Chapter 15 Blood Brothers #3
“What?” she whispered back.
“He couldn’t knock it out of me.”
Nicki gave him a sorrowful look. “I’m so sorry, Tommy.”
“I’m not. It was worth a shot. Or ten.”
“Well, you are very brave. And I’m honoured, Tommy.”
Nicki’s eyes went back to the cut. She pressed a fresh compress gently onto his skin.
“And…you’ll be OK. It’s not a disease. Love is a beautiful thing,” she added.
He continued looking up at her, mesmerized. Head pounding.
“Hey, I know what you are now.”
She smiled. “Oh, yeah? What’s that?”
“You’re a phoenix. Firstly, because you rose from the ashes.”
Nicki rolled her eyes but kept the smile.
“And secondly, you’re a mythical creature. Like a unicorn,” Tommy finished with a bloody smile.
“You’re crazy, you know that? A crazy wolf,” Nicki offered. “But thanks,” she finished with a wink.
“A vulture. That clawed at the remains of my roadkill heart. You’re a phoenix-vulture. That’s what you are.”
“OK, I think you took it one too far, now, Tommy.”
“You’re a ray of sunshine. That laser-beamed, burning a hole in my heart.”
“Alright.”
Ron returned from the garage, with three different types of glue and a bottle of Jack Daniels.
“Alright, one of these will have to do!” he presented.
“Alright, honey, are you ready?” Nicki asked.
“I don’t have a choice!” Tommy shouted.
Nicki handed him the bottle.
Tommy chugged it straight.
“Alright, Ron, I’ll hold the gash together and you pour the glue. Don’t move, Tommy!”
Nicki squeezed the skin together while Ron leaned over him and prepared to apply the glue.
“Ready? One, two, three!”
“Aaaaaahh! Tommy screamed until it was over.
Tommy’s scream echoed out through all openings of the house before he blew through the screen door and out into the open field.
“Tommy!” Marge shouted.
He looked at her with his one good eye.
“Your brother just found out about your mother.”
Tommy’s pain transferred from his face, down to his chest as he looked at Tyler out in the distance, leaning against the fence, alone.
Tommy’s feet moved beneath him over the dusty Earth toward his brother, bottle of Jack securely in hand.
He leaned on the fence beside Tyler, without a word. The breeze filled the silence between them.
Tyler discreetly wiped a tear away from his eye.
“I’m sorry. I was going to call you and tell you when Marge told me, but—”
“It’s better you didn’t,” Tyler interrupted. “I preferred the delusional hope that she would actually come back one day. But I guess that’s dead now too.”
Tommy inched closer to his brother, carefully.
“I…don’t know what to tell you, buddy,” Tommy attempted, and offered him the half empty bottle.
“Yeah, you’re fucking exactly like her,” Tyler said, taking a swig from the bottle.
“What? Why the fuck would you say that, bro?”
“Cause it’s fucking true.”
Tyler turned to face him now. “You run away from everything, just like her. One little problem and you bolt. You can’t handle anything hard.”
“That’s not true!” Tommy argued.
“It is! We’re in the middle of a fucking war! And you leave me to fight it alone! And you ran away to their territory no less! Maybe you wanna jump ship, huh?”
Tommy’s broken face was filled with surprise from Tyler’s words.
“No! Don’t even joke about that, man! Fuck the Leemans! And I didn’t run away! I banished myself, for you!” Tommy shouted.
“Well, that doesn’t help me, does it? Because I NEED YOU!” Tyler yelled back, unable to suppress the truth any longer.
They both looked at each other. Too late to take it back.
“Oh yeah? Well, I may run away when shit gets hard, fine! But you’re a fucking addict like she was! You’re just like her!” Tommy shouted.
“I’m a what?”
“You’re a fucking addict! Look at how you act with Nicki. I’ve never seen crack addicts as bad as you. You’re obsessed with her, you have security following her every move, no wonder she fucking ran away from you!”
Tommy’s words speared him.
“She didn’t run away from me,” Tyler whispered, looking back out onto the ranch.
Wolf had had enough and finally threw Jake off of him. The cowboy hat flew off of his head just as he hit the ground.
Both brothers laughed.
“Look, I’m sorry, bro,” Tommy offered.
Tyler looked at him, his gash glistening from the glue. “I think we both need a proper drink. Let’s go into town and fuck some shit up, yeah? This is Leeman territory, let’s go piss all over their shit.”
He turned to his brother and put his arm around him.
Tommy reciprocated and they walked back toward the house together.
Nicki sat with Marge at the table; the news about their mother already received. Nicki rose up from the chair and approached the brothers slowly.
They stopped in front of her, remaining in their arm lock together.
“Guys, I am so, so sorry,” she said softly.
Tyler put his other arm around Nicki and pulled her into them.
“It’s OK, honey. We barely knew her.”
The three shared a much-needed therapeutic hug.
Tyler released them and turned around to whistle to the crew.
“Let’s go boys! We’re going into town!”
“Yeah!”
“Woohoo!” they shouted and walked back in from the field.
Jake limped.