Page 51 of Oathbreaker

I see his face change, watch as he tries to stop.

Feel Colt’s arm come around my middle, trying to pull me back.

But there’s no fighting physics, not when strength and momentum are on its side.

My brother’s fist glances off my temple, and I go down with a cry, pain exploding on my face. I know it’s a glancing blow, Dash trying to stop, Colt dragging me back, but God, that hurts a fucking lot.

And they were punching each other over and over again, nothing about the blows glancing in the least.

“Thorny,” Dash whispers, crouching in front of me, his face full of regret. “Let me see.”

I shake my head, hand over my throbbing face. “No, I’m fine,” I say. “You need to stop with Colt. He’s hurt and?—”

“Here.” I look up, see Atlas is holding out a bag of ice. “On your face. Now.”

“Honey, I’m so sorry,” Dash says. “I didn’t mean?—”

“I know.”

“You need to go,” Atlas snaps. “Get your fucking head together before someone else gets hurt.”

The look on Dash’s face.

Dammit, it hurts.

“Thorny,” he whispers again.

“Just go, Dash,” I tell him softly. “Listen to Atlas. Go and calm down, and when you’re ready we’ll talk.”

He clenches his jaw tightly together. I know he doesn’t want to go.

But I also know that he knows he’s totally fucked this up.

So, a moment later, he’s gone.

A moment after that, I give in to the tears burning my eyes.

And a moment after that, Colt lifts me into his arms.

“B-but you’re h-hurt?—”

“Shut it, baby,” he orders and then holds me closer, holds me like I’m the most precious piece of treasure in the world.

And then he carries me out to my car.

Sixteen

Colt

Last night went so much worse than I anticipated, but my gut told me I needed to be there. Nothing that goes on between me and the boys has anything to do with Briar—outside of the fact that we all love her.

The bond Dash and I share—shared, I guess—is something that’s hard to explain. I was close to all of them, but Dash and me… with the military bond on top of the hockey bond on top of the shitty family bond on top of the Gamebreakers bond was…special. We really did consider ourselves family. Brothers.

When we were in Afghanistan, we were inseparable. Every mission, every duty shift, every basketball game or video call home—we shared it all. About the only thing we never shared was a woman.

And my attraction to Briar, well… it wasn’t black and white.

When I first met her, she was a kid. A teenager with braces and Coke-bottle lens glasses. She was cute in the way you look at a family member, but not sexually attractive to me. However, that gave me the opportunity to get to know her. The real Briar. Inside and out. Her hopes and dreams, her fears, her romanticized wish—the way only a sad teenager can portray—for a family of her own one day that wouldn’t be anything like the one she grew up with.