“Shut the fuck up, Flint. You don’t get to tell me to calm down after gettin’ with my little sister, Flint. She was off limits.”
“I know she was,” I acknowledge.
“You had one job. It was to look out for her and keep her safe while I went to help Mica build a fuckin’ club. And the second I turn my back you’re crawlin’ into bed with her, like she’s some club girl you picked up in a parkin’ lot.”
I grit out, my voice low and dangerous, “Don’t fuckin’ talk about your sister that way.”
He steps forward and shoves my shoulder with one hand. “I’m not talking about Jules. I’m talking about the fuckin’ dirty bastard that dirtied her up.”
“Watch your fuckin’ mouth, brother. Jules is her own person. You’re acting like she’s still twelve years old when all you really want to do is control her.”
“Don’t act like you know my sister just because you slapped a property cut on her back.”
“If you’re waitin’ for an apology from me for lovin’ your sister, you’re gonna have a long wait. She’s too good for every man out there, includin’ me. You ought to be glad she took a shine to me. I recognize quality when I see it. At least you can trust me to treat her right.”
Tommy sneers. “Trust? You’ve already proven you can’t be trusted. You waited until I was a hundred miles away andthen you helped yourself to the most precious thing in my damn life. Some friend you turned out to be.”
“Both of you, stop it right now!”
We both freeze when we hear Jules’s angry voice. She strolls into the room, beautiful as ever, even with a scowl on her face. She stops short in front of us and folds her arms over her chest.
“Jules.” Tommy’s voice turns placating. “Go back to your room. Let me handle this.”
Her frown deepens as she stares at him.
“No. I heard what you said about Flint dirtying me up. You should be ashamed of yourself. Do all the women you sleep with end up getting dirtied up, or do you just reserve that misogynistic shit for your sister?”
“Jules, you know I didn’t mean it that way.”
“No, Tommy. You don’t get to handle this. You don’t get to come in here at five in the fucking morning and yell at the man I love because he didn’t ask you for my hand or some such archaic nonsense.”
“It’s not that, Jules. We had a deal, and he broke his word to me.”
“A deal? What am I, one of your fucking belongings? Besides that, you’re as much to blame.”
Tommy’s mouth drops open, and he shakes his head slowly back and forth.
“Wait, what in the hell did I do?”
“You’re the one who left the fox in the chicken coop. You knew I had a crush on Flint for years. Did it honestly never occur to you that I was going to use my foxy body and womanly wiles to get him to like me back? I honestly thought you’d picked him for me. You gave me the perfect setup to make all my dreams come true.”
Tommy and I look at each other and do a double take at Jules.
Tommy stammers, “Are you saying you’re the fox and Flint’s the chicken in this analogy?”
She shrugs with one shoulder. “Rooster, or whatever.”
“Hold up,” Tommy mutters, looking at me. “Are you tellin’ me that my little sister came after you?”
When I glance at Jules, I can tell she’s practically daring me to say it’s not so. Reluctantly, I admit, “Yeah, that’s the size of it.”
He steps back and leans against the bar. “So, my baby sister seduced you.”
I don’t like the way he strings out the word seduced, like it’s an insult. “I fuckin’ held out for weeks, bro.” Lowering my voice, I mumble something about her being irresistible.
“Jesus fuckin’ Christ, Flint,” he says, gesturing to her. “She’s my fuckin’ sister.”
“Mm-hm. So, are we good?”
