Page 1 of Her Brother's Keeper

Prologue

Nox

Dude, a week into December and the good ole Wally-World was a fucking madhouse. I hated Christmas, it was a family holiday and even though I’d had Rush, Grind, and Archer coming up - when you came up in the system? Thanksgiving? Christmas? Hell, just about every holiday had pretty much been a solid reminder of everything you didn’t have; and never would. The only reason I was even here was to pick up booze. Trig and Sunshine’s wedding had pretty much wiped the club out; we were still waiting on the bulk order to come in. If I was going to have any hope of getting my drink on this weekend, then I had to make a pit stop. I may have hated the corporate bullshit that was Walmart, but I couldn’t deny their booze prices were some of the cheapest around here.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am, but it says it’s declined,” the cashier murmured. I gave her another once over whileJoy to the Worldgrated in my ears over the store’s PA system. Fuck I hated Christmas. I dropped my eyes back to the glowing screen of my smartphone and texted Rush back.

“You must be doing something wrong! I have over six hundred dollars in that account; run it again.” I glanced back up from my phone at the bitter old, trailer trash bitch in line in front of me. She’d been giving the poor girl behind the register a hell of a time going on five minutes now. I couldn’t help myself, I glanced back the girl’s way again.

She was a knockout, but you’d never hear me say it out loud because can we say jailbait? The girl couldn’t have been much older than sixteen or seventeen. Her long, chestnut hair in a braid over one shoulder glossy in the buzzing overhead lights. She didn’t wear makeup and she didn’t need to, either. She had a natural beauty and surprisingly flawless skin for obviously being a teen.

I watched her key something into the register and incline her head with some serious grace to indicate that the woman should try again. I watched as the checker waited, those wide brown eyes a little too wide, for the predictable outcome.

“I’m sorry, Ma’am…” she began and the woman exploded at her.

“What’s the matter with you, are you stupid or something!?” I blinked, and the checker tried to stammer out an apology, remain professional and all, but the blonde out of a bottle wasn’t having any of it.

“Seriously? You’re doing it all wrong, I have money in that account! You’re stupid or something,” she crossed her arms over her saggy titties in her low-cut leopard print top and I wish like hell I were joking about that. “Get me your manager you stupid cunt!” the woman demanded and she was screaming at the checkout girl who’d gone completely red in the face, her eyes welling and spilling over and that was the point that I’d had enough.

“Yo! Who you calling a cunt you two bit, crack headed, trailer park bitch?” I demanded and took a menacing step in her direction. “It’s fucking Christmas! Who talks to a kid like that on Christmas!? Look at her!” I barked. “There’s no reason for you to be nasty to this girl when all she’s trying to do is help your skank ass. Now, you’re wasting her time, you’re wasting my time, and you’re wasting all of these people’s time,” I said flinging an arm back to indicate the jammed checkout line. “Personally I think that’s enough. You damn sure ain’t gonna waste her manager’s time on top of everyone else you’ve put out. Now, get the fuck up out of here!”

My explosion set off a round of cheers and applause behind me; the trailer park bitch grabbed her wallet and stuffed it into her rhinestone and fringed black leather purse. She made a noise, tossed her hair that seriously if I had a match, it would have gone up worse than Michael Jackson’s hair during that Pepsi commercial disaster. Before she turned on her patent leather heels in her fake ass leather leggings and clipped towards the exit she shrieked at me ‘Fuck you!’ I glared at her the whole damned way, it wasn’t below me to whoop her ass. I didn’t think that she could technically be classified as a lady, and the club might just let it slide.

And the girl? Well, fuck. The next thing I knew she was around from behind the register and bawling into the front of my cut, my arms held out as I looked down at the crown of glossy brown hair, wondering what was happening.

“Thank you,” she sobbed. “My dad died this morning, and I have to be here, I have to pay the bills and it’s just me and my brother now and she was just being so mean, and I couldn’t help her, and it’s not fair! She’s just being so awful and it’s like I don’t have a dad anymore, why is she being so mean?”

I looked up into the stricken face of the manager standing behind the girl as I patted her shoulder awkwardly, “It’s no problem,” I said hollowly. “It’s gonna be okay.” I lied because, I mean, she was just a girl, and damn sure not even old enough to drink. The fuck?

“Maren, Sweetheart, why don’t you come over here?” her manager called and I let her go. The checkout girl kept her head bowed and someone else slipped behind the register while her manager took her off to the side. I checked my wallet and paid the new guy at the register for the booze using my card instead of the cash I’d planned on using out of my wallet. I stopped wordlessly in front of the girl and shoved every bit of green I had into her hands.

“I’m sorry for your loss, Baby Girl,” I told her, my heart falling flat on its ass in the middle of my chest. She stared at me, wide-eyed, her mouth hanging open in surprise, but before she could speak, I got myself the fuck out of there. I had not expected that. Just goes to show, be kind always, you never fuckin’ know what demons someone’s wrestling on any given day.Fuck.

Chapter 1

Nox

“What’s eating you?” Rush demanded lightly, kicking my booted feet off the chair I had them propped on so he could sit down. One look at my face and he shut it, asking without words in the way that we’d always had,‘Are you okay?’

Truth be told, I didn’t know if I was. It was over a week later and I couldn’t stop thinking about her, the girl from Walmart who’d lost her dad. I drank some of the Wild Turkey in my glass and sighed heavily. Most of the boys were partied out, and so they weren’t here this week. It was quiet for a Saturday night. They happened around here, not very often, but they did.

Dragon, ever fuckin’ perceptive thatthatguy was, relocated from his usual table over to ours. Disney and Aaron’s conversation stuttering to a stop over at the bar.

“What’s going on, Nox?” Dragon asked.

I sucked in a breath and let it out in a big fuckin’ sigh, “I stopped in at the Wally-world over on Douglas last Friday before church,” I said and Disney and Aaron wandered over from the bar to hear what was up. I frowned to myself, and Dragon arched an eyebrow.

“And?” he prompted.

I sat up and downed the last bit of booze in my glass and told them what’d happened. About the pain in the ass broad and the heartbroken girl behind the till.

“I can’t stop thinking about her,” I said and my twin’s forehead crushed down into a frown.

“Never seen you like this, bro.”

“It’s the weirdest thing, man. I just can’t shake it. I mean, to lose your pops right before Christmas? I couldn’t imagine.”

“We didn’thavefolks, foranyof our Christmases. Whatisthere to imagine?” Rush asked, leaning way back in his seat, stretching his arms above his head. I gave him a flat, borderline unfriendly look.

---