Because he walks closer to them, thereby rendering the meager protection I was giving him moot. “Well then, you’ve come to the right place. Let the fun begin.”
And from the looks of it, the fun is definitely going to begin because a crowd has gathered around us.
Someone has turned off the music and most of the people have made sort of a semi-circle around us. They’re still at a distance, but they’re definitely watching.
Great. Just great.
My brothers don’t care about that though.
Reed’s cavalier words have made them frown and they each take a threatening step toward him.
Except Conrad.
Conrad, who stands a little farther away from the rest of my brothers, says, “Callie, come here.”
I breathe heavily, glancing from my three ready-to-fight brothers to my oldest one. “Con, please. He didn’t do anything.”
“Callie.”
“He didn’t –”
“Get over here.”
I wince and start walking toward him. And as soon as I do, the rest of my brothers shift and sort of make a boundary out of their bodies, a line between me and the rest of the world, him more specifically, in a very obvious display of protectiveness.
As soon as I reach Conrad, I tell him, “Please, Con. He didn’t do anything. I promise and –”
“You lied,” he says.
Not loudly or bitterly or in anger.
He says it in a matter-of-fact way and my heart twists.
It’s not as if I’ve never lied to my brothers. Of course I have, but this is something big. Something serious. I know that.
As I said, they only have one rule: they need to know where I am at all times. So they know that I’m safe.
They give me everything that I ask for.
Even though they can be controlling and dominating – as evidenced by this display – they try to be reasonable. They try to understand where I’m coming from. They respect my freedom.
So I’m at fault here.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper.
Conrad’s chest pushes out on a breath and instead of anger, there’s disappointment. “Let’s go home.”
I look at my three angry brothers, who still appear ready to fight, and turn to Conrad. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry that I lied. Just please tell them not to fight. H-he didn’t do anything.”
At this, I see anger though.
I do see his broad features going tight. “Come on.”
“But Con –”
“Not a word right now.”
I snap my mouth shut.
Then glancing over my shoulders, Conrad calls out, “Just one. No more.”
I don’t know what that means or which brother he’s talking to.
Until I hear a thump and a crunch. And loud gasps and murmurs from the crowd.
At which point, I spin around and see that Ledger has punched Reed in the face, and Reed’s wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, somehow with his smirk still in place.
And he’s bleeding.
Oh God.
Despite everything I try to go to him, but Con grabs my arm, stopping me.
Thankfully though, there’s someone else out here who cares about him.
His sister, Tempest.
She breaks away from the crowd and dashes over to her brother who in turn does the same thing my brothers are doing to me: he frowns at her first before sort of stepping in front of her as if to say that the world will have to go through him in order to get to her.
My heart squeezes again at this brotherly display of protectiveness, this whole other side of Reed Roman Jackson.
And I’m embarrassed that his sister is witnessing all this hatred, but at least she’s here for him. Also now she really knows how bad the blood is between my brothers and hers.
When our eyes clash, I mouth, sorry.
She smiles sadly and mouths, my fault.
Well, not really.
I mean she didn’t put a gun to my head to bring me here. She insisted and I agreed. I could’ve said no and avoided this whole debacle.
But apparently not.
Anyway my brothers aren’t satisfied with one punch. Because all three of them take a step toward him, but Con puts a stop to that.
“Enough. Let’s go.”
They hate it, of course.
But they don’t disobey him.
Out of habit, I guess.
He’s not only my father figure, he’s theirs too.
He’s the one person who’s stayed for us. Who’s protected us and loved us, fought to keep us together and be our guardian.
He’s the reason we’re still a family.
So they back off and I breathe out a sigh of relief.
But when the time comes to walk away, I look at him.
I look at Reed.
I’ve been avoiding looking at him directly. I’ve only thrown him passing glances ever since my brothers got here – I still don’t know how – and they caught me in his arms.
But now I look at him.
Only to find that he’s looking back.
That his wolf eyes glint and shine as much as his split lip that’s bleeding.
I don’t know what I see in his gaze but whatever it is makes my heart spin in my chest. Makes it race and pound and squeeze.
This is it, isn’t it?
I’m never gonna see him again.
Well, I will see him at school but I’ll never see him like I did tonight. Or talk to him or be near him or touch his hoodie.
I’ll never dance for him either.
I bite my lip at the thought.
The rogue thought.
I shouldn’t want to anyway but I do.
I do and I…
“Hey, Ledger!”
For the second time tonight, Reed jars the breath out of me when he calls out, this time to my brother, while still keeping his eyes on me.
Ledger, who had started to walk away, comes to a halt and turns around to face him.
Reed isn’t alone anymore. Along with Tempest – who’s staring at Ledger with wide gray eyes – others from the crowd have joined him now.
And I fist my hands at my sides as I hope and wish and pray that this isn’t going to get out of hand.
“I’m sorry,” Reed says, jerking his chin at him.
“For fucking what?”
“That you lost tonight.” Then, “Even though you deserved it.”
Around me, my brothers seethe and I watch some of the players from the Mustang camp snicker.
But Ledger still obeys Conrad’s rule and simply flips him the finger before turning around and striding away.
But I can’t move.
Because Reed is back to looking at me.
His wolf eyes home in on me for a few seconds before doing a final sweep of my body and then looking away as he’s submerged by the crowd.
And I realize that he kept his promise, didn’t he?
The one I forced him to make before I danced for him.
He apologized to my brother.