Page 11

ANDERS

“Why don’t you take your cheap ass and—”

I slam the door hard behind me, and whatever dear old dad was about to say about my “cheap ass” ends in a shatter of glass instead.

A trickle of amber liquid spills under the door and I shake my head.

Wasting some of his own booze is sure to improve his mood.

I roll my eyes and haul ass for the stairs before he can stumble his drunk ass over to the door to keep berating me.

Fuck knows what even set him off tonight. Maybe in the depths of his pickled brain he can feel the ticking clock too, telling him his free ride is almost up.

Seriously though, cheap ? He’s fucking dreaming if he thinks a thousand bucks per fuck is cheap .

I huff and jog down the steps at a thunderous pace, not bothering to look back.

When I hit the ground floor, something strange occurs to me.

My heart isn’t pounding, my palms aren’t sweating, and my stomach isn’t in knots.

I’m not afraid of him anymore. Maybe it’s because I’m exactly eighteen days from never having to look at his ugly face again.

Or maybe the threat of a stray fist is nothing compared to walking around with a target on my back courtesy of the Morettis.

I flip my middle fingers up over my shoulder on my way out the door, even though I’m positive the old man didn’t make it past our own front door with the state he’s in.

I step out onto the sidewalk and then lean against the side of the building, considering my options for a few minutes.

Do I want to risk going back to Wonderland tonight?

Take my chances in the warehouse district?

Some stupid part of me forces me to pull out my phone and double check the cash app just to make sure Luca didn’t pay me again, but there’s nothing new since he sent the second thousand last night.

My heart wasn’t racing when my dad shouted me out of the apartment, but it starts to pick up speed now. I’m not entirely sure the flutter in my gut at the thought of Luca is fear though, at least not entirely.

A frustrated feeling sinks heavily into the pit of my stomach.

I didn’t expect Luca to just keep sending me money for nothing, of course.

I still don’t even understand why he did it yesterday.

I can’t believe I bought into that obnoxious “ you’re mine ” bullshit.

I’m not his. I’m fucking done belonging to anyone other than myself, and if he wants to test that theory, I’m happy to introduce my knee to his balls a second time.

My affection-starved brain serves me up an array of other things I could do to Luca’s balls that would probably be more mutually enjoyable.

I growl under my breath and shake the thought off.

Warehouse district it is tonight. I’m only fifty-fifty that Luca is planning to kill me at this point, but I’m not sure what I’ll do if I see him again, so I’d rather not risk it.

Before I can shove my phone into my pocket and head to the nearest bus stop, it buzzes with an incoming message.

FINN: Ands yoo arond?

A stone sinks in my stomach.

ANDERS: What’s wrong, Finny? You drunk?

I know he is. Misspelled texts are a dead giveaway, and so is the fact that his message was so short.

He knows I hate it when he drinks, given our dad’s issues.

But he’s in college, so I get that he’s going to let loose on occasion, especially when I’m sure everyone is in party mode with graduation so close.

FINN: idk. I had one drnk but I dnt fel good

“Fuckity fuck fuck,” I hiss, tapping my foot against the sidewalk for half a second before making up my mind.

ANDERS: Sit tight, don’t leave with ANYONE, I’ll be there as soon as I can.

I don’t have the patience to fuck with the bus right now when someone likely slipped my brother something, so I order a ride and then spend the next three minutes pacing back and forth until the car pulls up.

It’s a twenty-minute ride to campus, and I spend the entire time with my eyes glued to my screen, watching Finn’s location to make sure it doesn’t move.

I’m not sure whether I’m radiating anxious energy or if my driver is usually a twitchy guy, but every time I look up, he’s checking his rearview mirror like he’s afraid we’re being followed.

Maybe he pissed off the Morettis too. Not my problem.

What is my problem is that Finn’s location marker starts to move when we’re about three minutes away.

“Shit,” I mutter.

“You see that too? I’m not being paranoid, right?” the driver asks.

“What?” I frown, not even looking up from my phone to figure out what the hell he’s talking about. The plastic edges bite into my fingers and I gnaw on my bottom lip, watching the dot move slowly away from the frat house where I’m assuming the party was.

“Nothing,” the driver mutters.

“Stop,” I shout when I see Finn’s dot veer off.

I’m as close as I’m going to get in a car.

He slams on the brakes and I’m out of the car before it’s even come to a full stop.

