“What the fuck do you care? She’s nobody to you. She’s just like her fucking sister. An uppity, two-faced cunt who…”
Luke didn’t let him finish.
He charged toward him, and in a blink, his fist had connected with Davis’s jaw. Davis staggered back, cursing as he brought his hand up to his face. “What the hell, man?”
“You don’t put your hands on a woman.” He jerked the bag of money from Davis’s hand and tossed it on the floor. “I don’t care who they are or what you think they’ve done. You never lay your hands on them!Ever. And you sure as hell don’t con them out of their life’s savings.”
Davis wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and laughed. “Look at you playing hero for a couple of rich bitches who thought they were too good for everybody. And that includes you, little brother.”
Davis glanced over at me with repulsion. “The bitch spent years snubbing her nose at you, and she’d still be snubbing it now if you weren’t here saving the fucking day.”
My chest tightened, and heat crept up my neck as the guilt settled in.
I didn’t want to admit it, but I couldn’t deny there was truth in what he’d said. I had judged Luke. I judged them both. I wrote them off with my preconceived notions, never bothering to get to know either of them.
And now, as I stood there watching Luke put himself between his own brother and me, I finally understood how truly wrong I’d been. Not just about Luke, but about how easy it had been to look down on someone and never imagine they’d end up being someone I truly cared about.
But I did care about Luke.
I cared about him more than I’d wanted to admit.
And I hated seeing that hurt look in his eyes, so I said, “I was wrong. I was wrong about everything.”
“Ah, will you look at that,” Davis scoffed. “She’s seen the errors of her ways. Bullshit. Once a fucking uptight whore, always a fucking uptight whore.”
Luke didn’t say a word.
He simply reached his hand up, wrapped it around his brother’s throat, and slammed him against the wall. The sound echoed through the room, and then, there was silence. Luke’s face was void of expression as he reached into his leather coat and pulled out a wad of money, shoving it roughly into his brother’s chest.
“Take this and get the hell out of town. Don’t come back because if you do, there will be hell to pay.”
Luke released him and stepped back, glaring at Davis as he straightened his clothes. He took the money Luke had given him and tucked it in his pocket before reaching down and collecting his bags of clothes. He glanced over at his father and said, “Later, Pop.”
His father didn’t answer.
He just gave him a nod and watched him walk out the door. And that was it. No looking back over his shoulder. No shouting out curses or warnings. No last words at all. He was just gone.
The silence that followed felt heavy, and I was afraid to speak. I just stood there and waited for someone to say something. Anything.
Eventually, Luke bent down and picked up the bag of money I’d brought and held it out to me. “I believe this belongs to you.”
“Thank you, Luke.” Tears started trailing down my cheeks as I told him, “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.”
Before he could come up with a response, the guys started saying their goodbyes to Luke’s father, and then, one by one, they gave Luke a nod and started for the door like this was just another night and another job finished. Luke walked over and whispered a few words to his father.
His father looked a bit defeated but not surprised. In fact, he didn’t seem all that surprised about anything that had takenplace tonight. Luke gave him a pat on the shoulder before turning his attention to me.
His eyes caught mine, and they weren’t angry or bitter.
Instead, they were warm and compassionate in a way I didn’t expect.
He turned and led me out to the van, and the cold night air rushed around me before the passenger door shut with a hard thud. Seconds later, Luke slipped in next to me and started the engine like nothing had happened.
Maybe what happened tonight wasn’t a big deal to him, but for me, it was like my whole world had just shifted and was now back on its axis.
After we had a few miles behind us, Luke glanced over at me and asked, “So, what’s your plan?”
“Plan?”
