“Isla’s pretty,” Finn said with a shrug.
“That’s about all she is.” I curled my legs up and tucked my feet into the spot between the couch cushions. “She’s not very nice to Dyl. You don’t want someone like that.”
“Yeah,” Finn said thoughtfully.
“When you get a girlfriend, many,manyyears from now, she’ll be her own kind of pretty, bud,” I assured him. “And she’llthink you’re awesome, and she’ll laugh at all your stupid jokes. She might even let you kiss her.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Not that many years.”
“Wait until you’ve got some game to try to get a girlfriend,” I advised him. “Now, turn on your movie.”
Fifteen minutes into the movie, Dylan came lumbering back into the room and fell back onto the couch.
“She actually let you off the phone?” I asked in surprise.
“She was goin’ to the mall with her friends.”
“Oh, so she can go do shit, but when you do—”
“Just drop it, would you?” Dylan snapped. “Fuck.”
“Fine.” I lifted my hands in surrender and turned back toward the TV.
“My mom says she’s just, like, insecure or whatever,” Dylan said after a few minutes. “That she’ll calm down if I just reassure her.”
“Your mom’s an idiot,” I grumbled.
“Fuck off.”
“It’s beenmonths,” I said, throwing up my hands. “You really wanna do this same shit for the next year? How much reassurance does she fucking need?”
“Would you guys shut up?” Finn asked in exasperation. “I’m trying to watch a movie.”
“You’ve seen it like fifty times.”
“So?”
“You don’t know what it’s like,” Dylan said dismissively. “You didn’t leave anyone behind when you moved.”
My mouth dropped open in shock. “How the hell would you know?”
“I…” Dylan’s eyes were wide as he backpedaled.
“Maybe I did, but she just doesn’t insist on talking to me every fucking minute,” I growled, getting to my feet. “Maybe she has her own fucking life and doesn’t feel the need to make thingsharder on me when I can’t fucking control where we live. You ever think of that?”
“Jess,” Dylan said, hopping up. “I didn’t—you never said—”
“Why the fuck would I tellyou?” I snapped nastily.
If we hadn’t been arguing, maybe we would’ve heard the sliding glass door open, but we’d never really know.
I wasn’t sure why I looked to the side when I did, whether I’d noticed something in my periphery or if I’d heard their footsteps, but the moment I saw the two men in our house, Iknew.
We’d lived under the shadow of his threats for as long as I could remember. David Granger. Finn’s grandfather. The monster in the dark.
The men were there for Finn.
A bone-deep instinct to protect my baby brother rose up inside of me, and it was the only thing that mattered. I didn’t care that the men were twice my size. The terror would come later.
