Page 36 of Succumbed

Lincoln frowns and crosses his arms as he looks down, refusing to meet his brother’s accusatory gaze. Having lost his punching bag, Dec rounds on me.

“Are you seriously not going to back me up here, Shane?”

“Linc’s an adult, Dec. So’s Lex. What they choose to do in their free time is their business.”

Dec lets out a shocked breath, his eyes wild and a vein throbbing down his forehead. “I can’t believe what I’m hearing. This is bullshit.”

He turns on his heel and storms from the room, thundering down the stairs to the basement. Linc sighs and pulls his hat off, running a frustrated hand through his messy curls before resettling it backwards.

“Thanks for backing me up.”

“It’s the truth. We’re all grown ups.”

“I know, I just…I wish Dec could see it that way.” He looks toward the stairs, then shakes his head. “He’s so convinced there’s another villain in our story, and somehow it’s Lex.”

“No, pretty sure he’s cast himself in that role.”

Linc glances up in surprise, then his expression turns thoughtful. After a moment, he scoffs.

‘Yeah, I guess he has. When do you think he’ll figure that out?”

“That’s the million dollar question, isn’t it? Knowing your brother, it’ll be right before it’s too late and not a minute earlier.”

Tilting his head back to face the ceiling, Linc groans. “I hate that you’re probably right about that.”

He slumps into his chair, then pulls his soggy bowl of cereal closer despondently. Hunched over the table, he looks up between bites.

“You don’t have any questions?” he mumbles around a mouthful of food.

“I have all the questions, Linc.”

He grins. “Fair.”

“Most of them would be a violation of Lex’s privacy, though, so…I’ll keep them to myself. For now.”

His eyes twinkle. “She’s something else, man. That’s all I'll say.”

“She must be, if she’s got you up before sunrise and willingly going toe-to-toe with Declan.”

He grimaces. “Yeah, it’s not my favorite place to be. But I really think Dec’s got the wrong idea on this whole thing. Lex isn’t the enemy. If anything, she’s exactly what I–what we–need.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” I stand, gathering our dishes and taking them to the sink. “I’ll go check on our fearless leader.”

“Not so fearless these days, is he?”

I chuckle. “As much as I love Bold Lincoln, I gotta counsel you to keep the insightful shit between us.”

“I know, I know,” Linc says through a shit-eating grin. “He’d fucking deck me if he heard me psycho-analyze him.”

“He sure would.” I dry my hands on the kitchen towel, then turn for the stairs. “Don’t wait up. If you’re done, head over. We’ll meet you there.”

“Sure thing, man. And, Shane?”

I pause at the top of the stairs, looking back at him over my shoulder.

“Thank you.”

He has the ghost of a smile on his lips, and I return it before heading down the stairs. The Wilde brothers and I have a pretty smooth dynamic. Dec is our self-appointed leader, Linc the jokester, and I usually try to keep anyone from getting killed or overly pissed off. It works, but we admittedly experienced little conflict to test the model. Then Anne-Marie happened. Bitch. Ever since, it felt like everything between us was out of whack. But with Lex and Athena involved, I see an opportunity for us to intentionally evolve into something more sustainable.

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