Page 68 of Brutal Power

“You called it the Peterson incident, but you never told me what happened. Come on, I’m dying with curiosity.”

He sighs and takes a long drink. “You sure you need to know?”

“Dyingto know.” I shuffle my chair closer and lean across the table to kiss him. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

“Well, since you put it that way.” He leans back in his chair, looking amused, and stares out into the sky. His eyes go a little fuzzy as he remembers. “I told you, Omar and I go way back. What I didn’t mention is we were briefly in the same fraternity in college.”

“Really? But why briefly?”

“I got kicked out.”

“Because of the Peterson incident?”

He shrugs and studies his nails, trying very hard to act casual. “Among other things. This happened midway through the first semester. We lived in a house on Peterson Avenue, so we called it the Peterson place. It was this huge Victorian mansion with like fifteen bedrooms and these enormous downstairs spaces I guess where the lord would entertain the local gentry or whatever the fuck.” He takes a deep breath and blows it out. “Anyway, it was all a misunderstanding. But Omar thinks it wasn’t.”

“Spit it out. You’re stalling.”

He grins and waves a hand in the air. “You know how young men are. Lots of drinking, partying, hooking up, that sort of thing. One evening we threw a big gathering, nothing all that special, just a few kegs and loud music. There was this girl and we were dancing, and I guess she took a liking to me.”

I groan and shake my head. “It’s always a girl, isn’t it? Don’t tell me she was Omar’s girlfriend?”

He holds up a hand. “You’re getting ahead of yourself. Do you want to hear the story or not?”

“Fine, no more interruptions. But I know where this is going.”

He ignores me and continues. “This girl’s name was Sara. Or maybe Catherine? I don’t remember, but anyway, we were dancing and eventually we were kissing and then she took me by the hand and dragged me to the steps, and that’s where shit went downhill. Because it turned out that the lovely Sara was?—”

“Omar’s girlfriend!” I supply happily.

He shakes his head, grinning. “She was Omar’s sister.”

I gasp, covering my mouth. “No. You didn’t.”

“Alas, my beautiful wife, I most certainly did. I took the lovely Sara up to my room and I made love to her?—”

“You’re disgusting,” I groan, trying not to laugh.

“Imade loveto her, like a gentleman, and I made sure to give as much as I got. Which she liked. She liked ita lot. So much that my fellow disgusting frat brothers decided to sit outside my bedroom door and listen.”

“Oh my god,” I groan, covering my face.

“Yes, well, I had no clue my immature brethren were being a bunch of disgusting pigs. I was busy making love and giving the lovely Sara some wonderful orgasms. Many times over.”

“Please tell me she was at least of age.”

He gives me a look. “She was only a year younger than me, and I was twenty-one at the time. So it was fine. Can I continue, or are you going to keep on assuming the worst?”

“No, finish this horrifying story.”

“As you can imagine, the boys thought it was hilarious. They were having a grand old time making jokes about Sara’s noises and my prowess, and apparently, Omar was the loudest and most obnoxious of the group. Well, the lady and I finished our dalliance, and we exited the room together, only to find a pack of obnoxious young men cheering and laughing, which the shockingly fun Sara thought was hilarious, at least until she saw her brother.”

I bury my face in my hands, trying not to laugh, because it’s not funny. Poor Omar had to listen to his sister having sex and even made jokes about it, only to realize in a huge group what had happened. “He said something, didn’t he?”

“Tried to fight me,” Brody says, nodding his head. “Which only made it worse. I mean, I had no clue she was Omar’s sister. I didn’t even know he had a sister, much less that she was visiting for the weekend. So Omar’s in my face, screaming at me, trying to fight me, and Sara’s getting in the middle of the whole thing, and the guys are all pretty horrified about the whole situation, and that’s when it took a turn.”

“You’re kidding me. It gets worse?”

“The cops showed up. Apparently, there’d been a noise complaint. And they walked in right as Omar punched me in the jaw and started kicking and hitting everyone around him, and I guess one of the officers got hit in the melee, and, well?—”

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