler pushed Tommy back away from him.
Tommy almost lost his balance stumbling backward but straightened up quickly, arms at his sides.
He raised his chin for the next batch.
PUNCH
In the cheekbone.
“This is for your bike that we saw on the way, crashed and flooded in the fucking ravine. Yet another time that you managed to escape death when you didn’t deserve it.”
Tyler grabbed him close again and slithered into his ear.
“If you even think of replacing that fucking motorcycle, I will smash it with a bat, light it on fire and throw it over a bridge.”
Tommy’s face fell. He nodded in silent agreement.
PUNCH
In the eye.
“That’s for us having to cover your slack at work.”
PUNCH
In the mouth.
“That one was from Boon. And this? This one is going to fucking hurt, so get ready.”
Tommy’s nose bled. He winced.
PUNCH
In the mouth again, making Tommy fall back onto the grass.
Nicki tried with all her might to free herself from Jake’s imprisonment.
“Let me go, Jake! This has to stop!” she cried out.
“No, Nicki! This needs to happen until it ends.”
Tommy’s mouth joined in with the bleeding of the nose. His lip busted open and ruby red gushed down his cheek as he lay on the grass.
“That’s for kissing her. For betraying me.”
Tyler smashed Tommy’s face again with his rock-hard fist, kneeling over top of him. The blow pummelled his head to the other side and the blood now streamed across his other cheek. A bloody Joker.
Tommy spat the blood from his mouth onto the grass as he lay on his back, and saw in the distance, Nicki fighting to get out of Jake’s grip.
She was screaming and kicking but Tommy couldn’t hear the words. Everything was silent except for the ringing. Her movements were in slow motion.
The guys looked on with pity on their faces at what they thought was an unbreakable brotherhood, now on the brink of collapse. The crew blurred in Tommy’s tear-filled eyes.
Tommy turned his head back.
“I didn’t betray you, brother, I tested her loyalty.”
PUNCH
Another one to the side of the face. Even Tyler thought that one had a brutality to it that he usually reserves only for his enemies.
“I swear. Tyler. Brother,” Tommy pleaded, with more blood pouring out of his mouth. He curled over and spat onto the grass. “I wanted to kiss her, yes. But I did it to test her, and make sure she was loyal to you. Before you marry her.”
Tyler kicked Tommy in the stomach now, giving his murderous fist a break. Tommy keeled over, and coughed out blood.
“And?” Tyler asked, almost mockingly.
“She slapped me. Hard. Twice. And pushed me away. And told me she will tell you. So, it looks like she did.”
Tyler bent down again, this time to choke Tommy with his hands.
He gargled and tears pressed out of his eyes, joining the blood below.
“Why would you ever think she wouldn’t be loyal to me?” Tyler slithered in anger.
“Because, I never had any woman loyal to me,” Tommy managed, with this throat squeezed.
Tyler shoved him back onto the ground and released his neck.
“Maybe that’s because you were never loyal to any woman.”
He looked down at his brother, blood-soaked and broken. His dusty white T-shirt; crimson red.
“And lastly,” Tyler said, shaking out his wrist and cracking his knuckles.
He rotated his shoulder and turned his hand into an iron-hard fist again.
“This is for loving her. When you fucking told me that I shouldn’t for months! And now you know what it fucking feels like! Except that I got her. And she’s loyal to ME! And for that!”
Tommy finally put his hand over his face to protect himself for the first time this beat-down. This blow, for loving Nicki, was going to be the hardest one yet. And even Tommy knew he wouldn’t be able to take it.
His thick white scars glowed against the bloody backdrop.
Tommy winced and moaned in pain, holding his hand in front of his face, waiting for the last blow that will put him in a coma.
He shut his eyes.
But the blow never came.
Tyler looked down at Tommy’s trembling body, and the scars on his hand that he wears from protecting him since they were teenagers. The group home stab attack that Tommy’s hand absorbed so that Tyler’s ribcage would stop getting sliced. The act of true, selfless brotherly love.
Tyler’s fist lowered, and his hand unclenched.
“You won’t get the final smash,” Tyler stated quietly.
Tommy opened his eyes and turned his bloody face toward Tyler cautiously.
“That punishment you will bear every single fucking day you see me with her. And I know that it’s going to hurt more than anything I can do to you. Cause if I were you, and I loved her but couldn’t have her? I’d just kill myself.”
Tommy lowered his hand, remaining on his back, knowing it was over.
The blood pulsed further from his nose and mouth and his left eye started to swell.
“I’m sorry, brother,” Tommy managed.
Tyler didn’t say anything, only barely nodded, looking down at him.
Nicki finally twisted out of Jake’s grip. “Let me go, Jake!” she screamed, and bolted toward the brothers as soon as Jake finally released her.
She sprinted to Tommy and crash landed at his body when she reached him.
“Tommy, my God!” she exclaimed, looking up at Tyler.
“How could you hurt him this badly?” she yelled.
Nicki cradled her hands around Tommy’s face, inspecting his wounds.
“God, I’m sorry, Tommy! Are you OK?” Nicki asked, crying over him.
Her hands were covered in his blood and she used the bottom of her dress to soak up some of it.
“That’s enough, Tyler! That’s enough!” she cried out, tears streaming down her face.
She leaned into Tommy’s face, blood transferring onto hers.
She wiped his face with the dress, only for more blood to pool.
“Nicki, could you do me a favour and slap me again? Cause compared to his punches, those felt like a kiss,” Tommy teased.
She chuckled in her cry.
“Get up, Tommy! You need ice! Come on!” Nicki shouted, getting up and taking his hand, trying with everything she had to pull him up.
Tyler grabbed his other hand which finally got Tommy up onto his feet.
He stumbled forward, dizzy, and Tyler caught him into a tight grip.
They stood there, holding each other for a minute. Tyler held Tommy’s head with his hand against his chest, and Tommy bled onto it, closing his eyes, getting his balance back.
“I can’t believe you did this to him, Tyler.”
At the exact same time, the brothers each shared the same sentiment:
“I needed it.”
“He needed it.”
“You’re alright brother,” Tyler said, patting Tommy on the back.
Tommy kept holding onto Tyler until he released himself slowly and regained his balance and awareness of the situation. The ringing in his ears slightly lessened.
Tyler kept one arm around him.
“Let’s get you some ice, Tommy,” Nicki offered again.
“And a drink,” Tyler added.
Tyler opened up his other arm for Nicki and the three, dirty, dusty, bloodied bodies walked back toward the house and the crew. They looked like they returned from surviving an explosion. And in a way, they did. An explosion of forgiveness, of pent-up emotion, of pain. Of love.
Jake was the first to initiate the applause. Slowly-clapping at first, then the rest of the guys quickly joined in.