“I know what you’re trying to do,” I tell him. “You can’t stand to see me get ahead so you’re looking to sabotage it. But it’s not going to work. Dad sees the truth. Dad knows–”
“Oh, give it up,” Avery lets out a gritty laugh. “Our pathetic excuse for a father is senile. Whatever disease is growing inside him has his brain so shot to hell that he couldn’t make a decent decision if the company actually depended on it, business or otherwise.”
With that, I grab Avery by the back of the neck and steer him to the side into one of the meeting rooms. It’s empty other than a large oval table and about twenty roller chairs.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?!” Avery’s grin is gone for the most part as I slam the door shut. I’m not sure if he ever drops that smug look 100% to be honest and it’s been digging under my skin for years. I want to wipe it clean off his face.
“You are my problem,” I spit out.
And just like that, the grin is back. “Maybe if you focused more on your own life you wouldn’t be so consumed in mine.” Avery places two fingers on my shoulder and nudges me back.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” I grit out.
“Says the man who just threw me in the first room he could find so he could throw a hissy fit. You know, for being the ‘older brother’ you sure are–”
I shut him up with my fist. It lands square on his jaw, sending him crashing into the table, tossing two of the chairs out of the way. Pain shoots like electricity through my hand and up into my shoulder. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve hit someone and while I know I will probably be feeling it in the morning, it feels good. Really fucking good. Probably because I know who will be hurting more.
Avery grips the edge of the table to pull himself to his feet. He wipes his mouth with the back of his wrist, streaking his lightgray button down with blood. He chuckles and spits on the floor next to my shoes.
“It’s nice to see a little aggression from you, brother. Here I always assumed you didn’t have it in you.”
“Not everyone is reckless, Ave. Some of us grab life by the horns in a bullfight.”
“And some of us actually want to get ahead and go for the throat.”
Avery lunges into me, and we both land on the table. If it weren’t for the fact that it’s solid polished oak, it probably would have broken into a million shards of wood, maiming us both. One thing is for sure as we wrestle our way across the table before landing on the floor in a heap– we may be fit, but we aren’t young.
I’m going to be feeling this in the morning. And I don’t give a shit.
“When will you learn that it’s not about tearing someone else down?” I growl at him as I sit back, assuming he’s learned his lesson.
Stupid on my part because he never learns his lessons.
While my guard is down, he takes another shot, this time socking me square in the mouth.
Mother fucker…
I’d be lying if I said I didn’t momentarily see stars as my mouth floods with the distinct taste of copper. But I quickly shake it off, grabbing his fist mid swing. I am able to unsteady him and shove him to the ground before getting on my knees and barring my forearm over his throat. I put just enough weight on him to stop him. To slow him down. To make him surrender.
“Okay,” he taps my arm. “I said okay!”
I let up and we both sit heavy, our breaths jagged, our faces fucked up. But for the first time, as he looks at my bleeding mouth and I look at his bruised frown, I think we both finally feela release in the tension we have been carrying between us for all these years.
“Nice left hook,” I nod down at him.
“Thanks. I’ve been saving it up for you, special.”
I can’t help but grin at that. I run my tongue across my metallic teeth.
Fuck it.
I spit on the floor and wipe my mouth too.
Then, Avery says something I am not expecting.
“Why are we like this?”
“Bullheaded? I think we get that from him.”
