Page 26 of Between Brothers

He didn’t even have the balls to back his own soldiers, his sons.

When he looked back at me, I scoffed with all the disgust I could muster and walked away.

Chapter Twelve

Brotherly Love

Royal

My back was ugly. I stood in front of the bathroom mirror at my mother’s house surveying the damage. The skin was raw in places, bruised in others.

“Asshole,” I repeated, not for the first time.

I slowly donned my shirt, and opened the bathroom door, intent to get a cool glass of water.

“Jesus,” I blurted out, jumping back a bit, when I discovered my mother waiting wide eyed.

“Are you going to tell me what the hell happened? I know this wasn’t just some traffic incident. You were so furious you didn’t even speak on the ride over here, Roy.” She shook her head, confusion and worry spreading across her brow.

I stepped between her and the door, planting a kiss to her crown as I slid past.

“I’m fine.”

“Yeah. I bet,” She sounded exasperated, and I almost felt bad, until she ran her fingertips from my right hip up the center of my spine.

“Godda– What the hell is wrong with you?” I whirled around to confront her.

She folded her arms and stared, “You’re fine, remember.”

I licked my lips, hating that I couldn’t ease her worry a little.

It had only been my brother, not some rival or enemy. The thought almost made me snort. Maybe this was what brotherly love looked like in this fucked-up world of ours.

It wasn’t serious, even if it was uncomfortable both with the wounds and the badges that I’d had to endure once they arrived on scene.

I searched her face while desperately trying to form an answer that would somehow be enough.

When it didn’t come, I tore my gaze away.

“You can look everywhere but my eyes. Something is wrong,” she quietly, but firmly insisted.

“King and I had a disagreement, that is all.”

“Kingston?” She brought her fingers to her mouth.

I huffed, regretting I’d said anything at all. I turned for the kitchen, abandoning the conversation in search of my phone. I looked on the table and the counter, before recalling I’d left it in the foyer. Despite my aimless wandering, she was still at my heels when I stopped near the front door.

“What in the world could you and Kingston possibly be feuding about that would end up with you sprawled out in the middle of an intersection?”

“I wasn’t in the four-way, I was just off to the side,” I pointed out, only for her eyes to narrow dangerously. I inhaled, and decided to give her a half-truth, “A girl. Alright. We’re both interested in the same girl, I guess.”

“You and Kingston… share an interest in the same female?” She blinked several times while digesting that.

“Yeah.” I sniffed, grabbed my keys and reached for her shoulder, signaling I was about to leave.

Rather than hug me, she called my bluff. “Who?”

“Huh?”