they shoved me into the door and I hit my head on the window, I snapped out of the vise-grip panic had over me and tried to break them apart before the town got involved. Reaching over Josh, I tried to pull his arm back from Jake’s neck, but he jerked, and I got an elbow to my jaw for my trouble. I cried out as stars burst behind my eyelids and grabbed my face just as my door was ripped open. An arm made of steel wrapped around my waist and pulled me out of the cab as I tried to clear my head. Before I could get my legs underneath me, Logan Storm set me behind him out of harm’s way, then reached in and hauled my baby brother out of the truck with little effort. Josh’s arms swung wildly, while his legs kicked out at Jake with little effect.
“Stand down,” Logan barked, when Josh tried to get back inside, blocking his way.
“Fuck you!” Josh shouted at Logan, his voice cracking with so much emotion it hurt to hear. “And fuck you, too!” He tossed Jake the finger.
Jake threw open his door in response, but instead of intervening I stood frozen in shock while the scene played out in front of me. Logan reacted quicker than I’d seen a man move, when Jake came barreling around the front of the truck like a linebacker, ready to take down an opponent. One moment he was between Josh and me and the next he had Jake pinned to the ground with a knee to his back like my brother weighed nothing at all.
And I watched all of it with quiet detachment.
Instead of being angry this mere stranger had manhandled my beloved brothers, I was relieved. I was too drained from being the glue that held us together to move. So damn exhausted with the constant worry I would screw things up, I began to shake with relief someone else had stepped in.
I watched Logan glare at Josh with intensity, while Jake struggled to get up, and I said nothing through it all. I couldn’t if I tried. My brain had shut down with overwhelming fear for our future.
“Both of you, take a good fucking look at Skylar.”
Josh stared in shock at Logan for a moment, almost in awe of how quickly he’d restrained his older brother, then slowly turned his attention to me and winced. It appeared I’d found the rockiest of bottoms and couldn’t shut off the tears. In the middle of Main Street, with dozens of people watching, I’d hit the jagged boulders that’d been threatening to destroy my control. They’d shredded me with their sharp edges and were slowly bleeding me dry.
Josh took a step toward me, but I shook my head, holding up my hand to ward him off. I would lose it completely, if not irrevocably, if my baby brother, the one I was supposed to protect and care for, comforted me. Failure was not an option. I’d promised my father I would keep us together, and I would not break my word to him. I just needed . . . I scanned the street looking for cover, a place I could let go so I could regroup. The bar was half a block away, so I turned on wooden legs and fled before I lost all control in front of my brothers. They needed me to be their rock, and I wouldn’t let them or my parents down.
Three
Storm Warning
“LET ME UP, Storm.”
Logan barely heard the teen as he followed Skylar’s retreat. The steel he’d seen in the truck had vanished, replaced with a sense of frailty so acute it killed him to let her walk away. His instincts told him to follow, but he fought against them to deal with her brothers. She needed time alone to regroup, that was clear. Logan understood that better than anyone.
He pulled his attention away from Skylar’s retreat, noting she had headed to the Big Sky Saloon, and looked down at the teen in his grip. He had a bloodied lip and the beginning of a shiner. He may have been the older of the two, but the younger one was no slouch.
“You keep hold of your temper, and I’ll let you up. If not, I’ll restrain you again.”
He nodded, so Logan released him. He stood slowly, then spun in a circle searching for something. “Where’d Josh go?”
Logan turned to look where the kid had been a moment