smile—even though he refused to admit it—I didn’t like her. She had it in for Mari for some reason, and that didn’t sit well with me. It didn’t sit well with me that Harrison seemed to be using Gigi to make Mari jealous, either, but that was their problem, and for once, I was keeping my nose out of it.
Though for the sake of the relationship we once had—my brother, Mari, and me—I wanted them to work it out. I missed my brother. I missed my sister. The shit needed to end.
It felt like a good idea after I’d seen them together, but then Mac showed up after Mari excused herself to use the bathroom. It was like he had timed his arrival to the second Mari went into the house.
He strode across Harrison’s lawn, a look on his face I’d never forget—a fucking jealous husband out for revenge—and punched Harrison in the face.
My brother saw him coming and rose up to the challenge.
I’d lived with boys my entire life. I let them go at it for a while, because usually, after they punched each other, they were square.
It was a pretty good show, too, since the neighbors decided to bring out chairs and watch them pummel each other like two dogs who’d been released from a cage.
I wondered what Cash would think about it, but then stopped thinking about him when a car made a round or two. Something about it didn’t sit right with me.
Again. The tingle.
Maybe I was hanging out with gangsters too much, becoming paranoid, but something told me to keep my eyes open. I couldn’t do that with the two animals on the front lawn, rolling around on the grass, starting to draw more blood.
Casually, I took out the hose, set it on the sharpest spray, and then set it on my brother and Mac. It took them a moment to realize that I was blasting them with cold water. Harrison had had the hose on him over the years, but I doubted anyone ever had the balls to pull a hose on Mac.
I’d whip his ass, too, if he had anything to say. I wasn’t to be trifled with. I was on edge.
My brother shot up first, his hands in the surrender position. Blood ran from his mouth. Mac stood right after, and I hit him in the chest with the water again, because I could tell the lunacy still ran high in those cold blue eyes.
“That’s enough!” I yelled. “The both of you!”
“I—” My brother went to defend his actions, but I hit him with the spray again, cleaning his mouth out.
“Harrison.” I kept my voice low. “Knock it off. You know I won’t let up until you stop with the excuses. Now get your ass inside before you catch cold!”
“Sissy boy,” Mac muttered as Harrison walked off. Harrison shot him the bird.
I hit Mac with the hose again. “You! I’ll get you some dry clothes, but only if you shut it!”
He narrowed his eyes at me, and I narrowed back. He wasn’t going to intimidate me. If he was going to be a part of this family, he was going to get treated just like everyone else. There would be no tiptoeing around him because he was a badass. He could join the club.
Mac’s eyes moved from mine to my brother’s porch. Mari had come outside, the dog right behind her.
“What are you doing here, mio marito?” she said.
He didn’t answer, and I got the feeling he was waiting for me to give them some privacy.
I took the hose and started rolling it up, going to the side of the house. I still heard his answer, though. “I’ve come to collect my wife. She ran out on me.”
Yeah, it was something in the fucking water lately. I would’ve blamed it on a full moon, but crazy shit seemed to be happening night and day.
I rolled the hose up, standing against the house after, my back to it so I could watch the street. A few minutes had passed, and the same car started to creep toward us again. I couldn’t see past the windows because they were tinted.
“Have you seen that car before?” I said to them, rounding the house.
Mac and Mari looked in the same direction as I was. He was on his knees in front of her. After he noticed the car, he stood, keeping Mari behind him.
“No,” Mari said, moving her head around him to see better. “I haven’t.”