Saxon's Savior (Protect and Serve #3) - Pandora Pine Page 0,25

to his sides. “If you want to take another shot at me, be my guest. The sucker punch you got in on me was a freebie. The rest are going to cost you.”

“I don’t care what the scene looked like! You work it until there’s no hope for the patient!” I shouted back at him. How dare he stand there looking so fucking placid. I was going to hit him so hard he’d forget his own fucking name. I took off toward him, wanting nothing more than to mess up that pretty face.

“Hold it right fucking there!” Ozzy shouted. “Dallas, I swear to fucking God, if you lay a hand on him or anyone else, I’ll send you the fuck home. Do you hear me?”

I heard him all right. “Nice to know where your loyalties lie, brother!” I set my sights on my much bigger and older brother. If he wanted a piece of this, I was more than happy to oblige him. I cracked my knuckles and advanced on my brother.

“My sister is an addict too,” Saxon said softly.

His heartfelt words stopped me in my tracks.

“My parents didn’t just die in a car accident, they were high. Heroin mixed with Xanax. My father never should have been behind the wheel. Their only saving grace was that they only hurt themselves and not any innocent bystanders.” Saxon sighed.

“You think that little sob story is going to save your ass from a beating?” I turned my focus back to Saxon, who looked like his heart was totally broken.

“Sistine started experimenting with drugs the afternoon of the funeral. She’d found my parents stash and locked herself in her room. She stayed there for days. My brother and I left food outside her bedroom door, but she wouldn’t come out, no matter what. We didn’t realize at first what she was doing locked in her room, but when Sedona and I started cleaning the apartment and packing, we realized there were no drugs to be found. There were always drugs around the house.” Saxon’s stormy eyes were locked on mine. “Sound familiar?” he asked gently.

My mouth hung open. “Who the fuck told this son of a bitch?” I whirled on my heels to face Ozzy. “It was you, wasn’t it?” I was going to break his fucking nose. What right did he have sharing family business with an outsider?

“You told me, Dallas.” Saxon had shoved his hands in his pockets. He rocked back on his heels looking like he had all day to kill.

“What the hell are you talking about?” I demanded, feeling more out of control with every passing second.

“Guys, I’ve got this. Why don’t you get cleaned up?” Saxon kept his eyes on Ozzy.

Nodding, my brother headed for his office while the others walked up the stairs. “Who the hell do you think you are ordering Ozzy around?”

“Cut the shit, Dallas.” Saxon had obviously taken off the kid gloves he’d been using on me. “We’re both the kids of addicts. We lived the same life, you and me. Never knowing what I was going to come home to after school. Would they be dead? Fighting? High and happy? I never knew and neither did you.”

“Just because we have similar sob stories doesn’t make us friends.” I sounded ridiculous and I knew it.

“You’re right, it doesn’t.” Saxon took a seat on the bottom step. “It makes us part of the world’s worst fraternity. My heart stopped in my chest when I saw the mother lying dead and the son crying for her. It was my worst nightmare, come to life.”

“Mine too,” I admitted. I felt the fight pass out of me. I took a seat on the concrete floor next to Saxon. “She was in bed that afternoon. Usually, she would be passed out on the sofa like Marcie or sometimes on the toilet, resting against the wall backing the shower. Before I did anything else, I had to clean her up, then the house, make dinner, and do homework.”

Saxon nodded. “You knew getting good grades was your only way out.” It wasn’t a question. “I did too. It wasn’t easy to shove aside the stuff going on outside my bedroom door, but somehow, I managed to graduate with mostly B’s.”

“I got all A’s and was valedictorian.” With Mandy and David in my corner, I’d felt like I could accomplish anything.

“I’m not surprised. You’re a brilliant guy.” Saxon set his hand against the growing purple bruise on his jaw. “Got a hell