Page 235 of Five Brothers

“Until I’m ready to share yours,” she tells him.

A truck sits on my chest, but I don’t shift my eyes off the table.

Jerome knew he was meeting with one of us tonight and decided to kill two birds with one stone. He wanted me to see this.

Liv sits up. “Krisjen, what are you doing?”

Krisjen doesn’t reply.

Jerome Watson doesn’t sound fazed. “What else?” he demands.

“My brother and sister come with me.”

“What?” her father speaks up. “Where’s your mother?”

But no one pays him any mind. My head swims.

“Your sister,” Jerome tells her. “Your brother should be away at school by now.”

“What the hell is this?” her father barks.

Good question. It seems Krisjen has realized she can do better. I shouldn’t care. She never lied. She knew she’d give in.

“Why would I still want you?” Watson asks her, suddenly playing hard to get.

He may not know she fucked Army and Iron, but he does know about Trace. My stomach twists with knots.

Fuck her.

I clench my jaw before speaking. “Whether you marry her or not,” I tell him, “you’re going to want a piece of her. Trust me.”

And now he knows I had her, too.

Her father pounds the table with his fist once, and Dallas laughs under his breath. Krisjen doesn’t move.

I stand up, collecting my helmet as my brothers and sister get up with me. Screw this. I wasn’t going to give Ames anything anyway, but now, I hope there’s a fucking war. They’re all going to bleed.

“I will get the land,” Ames says, warning me before I bolt.

“The hard way, then,” I say in a low voice. “I’m in the mood for a fight. A long, loud, expensive fight.”

“There may be losses.”

“As long as you’re okay with that,” I tell him.

Trace chuckles, and Dallas stretches his arms in the air. “Ah, this is going to be fun.”

I kick my chair back, hearing it tumble behind me. “And the stock market in Tokyo is closed all day,” I tell Ames as I walk out. “It’s Saturday there.”

31

Krisjen

I’m glad he leaves quickly.

It takes everything not to watch him as he passes me. As I absorb the last I’ll probably see of him for who knows how long.

I will see him, though. Maybe at a stoplight a year from now. On Liv’s social media when she’s home with them next summer. Maybe he’ll have a kid someday, and I’ll have a kid, and I’ll see him across the field as they play on opposing sides.