“Don’t go after her. Don’t do it. It’s exactly what she wants you to do.”
“No, she wants me to get mad atyou! I’m going to put her in her place.” I turned to the door again, anger surging through me, when Kari’s voice stopped me.
“She’s going to see this as you running after her. Don’t go.”
I bounced my head against the door, my body shaking with fury. “What do you want me to do? Just let her skip away?”
Kari came up behind me and wrapped her arms around my stomach. “I don’t know. Just please...don’t leave me right now.”
I knew what she was doing. She knew if she said that, I couldn’t leave.
“I’m going to talk to Brielle and have her get Sam to move out,” I rumbled, wrapping my hands around Kari’s wrists at my navel. “I don’t know what in the hell is going on with her. I hate to say it, but maybe Cane’s right and she really is crazy.”
THIRTY-NINE
MAX
Knock, knock!
I pounded on the door to Brielle’s apartment.
Knock, knock!
I had left her a message, but Bri didn’t call or message me back.
Knock, knock!
I heard the jangle of the chain to the deadbolt.
“Who is it?” my sister asked.
“Your brother.”
The door popped open and Bri stood in the doorway. “And what do I owe this pleasure? I thought you forgot where I lived.”
“We need to talk,” I said, walking passed her and into the apartment. The living room was tidy and decorated in reds and golds, the same color scheme our mom had always favored. Books were scattered over her coffee table and a notepad and pencil on top.
“I’m kind of in the middle of something,” she said, sitting on the cream sofa and tucking her legs under her. “My job is sending me to school for ‘advanced education.’ I’m not a fan of studying, as you well know, but they’re paying for it.”
I crossed my arms. “I need your help.”
“I know what happened,” she said, raising her eyebrows. “You and Kari really had Sam going crazy.”
“We had her going crazy?” I laughed in disbelief. “It didn’t take any pressing to get her there, I’ll assure you.”
Bri’s eyes went wide. “Listen to yourself! You don’t even care that she came here crying her eyes out? Do you not have a heart?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that the Max I know never would’ve let her drive away so upset! She could’ve been in an accident and that’s not to mention the fact y’all were so mean! She was just trying to help and you went off—”
“What?” I bit out, not sure what the hell I was hearing. “What the hell did she say to you?”
“That she went to your house to warn you guys about Blaine. She thinks he’s dangerous or something, that he wants Kari back and will stop at nothing to get her.”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Well, that’s not what happened. What really happened, little sister, is that your friend came over and tried to imply that I messed around with her. That I wanted her and not Kari. She threw it up in Kari’s face that she came to get me that night I was drunk.”
“Well, she did,” Bri said, crossing her arms across her chest. “She’s not lying.”
