Page 8 of Broken Pieces

I’d drop it in a second if I could, but if I do that I’ll have nothing.

I hear the rumble of Mad's engine as he pulls up in the parking lot. He waves me over and I shake my head, telling him he'll have to wait.

Music starts blasting and I have to hide my smile as coach glares daggers at Mad's car. When he finally finishes up his speech I grab my bag and jog over to my brother.

"Your chariot, my liege," he gestures, as I hop into the passenger seat.

"What's got you so impatient?"

"Don't play dumb, you know what."

I rest my feet up on the dashboard and Mad smacks them off. "Those better be clean sneakers, I don't want my baby full of dirt and grass again."

"Oh, God forbid I get your rust bucket dirty."

He scowls at me and grabs a cloth from the glove compartment to wipe down where my feet were. "My baby is not a rust bucket, she'sjust a work in progress. Anyway, I want to get home so I can see Vi, before we have to go back to avoiding her."

Mealtimes have become one of the few times we actually get to spend anytime in her presence. It sucks, but it's the right thing to do.

We’ve both been pining after Violet since our father and her mom married. It was easy to ignore our feelings at first, we were just horny teenagers back then. I suppose now we're just horny adults. We managed to set all of those feelings aside and treated her as a sister, a friend. But ever since her birthday, things are starting to feel less off limits.

Violet is all I want. Her face is the last thing I see as I fall asleep and her body is the only thing that gets me off anymore.

"She's usually at her writing class now."

"No, I checked in on the way to get you and she was already heading home." He sounds like a stalker, but it doesn't phase me since I'm exactly the same way. Whenever we can, we follow her just to check in and make sure she's safe.

There's an awkward silence as we drive home and I know Mad can sense the thoughts in my mind as he grows more and more agitated. "Just spit it out already," he snaps.

"I think one of us should talk to her." His frown deepens, with each word that leaves my mouth.

"There's not going to beone of uswhen it comes to Violet, Max. She's both of ours or no ones. You know that."

I run a hand over my jaw as I try to think how to word my thoughts without getting Mad too worked up. "You know how innocent she is. Thanks to us she's barely even spoken to another guy. Do you really think she's going to agree to being both of herstepbrothersgirlfriendsif we ask? I was thinking you could be the one to take care of her. You can go with her to college, get a job there and make it work."

"No. Don't bother wasting another breath because it will always be a no. I'm not doing that without you. There's still time to make her ours before semester starts for you both. If we stop avoiding her then maybe we can make it work."

"We've gone over this so many times, Mad. You're the only one that has a chance with her, I can't turn down my scholarship. But you…all you have is the garage, you can easily go with her and find another job." I know I've hit a nerve when Mad's jaw tenses and he grinds his teeth rather than saying what's on his mind.

As he pulls onto our street, a beautiful lilting giggle catches our attention.

We'd know that sound anywhere.

My heart lodges itself into my throat as I see Violet up ahead, leaning inside some guys car and laughing.

Mad slams his foot down on the brake and is out of the car, storming over there, before I can get my seatbelt off.

Shit.

I fumble with the belt and quickly swing the door open, but he's grabbing her before I have a chance to get there.

"Get off me, Maddox!" Violet winces as he holds onto her upper arms and drags her towards the front gates of our house.

I should go intervene and make sure he doesn't do something stupid, but I need to know who she was talking to.

I vaguely recognise the two guys in the front seats from school.

"Your brother's a psycho," the brown haired guy in the passengerseat laughs.

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