Page 112 of Tulips and Lost Time

“Don’t cry.” My jaw hurts. My words. My whole fucking head. “No crying.”

“Marc. Beat the piss outta him,” Jack rumbles.

“He beat the piss out of me?” Dizzy, I bring my arm down and feel the crotch of my jeans. Just in case. “Nah.”

Sobbing, Kari lays her face over my chest and shakes. “You need an ambulance.”

“No.” I push her off. I swear, I don’t mean to shove her off. I never, ever, in my entire fucking life want to send her away. But I clear her off me and roll to the side. My body aches, and my ribs sing. Maybe they’re broken. Maybe they’re just really fucking sore. Coughing, I get my knees beneath my body, then my hands to the floor.

I ignore the blood spatter patterns the local coroner might study if this day goes worse. But then I stumble to my feet, swaying left when my brain rejects the notion of upwardness.

“Luc!” Kari scrambles to her feet and slides under my arm, holding me up when my knees prefer to tremble. “You need to sit down.”

“I need to see Marc.” My words slur, rolling the way they have in the past when I’ve consumed too much alcohol.

In fact, my tilting steps are kinda the same too.

“Let me go.” I unlink Kari’s arm from around my body and stumble out of her hold. Then I close one eye and search for the direction Marcus went.

I need to talk to him.

To clear shit up.

To tell him I love her.

This isn’t one of those one-night fuckeries he’s accustomed to associating me with.

“Marc…” I weave toward the kitchen, toward Jack’s rumbled words, and catch sight of Marcus for just a second. A single moment in time. Then he dives my way and swings his fist out.

I close my eyes to prepare for the pain, but Jack grabs him before he can get to me. “Cool it, man!”

“I thought we were brothers!” I crack one eye open and watch the duo wrestle. One, for freedom, and the other, for submission. Kari sidles up beside me, squeezing my arm just tight enough to remind me I’m hurting. But Marcus only burns hotter. “I thought I could trust you!”

“Kari and I…” I swallow the nausea that has sweat rolling along my back. “It’s not as bad as it looks, brother, I swear.”

“Don’t call me brother! You’re no brother to me.” He scrambles to escape Jack’s grip. While my heart, my whole fucking soul, shrivels at his words. “I thought we were family, Luca! I thought you had my back, but you do this?”

“It’s not like?—”

“She’s not like Sassy!” he roars. “She’s not like those girls.”

“I swear,” I groan. “It’s not like that. If you’d just listen to us?—”

“Us? Us!” He looks from me to Kari, sneering the longer we remain standing side by side. “There’s no us for you two. You’re her brother. Not her fuck buddy!”

“Marc.” Kari steps forward to challenge him, but I shoot my arm out to stop her. It’s muscle memory. It’s my protective instincts, stupid as they may be. Because that one, simple move has Marc fighting against Jack’s hold.

“You don’t stop her from coming to me, you motherfucker!”

Kari slips around my arm and stands in front of her brother, looking up into his eyes with tears pouring from her own. “It’s not so bad,” she pleads. “I promise. We’re in love. If you take a breath, I can explain it.”

“In love? He’s a fucking whore, and you’re my baby sister.”

“I’m not a damn baby anymore!” Angrily, she shoves him back and charges forward to get in his face. If not for the puke rolling along my throat, I’d like to think I might stop her. “You need to get it through your thick head. I’m grown now! I don’t have to ask your permission to date someone.”

“You don’t get to date him! You need to put a fucking shirt on, then he’s leaving and never coming back. You’ll never see him again, Kari!”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake. You don’t get to make that call! I’m in love with him. Do you hear me?” She taps her fingers to the side of his head. “We’ve been seeing each other for a long time, but you don’t know that because you refuse to see me as a woman instead of a scared seven-year-old girl.”

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