“I’ve had enough of this. You’ve spiraled for two years, refusing to grieve your loss and instead channeling all of your energy into revenge. Now, there is no revenge to be had, and you are lashing out at someone who doesn’t deserve your venom. Chica loca didn’t kill Ellis, and she didn’t steal your vengeance. She did what it seems like she’s always had to do: she survived. Your anger with her is misplaced, and if you’re not careful, you will kill the last parts of you that Ellis loved so much.”
I shoved Bones back into the door and grabbed his shirt, hauling him into my face.
“Fuck you, you don’t know what it’s like to lose a sister.”
I didn’t see Bones’s hit coming, but I should have. His fist connected with my gut, making me double over. I straightened up, ready to rip him apart to ease some of the horrible fucking burning in my chest that started the moment I sawhertonight. Bones’s fist connected with my cheek once, twice, three times until I fell back onto the couch.
“Hijo de puta, I DON’T KNOW WHAT IT’S LIKE? You aren’t the only person grieving her, Priest! We all loved her; she was like a littlesister to all the Crows. Fuck you for being so goddamn selfish you can’t see that losing Ellis gutted everyone under this roof.”
Looking at me like he was disappointed and repulsed by my behavior, Bones shook his head and walked back out of my office. If only he knew. If I told him what I’d said the last time I saw my sister alive, he really would hate me. I knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that I would absolutely deserve it.
Priest, Two Years Ago
The party raged around me in the cookie-cutter house on the nicer side of Sagebrush. Reid, one of my old buddies from high school, threw the party to celebrate passing the Nevada state bar exam. He had inherited the house after his parents died in a car accident the year before, and it was his first party since his loss. He was falling-down drunk, but even throwing up in the bushes off to the side of his back patio couldn’t wipe the smile off his face. Some weird EDM shit blared through speakers somewhere in the house, people talked and danced and fucked all over the place. Reid didn’t seem to mind that his family’s home was getting trashed. He was in complete bliss celebrating his success.
I was happy for him; he had worked hard to become a lawyer like his old man, and he deserved to have a good time tonight. Liquor flowed freely, and everywhere I looked, people were getting high and hooking up. The bass from the speakers set up around the living room and out on the patio was so strong the window rattled, but the neighbors would be incredibly disappointed if they thought a noise complaint made to the local police would result in anything. Our MC had the local cops in our pockets and a few in Reno and Carson City too. Tonight, everyone wasgoing to have a damn good time. Bottles of liquor lined every flat surface, and someone had a circle going in the backyard if the smell permeating the house was any indicator.
Rosie, some girl I vaguely remembered as having a massive crush on me in high school, was sucking my cock in the upstairs bathroom. I didn’t know where she’d been the past few years or who gave her the engagement ring she was rocking. Frankly, I didn’t give a shit. She had been begging for a taste of me, and who was I to deny her? Her head bobbed up and down rapidly as she gagged on my length. Someone pounded on the door, and Rosie moved like she was going to pull away. I swiftly pushed her head back down and spilled my release down her throat with a grunt. I’d definitely had better, but hey, an orgasm was an orgasm. Rosie sat back with red-rimmed eyes and a satisfied smirk on her face. I tucked my dick back in my jeans and paused with my hand on the doorknob. “Thanks for the blow job, Rosie.” See, I could be a gentleman.
The smirk dropped from her face.“It’s Rachel.”
Oh. Whatever, didn’t really matter anyway. I closed the bathroom door as Rosie/Rachel cleaned herself up at the sink, only to find Cricket waiting on the other side of the door. The damn limey bastard looked way too clean-cut to be a biker, but I’d seen him kick a man to death, so I knew his posh, pretty-boy look could be deceiving. He brushed his light brown hair back out of his face, flexing his bicep a bit to give the two chicks passing in the hallway a bit of a show in what Bones and I had mockingly dubbed his “GQ pose.”
“The fuck you interrupting me for, Blue Steel?”
Cricket threw his head back and laughed, his brown eyes lit up in mirth and whatever illicit substance he’d indulged in tonight.
