Page 112 of Indulge
Pain explodes down my neck, but it’s not enough to make me step back.
I grin, blood in my mouth. “Finally, some honesty.”
Then I swing.
The impact sends him staggering into the wall, the sound of cracking plaster swallowed by the bass thundering from the main floor.
He lunges again, tackling me into a table. We crash through it.
He grabs my collar, snarling, “You think you’re better than me, huh? That you deserve her?”
I shove him off, both of us panting, wild. “No. I think I’m the one who doesn’t keep breaking her just to see if she’ll crawl back.”
His eyes flash, pure fury. “You don’t know what love costs.”
“And you don’t know what it is!” I roar, driving my shoulder into him. We hit the ground hard. I taste copper and whiskey and regret.
He swings again, fist glancing my temple. I hit back, catching his ribs. It’s fast, vicious, a storm we both needed to unleash.
Until a voice cuts through everything.
“Enough.”
Conan.
He wades through the crowd, grabbing us each by the back of the neck and slamming us apart like we’re fucking kids.
“Are you two out of your goddamn minds?” he growls, shoving Reggie into a wall and me into a chair. “You two are here like thugs while your girl is in tears.”
Neither of us answers. The silence hums with blood and pride and something that feels too much like heartbreak.
Conan glances between us. “You’re brothers. Start acting like it. Or I’ll break both your jaws myself.”
Reggie wipes his mouth, still breathing hard. “Stay out of it, Con.”
“Try me.” Conan’s glare could burn. “Now one of you is going upstairs. The other stays the hell away from Bella until you can breathe without swinging.”
Reggie laughs quietly, bitter. “Guess that means I’m leaving.”
“No,” I tell him. “We’re better than this.”
Conan turns to me. “You good?”
I shake my head, spitting blood onto the floor. “No. But I will be.”
Because right now, I don’t know which hurts worse, his fist or the fact that he’s right about one thing.
Love does cost.
And we’re all running out of money here.
Conan’s grip loosens. “You two are done. Before this turns into something none of you can take back.”
Reggie straightens, blood at the corner of his mouth, chest heaving. He glares at me like he’s still deciding whether to swing again.
And then I see her.
Bella.