“Thanks,” I shout over my shoulder. I have no clue if I closed the car door behind me or not, but I do make a mental note to tip the guy and give him five stars once I find my brother.

Holding up my phone to watch his moving location, I jog down the well-lit sidewalk, ignoring the questioning looks of the students I pass. The streetlamps that line the sidewalk get more sparse near the dorms, leaving dark alleys between some of the buildings.

“Hey, don’t,” I hear Finn slur.

“Shh. Relax, baby,” another deep voice answers, and I see red.

My phone clatters out of my hand and my bag bounces against my thigh as I sprint towards the voices, my teeth clenched and my adrenaline raging.

They come into view in the darkness, the fucker who drugged him—or at best saw Finn stumbling drunk and decided to take advantage—has him up against the wall with his hands all over my brother.

Finn’s arms hang limp at his sides like he’s already given up trying to push this asshole off of him.

“He said don’t ,” I grit out between my teeth, launching myself at the man without hesitation.

I land on his back, and he shouts in surprise, letting go of Finn and spinning in an attempt to dislodge me.

My brother slumps, sliding down the wall, and I wrap my arm around the fucker’s throat from behind.

He claws at my arm, but with the adrenaline pumping through my veins, I can’t feel a thing other than blind, throbbing rage.

I tighten my grip, and he makes a gasping sound before his knees buckle.

I come down right on top of him, the cement of the sidewalk scraping against my knees and my forearm hard enough for me to register a faint sting.

I let go of his throat and grab a handful of his hair instead, yanking his head back and smashing it into the sidewalk once, twice, a third time…

My chest heaves and all I can think about is destroying the person who dared to put his hands on my little brother.

“Anders,” Finn’s voice cuts through the fog of rage and I realize the man is whimpering underneath me. “Stop. Don’t kill him.”

My lungs burn, but I force myself to slow my breathing and untangle my fingers from the man’s hair.

“Fine, I won’t kill him,” I growl.

I’m shaking from head to toe as I get to my feet.

I feel like I want to scream and cry and kick the shit out of this fucking loser all at once.

There’s still too much of this rage inside me with nowhere to go.

The thought of kissing Luca roughly, pinning him down and fucking out all this anger and adrenaline flits through my mind and heats my body.

I drag in a trembling breath and force myself to focus on Finn. I hurry over to him and crouch down.

“Can you stand?” I ask, doing a quick visual assessment of him in the dark. Other than his shirt being askew, his clothes appear to all be in place, so as far as I can tell, I got here before anything horrible could happen.

He nods and then pushes against the wall, trying and failing to get to his feet. I grab his arm and help him up.

“There you go,” I say softly, slipping under his arm to keep him steady.

Five years younger than me and a good head taller. Finn has outweighed me by a good fifty to a hundred pounds since his mid-teen years, but that’s never stopped me from feeling protective of him. He’s too sweet for all this shit.

“Thanks, Annie,” he mumbles, and I chuckle.

“You know you’re the only person I wouldn’t fight for calling me that, right?”

“Mm-hmm,” he hums and chuckles, leaning into me and letting me lead him out from between the buildings.

I stop under the first light and cast my eyes around in search of my phone. I don’t see anything though.

“Fuck,” I groan. “Some asshole stole my phone.”

“Hmmph,” Finn grumbles.

“Yeah, exactly,” I mutter. “Fuck, I should probably get you to the hospital. Who knows what that loser slipped you.”

“Hospital’s expensive,” he argues.

I sigh. “I know, but…” I bite down on my already tender lip and consider the options.

I could stay here with him tonight to keep an eye on him.

Of course, that means missing out on a night of work, plus however much I end up having to shell out for a new phone too.

Either way, this is going to be an expensive night.

The sound of footsteps has me tensing. Finn lifts his head and smiles.

“Regg, there you are.” He tries to stumble away from me to greet the two dudes coming down the sidewalk towards us.

“Fuck, there you are. We’ve been trying to find you for half an hour.” Regg, or whatever his name is, hurries the last few steps to catch Finn before he can fall.

“You his friends?” I ask, glaring at each of them.

“Yeah,” the other one answers.

“Where the fuck were you? That prick had his hands…” I bite down on the inside of my cheek and wave towards the alley, unable to bring myself to say what exactly he was trying to do to my brother.