caught it from River, which I kinda understand because we took him off-guard. Echo heard about it and sought you out. That was way uncool. But Phoenix, he knows River and Echo already went at you, yet here he is acting a fool for no reason. He didn’t walk up and introduce himself like a normal human being. He didn’t say hello to his sister and offer brotherly love. Nope, he walked up, interrupted us, then proceeded to be a jerk. And that’s fucked.”
I lowered the fucked part to a whisper but Phoenix still heard.
“Not five minutes ago you read me the riot act about your brothers. Told me they were all you had, they were family, and family is always your business. You were right. So you gotta know, baby, that goes both ways. You’re their family. You’re their business. You are all they have.”
“It’s not the same and you know it. This is him being an ass.”
“No, it’s him being your brother. It’s him being protective. I gotta suck it up and you do, too. So cool it, yeah?”
Throughout this exchange, Phoenix’s eyes were dancing back and forth between me and Luke. He’d lost some of his dickheadedness but not all of it.
“Fine,” I huffed and Luke smiled. “Phoenix, this is Luke. Luke, this is my youngest brother Phoenix.”
Neither man said anything and I almost felt relief when I saw Echo and River walking toward us. I had a few angry words I wanted to say to Echo but I knew he’d handle Phoenix. There was one thing about my eldest brother that had not changed in all the years since he’d started raising us; a Kent never misbehaved in public—that was what he told us when we were teenagers. When we got older he drilled into us that a Kent never acted a fool and embarrassed themselves in public. And when we all got to the age where we were making our way as adults and starting our careers he set in stone that a Kent went above and beyond to do good work, to be a good person, to be honest, to be our best. Not the best—our personal best.
I knew it was because of who our father was—a criminal, a felon, a cop killer—that had led Echo to push us to be these things. Not that any of them were bad. But my brother took these things to such an extent sometimes I thought they were unhealthy or at least the reasons behind them were.
So I knew, there was no way in hell Echo would be happy if Phoenix caused a scene.
“What’s going on?” Echo boomed when he stopped at our huddle.
“Nothing,” Phoenix lied.
Echo took one look at my narrowed eyes and Luke’s posture and he sighed.
“Told you, brother, it’s all good,” Echo told Phoenix.
“Yeah, you said that. But is it?”
“What’s that mean?” I asked nastily.
Echo glanced between Phoenix and me, then his gaze settled on Luke.
“Everything all right?”
Interesting. Echo asked Luke that question and not Phoenix.
“All good,” Luke returned then greeted my other brother. “River, good to see you.”
“Yeah, you, too.”
Well, two out of three wasn’t bad.
At least that was what I was telling myself.
Then I took a good, long look at Phoenix and noticed the dark circles under his eyes and his unshaven face. He looked like shit which was not my brother’s style. Out of the four of us, Phoenix was the one who primped. He always had designer gear and a fresh haircut.
“What’s going on, brother?” I asked, all the hostility gone.
I didn’t miss his flinch and neither did Echo.
“Got a letter from Dad. He’s sick, says he wants to see us all. You know, like a family reunion in the big house. Says he doesn’t have long and wants to see his kids so he can say goodbye.”
“Right. Like it was cushioned for me when I got his letter outta the blue. Not that I give one fuck the bastard’s dying. The faster the better as far as I’m concerned. You all can do what you have to do, but I’m not going to see the asshole.”
Phoenix cared. He cared a lot and it pissed him off he did. Out of all of us, I think it hurt Phoenix the most what Dad did. For some reason, Lester Kent loved Phoenix more than the rest of