Page 57 of Guitars and Cages

“Now you need to go back and un-get them!” Cole hollered, and then took a long drink from the bottle.

“Who the hell do you think you are to tell me what to do? It was my decision to make and I made it, and if you don’t like it you can fuck off back to Mexico. At least I like what I’m becoming; what the hell do you have to like about yourself?”

Even I had to flinch when I heard him say that, ’cause he might as well have been talkin’ to me. Cole slammed the bottle on the table and reached for Alex, who was wise enough to back up out of reach.

“Let me tell you something, you little shit. If you wanna prance around like some fuckin’ fairy freakshow then have at it; I hope someone decides to show you exactly what should happen to freaks like you.”

“Yeah, and what would that be?” Alex yelled back at him, his cheeks wet with tears now even as his fists clenched.

I prayed he wouldn’t dare take a swing at Cole.

“I think you can figure it out for yourself,” Cole snarled, snatching the bottle from the table and drinking more. “Just remember you asked for it when they find you half-dead in some alley somewhere, and don’t call me, ’cause I won’t give a shit.”

“That’s enough!” I snapped. I hadn’t intended to speak, but the words had popped out before I had the chance to stop them.

Cole whirled around, glaring at me, and I gulped at the drunken fury I saw in his eyes. He might have handled this better sober. Maybe…but who the hell was I fooling? I’d told Morgan he was gonna flip.

“How the fuck could you let him do that to himself?” Cole yelled at me.

“Hey, for the record, I didn’t know about it until he showed up here, so don’t jump down my throat about what he did.”

“You didn’t do anything about it, though, did you?”

“And what was I supposed to do, Colton? He showed up here in a goddamned mini-skirt, nylons, heels, the whole works, dude. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t have a stock answer ready for that.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about it last night?”

“Wasn’t for me to tell.”

Cole looked back over his shoulder at where Alex stood. “You’re a fuckin’ disgrace,” he told our youngest brother.

“Leave him alone, Cole,” I said, wanting to kick myself for the way my mouth couldn’t seem to manage to shut up today, or at least self-censor. I’d have thought that spilling my guts at the shrink’s office would have cured me from running my mouth before I thought, at least for the day, but apparently it hadn’t.

“Oh, is that your answer to it? Let’s leave it alone, let him embarrass the whole fucking family with this…this…mess he’s made of himself!” he yelled. “I cannot believe you let him around Rory like this, Asher! The last thing we need is our nephew picking up this shit from him. Dad would fuckin’ skin him alive if he were here to see this!”

Yeah, well, I knew that better than any of them, but I sure as hell wasn’t gonna say anything along those lines. I watched Cole take another long guzzle from the bottle, and reached out like a dumbass to take it away because he’d drunk too much already and I was starting to be a bit afraid of him myself.

He yanked the bottle away before I could close my fingers around it. “Touch that bottle and I’ll break your good hand.”

“I think you’ve had enough.”

“The only thing I’ve had enough of is looking at this little queer.”

“Then why don’t you go to your room and you can sleep it off?”

“Ain’t gonna fix shit.”

“But it might give you time to cool off.”

He was right in front of me now. I’m six-four and I still had to look up. My head was starting to hurt, and I was hungry, and I wasn’t in the mood for his shit right now.

“When did you become such a fag lover?”

“He’s our brother; don’t matter what he is, at least we’ve still got him here, not like Chase. You really wanna put another brother in the ground?”

Cole looked back over his shoulder, and I could see he was looking Alex up and down. “That little faggot ain’t no brother of mine.”

Alex sucked in a deep breath, and before I could blink, he was around the table and in Cole’s face, shoving our much-larger brother. “I’m sick of your bullshit! All you are is a drunken bully!”