Penny expels a frustrated breath. "This is getting ridiculous. Holly and I have to referee you if you're within ten feet of each other. Now you want me to pass notes like we're in grade school again?"
"I'd deliver the message myself if I didn't think I'd kill him. He just cut me out of the Spades, Penny. I don't think he's going to let me come back."
There's a beat of stunned silence while my sister gathers her fury. I pity the poor bastard who pisses her off in the next thirty minutes. She's not going to be satisfied until she can knock our heads together. I'm not sure which of us she'll be more pissed at when I'm through saying my piece.
"What. The. Fuck. Happened?" she asks, making each word its own emphatic growl.
I don't dare lie. She'll hear the truth from Cruz soon enough, and I'd rather it come from me than from that bastard. She'll still probably drag me back by my scrotum if she gets her way.
"Brooklyn Gardel crashed your mixer a few days ago."
She's grinding her teeth so hard I can hear it on the other end of the phone. If she could reach through the phone to throttle me, I'd be dead.
"And you're with her now?"
"Yes."
"Motherfucker," she hisses. "What the fuck are you thinking Kase? Were you looking for a way to piss Cruz off? You do a fine job on your lonesome."
My hand balls into a fist at my side and I glower at the wood grain in front of me. Why the fuck does everyone think I've done this for the sole purpose of crossing Cruz? While it's been top on my priority list for a few years now, I do occasionally do other things.
"Do you want to hear my explanation or not? Because Cruz hung up before I could get in a word edgewise."
Penny takes several deep breaths before she speaks again. "Explain. Five minutes or less."
So I summarize the events as they've occurred up to this point, leaving out the small detail that Brooklyn and I are fucking again. She doesn't want to know and it won't help my case, regardless. I recount Brooklyn's request, the bruises that dot her stomach, the flight from the hotel and our arrival at Uncle Rocco's cabin.
"It was the only place I could think of," I conclude with a weary sigh. "It's out of the way, I've got a gun, and someone will have to try very hard to get the jump on us."
Penny sighs too. "If it were anyone else, I think Cruz would back you. But since it's Brooklyn, it'll be a hard sell."
"I don't give a shit if he lets me come back, Penny. But I thought you deserved to know what’s happening. If you think you can extricate his head from his ass, you're welcome to try. But for now I'm not counting on it. I've got a few more hours before the phone dies. After then it's anyone's guess when I'll call back."
Penny is silent for so long that I'm sure she's hung up. Then there's a distinct sniffle and the sound of a nose being wiped hard. A small smile touches my lips. Penny doesn't show it often, but she loves us both, no matter how badly behaved we are.
"Be careful," she warns. "Don't get yourself killed for her, do you understand me? I'll rip her hair out myself if you become a martyr."
"I won't," I assure her, though I know that I can promise no such thing. If there's a bullet coming for us, my body will be between it and Brooklyn.
I can tell she doesn't believe me, but neither one of us says it.
"I'll talk to him. Goodbye, Kase. I love you."
"I love you too, sis."
Then I hang up the phone, saying farewell to the last person in my family that gives a damn about me.
10
Brooklyn
The silence is strained, like a cord about to snap back and hit me painfully. I'm reluctant to break it, but I can't hold the question in for long.
"Was it worth it?" I clear my throat and glance down, amending my inquiry because it's not really the question I meant to ask. "I mean...was I...amIworth it?"
He's sitting at the edge of the bed, hands balled into fists on his thighs. He's been glaring at the wall, saying and doing nothing for several minutes. After he hung up on Penny, he's not moved from his position.
Kase is stone-faced, and in that moment looks more like his brother than I've ever seen him. Cruz has always had an angry set to his jaw, before he even had a reason to be furious with life. To the world they may appear identical, but I've always known Kase's face. It disturbs me to see him look so much like his bastard brother.