“I can’t help it if I’m really, really ridiculously good-looking,” Cricket said in his slightly British-sounding accent. “Zoolander” was his all-time favorite movie, and he quoted it all the time back in high school. He’d moved to the US from the UK when he was twelve, and his accent had faded, but when he was angry or fucked up, it came back with a vengeance. Cricket was having a good time, so I didn’t doubt that he’d be speaking the Queen’s English before the night was over.
“I just thought you ought to know Ellis just showed up with Lennon and a few other birds. Don’t tell her it was me who narced on her, though. I don’t need baby Abbott coming for my balls when she gets kicked out.” I growled under my breath. This party definitely wasn’t the place for my baby sister. Not only was every guy here too old for her and certainly not good enough for her, but if my parents found out she got high or drunk off her ass on my watch, I’d never hear the end of it. Ellis was a typical baby sister, tagging along after me and my friends her whole life. For the most part, it was kosher. She was a good kid: smart, funny, beautiful, and a ballbuster when she needed to be. Something I encouraged unless she turned her ball-busting ways in my direction.
Ellis was seven years my junior, and I had always been a protective big brother. Things started to get weird when she was old enough to realize that us guys went out and partied a lot without her and that she’d never really be “one of the guys.” I loved hanging out with my sister, teaching her how to change a tire, or playing PlayStation with her. However, I didn’t want her around when I blew off steam and had a good time. There were some things your little sister just shouldn’t see. It irked the shit out of me that she insisted on tagging along, making it awkward, and then having the audacity to get mad at me when I insisted she went home where she belonged. She was a good girl, and she had no business messing around at a party like this one.
All I wanted was one night to relax and have fun with my friends without club business or Duke breathing down my neck. Was that too much to ask? I snatched the blunt out of Cricket’s mouth just after he had taken his first puff. I took a couple of puffs before handing it back. Cricket muttered something about me being a prick, but I brushed past him on my way to find Ellis. I headed down the stairs and was greeted by the sight of some punk-ass college friend of Reid’s taking a body shot off my baby sister. Oh, fuck no.
Ellis let out a startled squeal as I ripped the frat boy away from her and threw him onto the couch.
“The fuck, bro?” This guy must have a damn death wish. I turned my back on Ellis and got in his face. His eyes widened as the realization of who I was dawned on him. I nodded.
“Yeah. You know who the fuck I am. Keep your hands off my sister. I see you even blink in her direction again, I’ll take a tire iron to your kneecaps, you feel me?” I felt Ellis’s small hands ball up the back of my shirt, tugging me away from the guy who thought touching my sister was a good idea. Abruptly, I turned on my heel, grabbed Ellis’s arm, and towed her out the front door. She dug in her heels and protested as people called out behind us.
“Oh shit, baby Abbott is out past her bedtime!” Bard called, cupping his hands to his face and making oooooo sounds because she was in trouble.
“Ellis, you should have known better to even try!” Bones called and sniggered with Bard.
“Screw you, Bones! Thought you might want to know; Lennon came with me. You know, in case you’re interested in what she’s doing. Or who,” Ellis called smugly over her shoulder while trying to pry my fingers off her arm.
Bones’s playful expression instantly vanished as he strode through the front door of Reid’s house, presumably to find Lennon. The sooner the two of them banged, the better. The sexual tension was annoying and awkward since I considered Lennon to be like a little cousin. I just needed them to get over themselves and admit they liked each other so the rest of us didn’t have to witness their reluctant dance.
Stopping at her car, I finally let Ellis wrench her arm out of my grasp. She immediately smacked my chest and started yelling at me.
“What the hell was that, Captain Caveman? I’m an adult, and I can do whatever the fuck I want.”
I laughed cruelly, irritated I even had to have this conversation. None of the other guys had to haul their baby sisters out of clubs and parties. Why couldn’t she take a fucking hint?
“If you’re an adult, I’m a goddamn giraffe. There’s a reason the guys call you baby Abbott. No one wants to be your damn babysitter tonight, so go the fuck home.”
Ellis sucked in a sharp breath. “You’re such an asshole, Lochlan! I’m not trying to ruin your fun. I’m trying to have some of my own! You stay out of my way, and I’ll stay out of yours.” She went to march herindignant ass back into the party, but I caught her around the waist and swung her back around to the driver’s side door of the car.
