The whole room seemed to have stopped holding its breath now that my father was gone. And Tori seemed more relaxed and glowing as well. I was so impressed with her. She’d kept her head high and managed to treat my father in a distant but polite way throughout the entire meal, despite her nerves and the fact that he’d never been kind to her. It took a lot of strength.
As Emzee dove back into her descriptions of the assignment she’d soon be shooting in the indigenous forests of South America, Luka quietly eased out of his chair and half-walked, half-stumbled to the bar in the adjoining living room.
Tori reached over and put a hand on my arm.
“He’s so drunk already,” she whispered. I could hear the worry in her tone.
I nodded, already rising from my seat. Even though my younger brother was an adult, I still felt responsible for him. Still felt as though I needed to take care of him, to protect him from the world. My father certainly never had. And as much as I disapproved of Luka’s self-medicating and destructive behavior, I thought I understood where it came from.
“Luka,” I started as I walked over to the bar, where my brother was pouring himself another very generous glass of aged Glenfiddich.
I doubted he could even taste it at this point, he was so intoxicated.
“Brother!” Luka slurred, raising his glass in my direction. “Great dinner,” he said with a sneer. “Great toast. Really livened up the party.”
He reeked of booze, as if he was sweating it out of his skin, to the point that I had to take a step back. Now that I was standing in front of him, I realized exactly how terrible he looked. It wasn’t just that Luka was intoxicated; I’d seen plenty of that lately. His shirt was only half tucked, and buttoned incorrectly. His hair stuck up greasily in places, as if he hadn’t showered properly in days. And his face had changed, with new lines fanning out from his eyes, and a pale puffiness that hadn’t been there before. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.
“You look pretty peaked,” I told him honestly. “Maybe you should cool it on the booze.”
“Maybe you should mind your own business,” he said, glaring at me. “I’m perfec’ly capable of handling my shit.” He was slurring.
“Okay,” I said skeptically.
I suppressed the urge to knock the glass out of his hand. Truthfully, I was torn between giving Luka a dose of tough love or treating him with more compassion. I didn’t want to enable his drinking, but at the same time I knew that he had only just recently learned the truth about what our father did behind the scenes of KZ Modeling. The fact that KZM made most of its money via sex trafficking had clearly hit Luka hard. And he in turn had hit the bottle hard.
I wasn’t unsympathetic—I’d been shocked as well when I found out—and I still felt a little guilty that I hadn’t been able to protect my brother better. I also hated that I couldn’t tell him about my current plants to ensure that our father’s illegal business dealings would crash and burn. I loved Luka, and I knew he would be on my side, but at the same time I couldn’t trust him not to say anything to our father. Not when he was constantly in a drunken state like this.
Still, I could at least try to help him not lose his life to alcohol.
Luka was taking a long gulp of whiskey, not realizing that he was dribbling a good portion of his drink down the front of his shirt.
“You’ve had enough,” I told him firmly, trying to ease the glass from his hand.
Instead of giving it up, he wrestled it away from me, managing to slosh the rest of the whiskey all over the hand knotted silk rug. Realizing what he’d done, he slammed the empty glass on top of the bar.
“Who are you to boss me around, anyway?” he railed. “Everybodywas drinking tonight, and that was just fine—how comeI’mthe one who gets the spotlight on me?”
“Everything okay in there?” Tori called out through the doorway to the dining room.
“We’re great!” Luka slurred, pulling the whiskey bottle across the bar toward him.
I turned toward the doorway and motioned for Tori to stay at the table, trying to give her a reassuring smile. The last thing I wanted was for her to witness this altercation.
“You’re done,” I repeated to Luka, grabbing the bottle and locking it in the cabinet.
It didn’t feel good treating him like he was a child that needed to be protected from himself, but the fact was, it wasn’t so far from the truth.
“You’re a real fucking drag, Stefan,” Luka said.
I took a long breath, searching for the kind of words that might get through to him. “I care about you, Luka. And I know you’re an adult who can make his own choices. But this has to stop. You’re destroying yourself.”
Luka laughed bitterly. “You’re not my father,” he said, and then he gave me a mean smile. “Though you aresomebody’sfather now, aren’t you? Kind of funny, isn’t it?”
“Luka,” I warned.
He ignored me. “I’m not entirely convinced, though,” he said, tapping his finger against his chin. “You know, I’ve seen the brat myself.”
“His name. Is Max,” I grinded out, tamping down the first stirrings of rage.
