Touch And Go - Aiden Bates Page 0,71

rising tide of hurt almost drowned me, and if not for the pain keeping me angry, I might have burst out crying from the betrayal. He was my fucking brother. My brother!

I gritted my teeth and stared down Pete, who was still at my knee. “Where the fuck is Ben?”

“Who fucking knows, little dude?” Pete laughed without joy. “We were hoping you knew.”

“We’re looking for him. But while he’s AWOL, your name’s on the debt, and as long as a debt has a name, I’m going to collect it. If you can’t pay cash, then I’ll happily take a few pounds of flesh.”

Just my fucking luck.

Two hours later, I couldn’t talk, almost drowning in my sorrow. And in my blood that kept dribbling down my windpipe and making me cough a spray of red across the bare concrete floor. Roland and Pete gave me plenty of breaks to ‘think about the money,’ but they were still generous with the punches. I was getting close to accepting death drawing closer, and my brother was to blame. It wasn’t all bad. I’d learned some lessons. Like lesson one: heroics were for chumps like Derek. And lesson two: homophobic assholes were untrustworthy, even homophobic family assholes. I hoped to take that wisdom into my next life and not be such a fucking chump.

“I’ve got news!” Pete came back into the room and snapped his outdated flip phone shut. “Got through to Ben. Told him we’ve got the little dude and we’ll let him go if Ben shows up with the cash.”

I let out a long, relieved sigh and allowed my head to drop forward in relief.

“Nah, man, don’t look so happy. He’s not coming.”

“Wh-what?”

“Ha!” Roland folded up his sleeves, and my blood on his hands stained the cloth. My blood. My stomach roiled.

“He ain’t coming. Don’t want nothin’ to do with it. Said to take care of you. So…” Pete shrugged and followed Roland’s lead of rolling up his sleeves, cracking his neck and bouncing on his feet. “So, you got a plan to get my money, or what?”

I wished I could say it was fucking unbelievable, that Ben would give me up to save himself. But it wasn’t. Brother or not. And this was way too real, and way too sad for me to even attempt to comprehend. I looked at Pete, and mentally begged him to knock me the fuck out.

But I wasn’t going down sniveling like a baby. Crying like a bitch. “I’ve got your money, I just thought it’d be fun to hang out for a bit before I gave it to you. What the fuck do you think? Do I look like someone who has fifty thousand dollars? Or a plan to get it? How fucking stupid are you—”

BAM. His knuckles split my lip. From my good eye, I could see him winding up for another hit, and I braced myself to black out, when the door suddenly flew open and the shine of pistols made my stomach flip.

“Get on the floor!” Derek bellowed.

My heart leaped into my throat, and I let out a garbled sound because I couldn’t manage much else anymore.

Roland held up his hands, then slowly started reaching into his back pocket. “Hey, we don’t have a fight with you. Just the kid.”

Derek looked at the blood on Roland’s hands, glanced at my busted-up face, then pistol-whipped the bookie and knocked him to the floor. Damn, he looked fucking hot…and really pissed off. Despite pain burning through my whole body, butterflies burst through me, and this was the real trouble. And it was the kind of trouble I liked.

21

Derek

I’d never been so fucking angry in my life. Sebastian sat on the sofa with a defiant look under the ice pack he held to his face, and four of my brothers crowded around him.

“Should we get you to the ER?” Sean asked.

“I’m fine.” Seb stared at the wall. He was alive. I clenched my hands and my jaw and kept reminding myself that even if he was bloody and bruised, he was alive and that’s what mattered.

“For real? You look banged up, man.” Eli peered closer, while Uno sniffed at my knee.

“Really, it’s okay.” He pulled the ice pack away, and a new wave of anger hit me when I saw the swelling above his cheekbone again. “Just a broken nose, maybe.”

“Well, you’ve got a hot doctor to check that out.” Hunter smirked and I almost screamed.

“Get out!”

So much shock. From brothers who knew I’d be