Page 147 of Five Brothers

I blink, my eyes burning. That’s what I fear. A world where so much is at the mercy of chance. “And if I can control what’s going to happen?”

“Then please don’t get arrested,” she says.

And to my surprise, I start laughing. A woman who just might understand me.

I release her, letting her climb off, but I stay on the bike. “I still want you to leave.” I meet her eyes. “For your sake as much as ours. Macon doesn’t let us love Saints. And he’s right. You’ll never want a life in the Bay. Money always wins over the heart.”

“But you have money,” she says. “Don’t you?”

I turn my gaze away, feeling another smile pull at the corners of my mouth. “Probably more than I know about.”

Macon doesn’t tell us everything.

So, no. She wouldn’t be giving up much security if she was with one of us, but she’d be giving up status. Luxury. We have money, but we’ll never have servants. Or fancy dinners. Or world travel.

“Clay and Liv are together,” she points out, taking off her hoodie and tying it around her waist. “He’s fine with Liv being with a Saint.”

I dig a pack of cigarettes out of my breast pocket. “Is he?” I light one, blowing out the smoke. “Why do you think he changed his mind about letting Liv go to Dartmouth? Sending her off and even helping pay for it, so she can’t use debt as an excuse to come home to a state school to be near Clay?”

Her brows pinch together, and I see the wheels turning in her head. She straightens, staring down at me. “He thinks the distance will kill the relationship.”

I nod. “We had to mop Army up off the floor after his girl destroyed him. Macon’s tired of cleaning up problems that should never have been problems.”

“Did he ever have to clean up after you?”

I snap my gaze to hers.

But before I can answer, she’s walking away and throwing me a sly smile over her shoulder.

I wasn’t going to tell her, but she knows there’s something she doesn’t know. She’s not stupid, is she?

I take another drag. By the time the full measure of the consequences of fucking the one Saint I should never have fucked hits the Bay, she’ll be gone anyway. Probably.

Macon will be cleaning up after me for years.

The truck pulls up to my right, and I hear the rumble of another bike somewhere farther in the distance. I spot Aracely at the carnival entrance adding tequila from her flask into a frozen lemonade she just bought, and Krisjen finds Liv and Clay where everybody is dancing to a DJ playing music. I could buy them all a drink. Liv has to go back to school in a couple of days. She’d appreciate it.

Icouldbuy them all a drink to be nice. I’m not going to. I’ve grown enough for one day.

I turn my face up to the sky, just as thunderclouds roll in, and the warm wind blows the tent flaps. I smoke the last of the cigarette, the breeze caressing my hair, and the smell of hot tar drifting through my nose. Reminds me of kites. I don’t know why.

“We’re all going to be wet in an hour,” I hear Trace call out.

He walks over to me, smoothing back his dark hair and refitting his baseball cap over it.

“Yeah.”

No one cares, though.

He sees my cigarette and reaches into my breast pocket, stealing the pack. He lights one up, and we both gaze at the crowd of people, taking in the view. Army circles his arms around Krisjen, and she laughs. I look at Trace watching them.

“You still want her at all?” I ask him.

He shrugs. “Sometimes.”

His answer surprises me. I thought he’d lie, act like he doesn’t care.

“She’s good at loving,” he tells me. “She was pretty hot on Iron that night.”