Page 57 of Together We Burn
Mac’s bike skidded to a stop as he leapt from the seat and bounded up the porch stairs. Glancing between Alex and me, Mac asked, “What’s goin’ on? What you doin’ here?”
“Did you know?” Alex snarled, turning his frustration and anger toward the his brother, grabbing his biker cut. Mac’s eyes widened as he gripped his wrists and removed them from the leather.
“Don’t fucking touch another man’s jacket, Alex,” Mac said with a current of warning laced in his voice. Letting go of his wrists, Mac’s eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about? Know what?”
Alex turned, snatching the letter from the bottom step where he’d left it, and shoved it into Mac’s chest. We watched as his eyes flew across the page, his face falling pale and his brows drawing in worry.
“Stevie read this?”
“Of course, she fucking read it,” snapped Alex. “Tell me it’s not fucking true.”
The breath Mac released was full of shame and regret. It appeared another man in her life had lied to Stefany and let her down.
Fucking cowards, the lot of us.
“It’s true…” Mac began, but was swiftly cut off by a fist to the mouth as Alex rounded on his brother. He stood, taking punch after punch until eventually, I wrapped my arms around Alex’s middle, hauling him off his brother.
“Son of a bitch,” Alex bit out, shrugging from my hold and storming to the kitchen, hands held wide. “No wonder she’s fucking gone.”
“Gone? Gone where?” Mac asked, his head jolting upward.
He had a purple shadow on his left eye, a bruise that looked like it was in the midst of healing from a punch he’d received a while ago, not one freshly made by his brother. His dark eyes looked haunted, and his lips tugged down at the corners.
When I’d met him in that shithole of a bar where he danced with Stefany, he looked carefree, relaxed, like nothing in the world would bother him. A far cry from the man I looked at now.
“Shit. Where is she?” he asked again.
“Safe,” I said.
“Jake, I swear to God, you better tell me right now or—”
“Or what, Mac? I don’t think you are in the position to be threatening him right now, brother,” Alex said from the doorway, holding a bag of frozen peas to his knuckles. Mac glanced over my shoulder and hung his head.
“I forgot this was even athing,”Mac whispered, lifting the letter still clutched in his hand. “I doubt Will remembers too.”
“Fuck’s sake,” Alex spat, pushing from the jamb and walking to my side. “Of course, Will was in on it. Why didn’t I know?”
Mac shrugged. “You were just a kid…”
“I was fifteen, Mac, when we met her.”
Scowling at Alex, he continued, “Dad sat me down one night and said I needed tomake friendswith some black-haired little girl of his enemy and report anything I found out. Told me to take you too, but keep you in the dark.” He touched his nose with the back of his hand, looked at the blood staining his skin, and wiped it on his dark jeans. “I don’t know why he did it, Alex. The man is an asshole. Christ, a bigger one than his golden boy, Will, but back then, you never disobeyed an order from Dad. Why do you think I wanted out? Why I never wanted to be a part of his fucked-up games?”
“You should have told me,” Alex said quietly, but through his gritted teeth, he was still seething.
“Why?” Mac asked. “What would it have changed? You love Stevie like a sister.Welove her like a sister. So would knowing we were only meant to pretend to be her friend really have changed how you feel about her?”
“Of course not. But now she thinks…” Alex sunk his hand into his hair, then released a heavy sigh. “I don’t even know what she thinks, but between this, the assignment, and this asshole”—he thumbed toward me—“she will think she can’t trust anyone.”
Turning to me, Alex sheepishly asked, “Did she really cry?”
I nodded. “Right before she blew up her dad’s house.”
Mac coughed, and Alex spat the mouthful of beer he’d been taking, both brothers’ eyes bugging out in disbelief.
“Well, shit. I got off easy with just my tyres.” Scrubbing the back of his neck, he was silent for a beat. “What do we do?”
“I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “It’s not as if she’s forgiven me yet. But you need to explain things.” I looked between Alex and Mac, their demeanours similar as they stood opposite each other. “Both of you.”
