“No one talks about Marlowe, or they get my boot print on their face, got it?”
He’s coiled like an animal.
Diego, who crowded him once, does it again. Those brown daggers turn to him, ready to pounce on his ass first before getting to me. Not that I’m scared of him, I’ve got probably an extra thirty pounds of muscles, but I’ve seen the dude workout, and he’s a relentless beast. But Diego is skinny with a bad back, and Dom could break him in two if any of us let him get that far.
“Calm your tits, Darko Dommy. No one is talking about your hot Asian chick,” Em is bold as fuck for saying this to Dominic, and even Hollister tenses, ready to jump into action. “Although I’d love a go with her or your mom. Either cougar is fine with me.”
It takes less than a second for both to snap, shoving the table into Em as they lunge for his ass. I haul Holli back against me, forearm across his chest. The booth is rocking violently. Diego has a harder time. Arms wrapped around Dom, using the table against his body to trap him in place. Diego’s boots squeak on the old floor, slipping on years of grease and grime.
“THE FUCK, EM?!” Holli roars, straining against me.
Dom doesn’t roar.
He goes quiet.
That’s worse. His jaw is locked. Eyes black and flat, tendons standing out in his neck as he strains toward my brother like he’s about to murder him.
Em just blinks. His cast prevents him from jumping to his feet and running across the diner. Drinks spill across the table. Plates of half-eaten food slide to our side, collecting in front of my brother. French fries land in his lap, which he’s steadily eating.
“Whoa, whoa. Calm down, bro.”
Diego grunts, getting dragged half out of the booth by Dom. His bad back pops. I can hear it in the catch of his breath and the clench of his teeth. His arms strain holding back the raging bull of Dom. Even my forearms are tight, holding back Holli.
The rest of the diner freezes. The waitress, with her half-ash cigarette, saunters over as if this is an everyday occurrence. Maybe it is.
“Boys,” she warns, hand on hips. The bulky cook waddling up behind her as reinforcement. “Knock it off, or I’ll throw you out.”
“Chill,” I snarl at both Dom and Holli. Neither look at me. “He’s not fucking serious.”
“The hell he’s not,” Holli snaps, breath sawing through his teeth. “He doesn’t get to talk about Barbara that way.”
“Neither of them,” Dom adds, sounding more deadly than his mom’s boyfriend fighting in my arms. He’s not as big as us, but still strong from all the gym hours. It’s like trying to hold a pissed off bear.
“EM,” I bark, cutting through the noise. “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
My brother’s cocky grin is gone now. His eyes flick between Diego’s, Dom’s, Holli’s, and mine. He swallows. Adam’s apple bobs around the French fry trapped in his throat.
“What’d I say? It’s their fault for having fuckable?—”
Dom surges again. Diego swears in Hawaiian. The table legs scrape. Nugget basket finally tips. One bounces off Em’s chest and lands on the floor. Wrong move. Wrong joke. We all know it. The cook moves quickly, slapping his palms on the table, and everyone freezes.
“Get out! All of you!”
Em drags in a shaky breath.
“Okay,” he mutters, hands up, palms out. “Okay. My bad. Bad joke. No fucking cougars for me. Your women are off-limits. My big dumb mouth. I get it. I’m sorry. And I want my angel. Sof would know how to handle this. She makes me behave.”
He means it.
I know when he’s bullshitting. This isn’t that. Holli still snarls. Dom’s stare doesn’t soften. Diego hitches him back another inch, muscles in his arms trembling.
“He apologized, bro,” Diego grits, jaw clenched. “Let it go before my spine snaps, and you have to wheel my ass to the ICU that Em just got out of.”
That does it. Dom’s eyes glint at Diego’s. A silent understanding, even with his breathing ragged now. Not loud, just like every inhale is a fight. He’s not looking at Em anymore. He’s somewhere else. In another room or another night. Some other moment that ripped him open. I’ve seen that look on him before. It’s never about the thing in front of him. It’s about all the shit stacked behind it.
“Dom,” I say, dropping my grip on Holli long enough to lean past him. “Hey. Look at me.”
Those black eyes snap to mine.
