Page 5 of Tangled Like Us

Farrow turns his head slightly.

I scout the other side of the beach to avoid our eyes meeting. Muscles flexed, I suck in a strained breath.

Banks plants his gaze on me. “I thought you said you were snapped to?”

We always say that to one another:you need to snap to. Can’t live in the past.He’s referring to Farrow. My past mistake. My fuck-up.

What I haven’t been able to mentally drop.

What I need to fix.

These men on the team are my responsibility.

My client is my life.

It’s what I live by.

And you fucked it, Thatcher.

I rake my hand across my jaw. “I shouldn’t have punched Farrow.” I haven’t said it out loud to my brother. Not until now. He’s just known I’ve been neck-deep in regret.

He’s been seeing and feeling my fucking torment the same way I can tell he’s in physical pain. It’s not some “psychic” connection. You just live with someone for twenty-eight years, and they’re a part of you like that.

“Yeah,” Banks agrees in a deep whisper. “But you’re not the first guy to hit someone else on the team, and you’ve already paid a three-fucking-grand fine.”

Doesn’t matter.I rub my mouth roughly and then drop my hand.

I knew Banks would try to release me from my sins, but I don’t deserve that kind of absolution.

Jane runs on loyalty and trust—like I do—and in one instant, I broke both. I compromised my ability to effectively communicate with her. Because I fuckingpunchedFarrow: her best friend’s boyfriend.

And it goes far beyond ruining the good thing I had working with Jane. I would’ve never wanted my men to do what I did.

I’m ashamed.

I don’t care if I’m the third or fourth or hundredth fucking bodyguard to hit another bodyguard. I let my anger and frustration get the best of me.

I should’ve cooled off and kept my mouth shut.

But I was fucking fuming that day. Farrow told Omega that he decided to quit security—so he could finish his residency and become a concierge doctor—and I lost it.

I’ve always wanted him to choose this team first, and hearing him pick the hospital felt like a betrayal that I feared come to fruition. A betrayal not only to security but to his client.

And I reached a point where I wanted to sock Farrow hard. To provoke him, I took a personal shot and implied something about Maximoff Hale that I knew would set him off. Something I don’t evenfuckingbelieve.

I insinuated Maximoff would sleep with any bodyguard that joined his detail.

Farrow charged. I swung.

“Thatcher.” Banks bites his toothpick and sends a hard look at me that says,don’t do this to yourself.My brother can’t stare at me for more than half a second.

We’re on-duty.

We need to scout our AO, and our area of operations tonight happens to be one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

I study the darkened sand fifty meters away.

Silence passes.