Now, I slept in for as long as I could, hoping that that part of the day would pass before I opened my eyes. There was no reason to open my eyes, because my entire world died with three words. The only place that girl lived was in the dark, hidden below the nightmares that woke me up.
This time when I opened my eyes, Harper wasn’t behind the tears and screams of a little boy. She was lying beside him. Wrapped up tightly in my arms with her head nestled in the crook of my neck. It was the first morning in seven years that I woke up feeling whole.
Then I remembered, and kicked her out.
When people called me cold and cruel they were right. Not caring was the only way I could survive. That’s what I told myself, anyway. The truth was a much harder pill to swallow.
I flattened my palms down on the bar and blew out a breath. I’d been standing in here for god knows how long, staring at the bottle of scotch in front of me. One drink, that’s all I wanted. Yet every time I put that open bottle to my lips all I could see was Harper’s face.
If anyone deserved my hatred, it was her. But if I took a drink and lost control, was I any better than the man who turned her against me?
“Found him!” I looked up as Logan waved at someone down the hall and then sauntered in.
Great, just what I needed.
“Hey Mase, we’ve…” He stopped and cocked a brow at the open bottle. “Whatcha doing?”
That cautious look of worry that everybody gave me was really starting to get on my nerves.
“Staring at a bottle of scotch.”
“Just staring?” another voice asked, making me roll my eyes as my brother rounded the corner to join us. “That bottle’s open, Mase.”
Well, if it isn’t Captain Obvious.
I pushed off the bar and folded my arms over my chest. “What do you want?”
“That depends,” Micha’s chocolate eyes shifted from me to the bottle and back. “You been drinking?”
“You wouldn’t know if I was.”
Harper wasn’t the only one good at hiding shit. Half of my last year was buried in a drunken haze and my brother had no idea.
“Yes I would,” Micha insisted.
That made me snort. “Why? You got a breathalyser in your back pocket?”
It wouldn’t surprise me if he did.
Did I back down when Micha locked his hard ass glare on mine? Nope. I glared right back at him. If he wanted to try and intimidate me, he could go right ahead. I grew up with this shit. It didn’t work on me when I was little, and it sure as hell wouldn’t work now.
Logan, however, had had enough of our silent stand offs. He sighed and shook his head.
“You’ve gotta stop holding this shit against Micha, Mase.” Logan tipped his head and looked right at me. “I didn’t tell you either.”
I huffed out a snicker. “Who says I don’t hold anything against you?”
There was plenty I held against Logan. But Micha… He was my brother. The other half of my soul. The one guy I should’ve been able to count on no matter what. I never would’ve kept something like this from him.
“So get mad at me then.” Logan tapped his chest. “I’m the one that wanted to keep it from you.”
“Right,” I snorted. “Because Micha always listens to other people.”
No one told Micha what to do. Even when we were kids and the rules of a game were clearly lined out, he changed them. And everyone else went along like little lap dogs.
How did my brother respond to my comment? He huffed out a heavy breath and shook his head. “Stop acting like a child, Mase. Let it go.”
“Huh? Let it go?” I snatched the bottle off the bar and moved to shoulder past them. “Why didn’t I think of that?”
