“And she’s a grown adult who can make her own decisions.”Dante straightens but he’s ready.
Every muscle taut and ready to explode.He’s so much bigger than Tom.My heart flutters.
Dante glares at him.“You need to go calm down and then we’ll talk.”
“Fuck you!I asked you to protect her, not fuck her.”Tom charges forward and shoves Dante, pushing him back a little, but only because Dante lets him.
“You don’t want to do this, Tom.”Fury lingers in every syllable of Dante’s words.Now worry takes over every other emotion.Worry for Tom and worry for Dante.
“I’m not going to let you hurt my sister.”Tom steps back and takes a swing at Dante.
When it connects with Dante’s side, I suck in a burst of air.Finn’s hands tighten on me.I didn’t even realize I was trying to get to Dante, to do what?I have no idea.
Dante doesn’t even stumble before he lifts his fist and hits Tom.When Tom staggers backward and falls onto the grass, Finn releases me and I scramble over to Tom.
I drop to kneel beside him and check his pulse.He’s still breathing, but he’s knocked out cold.
I brush his hair away from his face and sigh.“I didn’t want him to find out like this.”
“He never would have taken it well, flower.”Finn steps behind me and puts a hand on my shoulder.I slide my hand over his, needing his strength.“There was no gentle way to break it to him.”
Tom knows.He saw me kissing Finn and probably Dante.We aren’t that close to the house.Which means he could have been watching for a while.I close my eyes and lean my head back against Finn’s legs.
It would have been hard to tell him.He doesn’t know about Wyatt, and he’s never going to know that they were my firsts.I’ll let him assume what the guys did, that some previous boyfriend had that privilege.
I knew this might hurt him, but I never thought he’d go after his friends.Like they did something I didn’t want.I blow out a breath and look at Tom’s face as he starts to wake up.It doesn’t excuse everything that happened to me because of him.
Dante holds his hand down to me.He helps me stand and I lean against him, because I need him.My hands shake.I’m still so fucking mad at Tom.He did a lot of fucked-up stuff to get to this point.
“Fuck.”Tom rubs his jaw, but he doesn’t open his eyes or move yet.“We’re supposed to be friends.The minute I turn my back?—”
“Really, Tom?”Finn’s laugh is dry.“The minute?Fuck you.You abandoned her.Left her to deal with your wife’s father, who you knew would come after her.You didn’t even tell us so we could properly protect her.”
“We didn’t know your parents were gone.”Dante wraps his arm around me, drawing me in tight against him as Tom sits up.“We left her in that townhome alone for days.I let her stay there because I thought it would be best to not put her and Wyatt in the same space.Because I wasn’t aware of the danger she was in.”
“And then you two fucked her?”He gestures to the two of them standing close to me.
That anger that had been suppressed by the worry of him being knocked out begins to take over.Stepping away from Dante’s warmth, I put my hands on my hips as I glare at my brother.
“I’m old enough to make my own decisions.”I kick at the sole of his shoe.
His eyes narrow.
“Do you honestly think I can be seduced into doing something I don’t want to do?”My laugh is brittle.“You know what?Fuck you, Tom.I’m in love with all of them and I don’t give a fuck who knows about it.”
He sits up and then rises to his feet so he towers over me.
His look is blank as he searches my eyes.“All of them?”
I draw in a breath, even as everything in me trembles a little.“All of them.Dante, Finn, Drew, and Wyatt.”
Tom flinches like I punched him again.There’s anger but also pain in his eyes.“You don’t even know who any of these guys are.”
“What doesn’t she know, Tom?”Dante steps up behind me and draws me back against his chest, making Tom lift his glare to Dante.“That you had me keep her away from Wyatt?That Finn buried his feelings in other women because the one woman he truly wanted was his best friend’s sister?That none of us really deserve her?”
Tom’s nostrils flare.
“Or maybe it’s that you’re such a shitty friend that you let your best friend drown in guilt for something you had to know wasn’t his fault.”Dante’s words rain like bombs on Tom.
