Brazen and Breathless (Untouchable #6) - Heather Long Page 0,123

anyone else. So…you just think about what stories you want us to hear.”

I gripped his shoulder before I slammed my fist into his stomach again. The kid folded over my arm.

“I don’t want to talk to you again, Noah. We clear?”

“Crystal,” he wheezed.

With that, I let him drop and then backed away.

“You should probably get a move on. The bell rings in thirty.”

Pivoting, I walked away from the little ink-stain and stripped off my gloves as I walked.

“Not bad,” Jake said as he fell into step. “You were really calm.”

“I told you I was.”

He chuckled and slung an arm over my shoulder. “You need to change your jacket.”

I glanced down at the blood on the front. Fuck.

“Yeah.”

I stripped it off and put it in the trunk along with the gloves. It was frigid outside, but I had on a long-sleeved shirt. It would do.

Once we were back in the car, Jake rolled his head from side to side. “Feel better?”

I thought about it. “Yeah,” I said. “I do. I’m glad he decided to be reasonable.”

Jake invited me to join him and Frankie at the gym for her first “boxing” lesson, but I’d had to focus a little more on Trina and Mom over the course of that week. Not that I didn’t want to spend the time with Frankie. I’d managed to slip back over a couple of nights and steal into her bed after she was already asleep, whether it was Jake, Bubba, or Archie sleeping in there.

We were still waiting to hear from the attorney on what was going on with Frankie’s so-called trust. Archie didn’t trust it at all. Neither did I. But he had more resources for handling that one, so I just kept tabs on it.

Trina had gone to her first therapy session with Mom, and I’d been waiting at home for them with dinner. Not that Sis wanted anything to eat. She’d basically grunted at me and vanished into her room, without her phone.

She was still grounded from it, since Mom took it away after everything that happened. There was no mistaking the tired around the edges as Mom sat at the table with me. “You didn’t have to bring us dinner.” The chastising seemed almost perfunctory, the tired in her voice betraying her.

“I know. I wanted to be here for both of you. I know that can’t be easy.”

“No,” she admitted. “But your father showed up and he put some effort in, so maybe this will work.”

“I hope so, but I really want Trina to focus on her and you to focus on you.” ’Cause, honestly, fuck Dad.

“Sweetie,” Mom said as she started to stand, and I waved her back to the table. “I was going to get the wine.”

“I can open it,” I told her and got the bottle out from the fridge.

“We’re not going to discuss how well you can do that.”

“Just like we don’t discuss the first time I got drunk,” I said over my shoulder as I worked the corkscrew in. “Or the second.”

She sighed. “You always told me when you and the boys planned to drink. Usually, you all stayed at Archie’s and you had Frankie with you at least until last summer.”

That had me giving her a look. “What does Frankie being there have to do with anything?”

“She kept you boys in line. Most of the time, you thought twice about every decision if she was there. You have since you were a little boy. Last summer, not so much…”

Yeah, we had gotten a little stupid over the summer. I couldn’t argue that. I poured her glass of wine and then carried the bottle and glass over to the table. “Mom,” I said as I sat down opposite her. “I’m fine. I’m good. I’m worried about Sis. I’ve been worried about her for a while but this…”

“I never wanted you to know,” she said abruptly, and I frowned. “Your father told me that you found out. He also told me you hit him.”

“Apparently not hard enough.” Why the fuck was he telling Mom that?

“Don’t get mad,” she said, though it was a little fucking late for that. “He wanted to apologize to me…and it’s the first time since everything happened that he apologized for making choices that hurt me.”

Huh.

“And choices that hurt you and Trina.”

I didn’t really have a comment on that, so I just pulled the lasagna open and started dishing it out to her and to me. I’d picked it up from the one Italian