“I have been for some time. You’re your own man now.”
“Nah, that’s not what you saw in me. You needed me as an excuse to play warden, to keep control.”
“I witnessed it all, Dominic, from day one, I’ve been there—”
“You’re not my fucking father!” He approaches me at full height, his eyes flaring, his teeth bared. “You barely share my blood. Get out. I’m not asking.”
“I can’t.”
“You’ll get no absolution from me.”
“I know.”
“Then what the fuck is there to say? Go to her. She may listen to your fucking lies tonight, but it won’t be me.”
“Dom, I’m in love with her.”
“Sounds familiar.” He strikes then, both hands to my chest, and pushes me up against a truck perched in the bay behind me. I don’t fight him as the war rages in his head. The same war I battled months ago before I sent him away, refusing to listen, refusing to believe his feelings for her were real. It’s then I hear the squeal of brakes and the give in the gravel just outside the doors.
Fuck.
Dominic glares at me, eyes full of contempt and condemnation. It’s then I wonder if my brother will ever look at me the way he used to, with respect and admiration. I felt the snap in him the minute he realized what was done. “I can’t even ask you if she’s worth it. Because I know she is. You got what you wanted. She’s yours. You knew exactly what the consequences would be, the damage it would do to us, to Sean, to her, so what the fuck do you want from me?”
“I’m marking her tonight. I wanted you to be the first to know.” It’s then I see Dominic eye Sean past my shoulder.
“You’re what?” Sean seethes from where he stands, and I glance over to see his fists clenching and unclenching at the threshold of the garage. He wants to end me. It’s so fucking transparent. He won’t forgive me anytime soon and never will once I’ve made it clear what I’m about to do.
“I’m marking her for obvious reasons and for her protection. Order’s already out. It’s done.”
“The fuck you are!” Sean charges me, and Dominic steps between us, his head tilted as if he didn’t quite hear me right.
“You’re going to take it this far?” His tone is lethal, and I feel the second strike of betrayal emanating from his frame.
“I have no choice.”
“You have a fucking choice,” Sean explodes, “and so should she.”
Dominic reads my posture, my intent, and nods. “Yeah, you do that. You fucking mark her. You better bold that shit, and then you can live with it.”
“Dom!” Sean barks, incredulous. Dom shakes his head, turning back to him. He knows my reasoning, but Sean’s too broken to see it.
Sean steps up to the two of us, the picture of aggression. “You’re going too fucking far to prove a point. It’s not enough you fucked us all?”
“Not for me,” I counter as Dominic turns to face me with a smile so fucking wicked with intent that I know I’ve earned some of his hate. My brother hates me, and it’s deserved.
I will hate, maim, or fucking murder anyone who tries to take her away from me. Anyone, but my brothers who love her just as fiercely, but what’s killing them both is she’s no longer fair play.
“I didn’t lay a hand on her until a few months before you came back,” I tell them both because it bears being repeated—although it’s still not a defense.
Sean charges for me but stops a foot away, his eyes bloodthirsty, the devastation harder to see now that it’s masked by fury, but I know it’s there. “Yeah, well, you also stole our ability to fight by keeping us gagged in your fucking zoo! And I’m willing to bet we had a chance to get her back until you stepped in!”