“Rett,” Arryn this time is the one to chastise him.
“That won’t be anytime soon,” Vanessa says, looking away from me quickly as the words jab a knife into my chest.
“So, you and my brother…?” He leaves the question open, waiting for Vanessa to finish.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Don’t say it baby, I beg silently, don’t say it.
“We’re not dating,” she replies quietly, “We can co-parent just fine as it is.”
Rett quirks a brow and looks to me, “Is that so?”
“I need to use the restroom,” Vanessa gets up quickly, hurrying from the room. I try to get her attention, but she keeps her chin tucked to her chest and her cheeks are flaming.
“Maya,” I say, my voice more growl than anything else, “Mind picking Ethan up for me?”
“What are you going to do?” She asks, wide eyed.
“Please,” I ask. She does as I ask, lifting Ethan and getting up from the couch to go over to Arryn.
Rett just sits there all cocky, “Hurt, did it?” He mocks.
“It’s one thing to fuck with me, Everett,” I growl, my strides eating up the space between us so I’m looking down on him. The fucker doesn’t even flinch. “But to fuck with her, to embarrassher.”
“Everett,” Torin says to our youngest brother, “Even I know that was low.”
“That’s the mother of my son,” I growl, “You will treat her with some damn respect.”
“Vanessa’s a lovely girl,” Rett shrugs, buffing his nails on the chest of his shirt, “No disrespect to her, you however, you can get fucked.”
“Rett, that’s enough,” Arryn tries, “We talked about this.”
“Yeah, well I thought about it a bit,” Rett stands, shoving into me but I plant myself, not moving an inch as my little brother squares up to me, “He doesn’t get to come back here to play house after he almost got you killed.”
“What would you have him do!?” Arryn says.
“Play house?” I snap, “I’m not playing fucking house. I’m here for my son.”
“That you never knew about,” Rett scoffs, “Wonder why she never told anyone, Kolt. Maybe it’s because she knows she can’t fucking trust you.”
“Fuck you, Everett.”
“Nah, man,” Rett shoves at my shoulders, “Fuck you and your damn martyr complex. What happens the next time, you just gonna up and leave? Leave the mother of your child alone with your son to go save the world?” He shoves me again, “Get your head out your ass, Kolten because you’re destroying everything in your path, not fucking fixing it.”
“Leave her out of it,” I warn.
“She was better off without you.” He whispers it so low, but damn it rings fucking clear inside my head, and I snap.
My fist connects with Rett’s jaw, snapping his head to the side but the little fucker just laughs. “That all you got, big bro?”
I get another punch to his face, cracking his nose when he swings for me, getting a sound connection to my eye socket which bursts pain through my skull. I grab the fabric of his shirt and toss him across the room, reveling in his body slamming across the table, scattering the cookies, and shattering the plate they were on. He gets up quickly, the fire roaring behind him.
With a wipe to his nose to clear the blood, he squares up again, “You disappear,” He snaps, “not letting any of us know if you’re okay, and then get some poor girl knocked up and disappear again. You’re no fucking hero, Kolten.”
“You think this is what I wanted!?” I yell. “I loved her! I fucking loved her, but I left her for you! To keep you fucking safe.”
“No one asked you to protect us, Kolten,” Rett hisses, his words a duplicate of Ness’s only a few days ago. “Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate it but a little heads up would have sufficed. We’re fucking Avery’s, you really think it would have been that easy? We would have handled it. But no, you fucking took on that burden and then you dragged my girl into it!”
