Tom staggers back a step.
“You kept him away from her because you didn’t want him with her.You didn’t want any of us with her because you didn’t think your friends would be worthy of your sister.Oh, we were good enough to be your friends and to build a future with.And good enough to protect her when you felt the need to run away, but we could never be good enough to love her.”
Tom is pale when Dante finishes speaking.
Dante guides me to the side and when someone takes me into their arms, I look up into Drew’s warm brown eyes.I turn and see Wyatt next to him, glaring at Tom.
“You four need to deal with your issues.”Drew turns me toward the house.“I’ll keep the women entertained inside.Just keep the blood to a minimum.”
“What?”I ask, worried at the mention of blood.
Wyatt touches my face.“Go on, Sara.You’ll get your chance to talk to Tom when he’s calmed down.”
Tom growls but Wyatt ignores him.His eyes remain soft on me, steadying me.
Drew leads me toward the house.I glance over my shoulder at my brother and his three friends.These guys have been inseparable for as long as I can remember.But I have to remember I’m not the one who tore them apart.
No.Tom’s been working on that forever.It’s just time for my guys to open their eyes and make sure Tom understands where they stand.
* * *
Wyatt
As Drew takes Sara back to the house, I never take my eyes off them.Natasha steps outside and looks concerned until Drew says something to her.Her worried gaze goes to Tom.For a heartbeat, I think she’s going to storm over here and drag him away.But Drew keeps talking to her until she finally nods and returns to the house with the others.
Sighing, I sit on the bench.I thought I’d be angrier, but I’m just done.I’m done hiding everything.I’m done lying about how I feel.It’s time to sort this out and see where our pieces land.If this is the end of Tom and us, so be it.
“Is this where you all use me as a punching bag?”Tom rubs his jaw, but he’s on the defensive.He’s braced like we’re going to fight.
Finn laughs but he’s angry.“We ought to.Do you know if anything happened to Natasha, Peter promised Sara he’d do the same to her?Do you even know what kind of family you married into?”
“The same as yours,” Tom pops off.
Fuck, this isn’t going to go well if we all just yell at each other.I never thought I’d be the voice of reason when it came to Sara, but here we are.Dante and Finn are livid for reasons beyond Sara being kidnapped.Reasons we have to sort through if we want to continue to have a relationship.And for Sara’s sake, we’ll have to sort something out.
“Sit down.All of you.”I glance at Finn and Dante.“We’re not going to fight any more.We all got our hits in.”
“Speak for yourself,” Tom spits out.“You should have never touched Sara.”
Dante closes the distance between him and Tom.
“We could take her away from you entirely, Tom.”His voice is cold and harsher than I’ve ever heard him.“Us four have a lot of history and a business, but if push comes to shove, if I have to pick you or her, it’s always going to be her.Every fucking time.You fucked up.You put her in danger and knew it.Don’t fucking tell me you didn’t.”
“We would have been back before Peter should have done anything.Natasha’s disappeared before.”Tom looks down and looks back up as anger fills him again.“We’re not talking about me.We’re talking about you fucking my sister.”
“That’s not really what we’re talking about.”Finn steps beside Dante.Their anger radiates off them and this will only get worse, but if I step in, it will fester.“We’re talking about how we aren’t good enough for your sister.Or are you just scared that you’ll lose us as friends?”
A flash of panic lights Tom’s eyes, but he hides it.
“You jeopardized everything with your actions.”Dante looks like he wants to hit him again but he’s holding himself back.“Sara, our business, our friendship.For what?”
“Don’t say it.”Tom’s voice is low and threatening.
I stand and step between them.“Don’t say it, Dante.”
“What about what he did to you, Wyatt?Or is that just water under the bridge?”Finn shakes his head.“You’re one fucked-up friend, Tom.”
I release a breath.“Tom, you and I have stuff to talk about.Go wait over there for me.”
