Page 18 of Regrets

Colt comes out of the kitchen, holding a sandwich, looking horrified by my crazy shouting. “Pea? What’s wrong?”

“Where’s your brother?”

“Upstairs.” He walks to me, concern dripping from him. “What’s going on? Why are you so upset?”

I don’t answer him, I just fly up the stairs in a fit of rage, pushing open Linc’s bedroom door and busting in. He’s sitting on his bed, looking at his cellphone, but he doesn’t look all that surprised to see me.

The asshole probably heard me screaming downstairs and just sat here in wait.

“What’s wrong, P?”

I glare at him, one hand on my hip, annoyed with his cavalier act. “You know what’s wrong.”

“Well, I don’t.” Colt takes my hand in his, urging me to face him, but I don’t. I stay focused on Linc.

“What the hell were you thinking? You beat him up?”

Colt looks over at his brother in shock. “You did what? Who? Her foster father?”

Now, I know with certainty Colt wasn’t involved in this. Although, I was pretty sure before his face showed me how shocked he is.How could Linc do this?I asked him not to, but when I sat down to dinner tonight, my foster father’s face was beat to hell. And not just a black eye but also a broken nose and a swollen cheek.

Linc just sits on his bed, his legs out straight, unbothered by my anger.

Releasing my hand, Colt takes a step closer to his brother. “You assaulted someone? How the hell could you do that?’

Linc’s eyes lift slowly to Colt’s face, his voice cold and low, “How could younotdo that?”

Colt stands straighter. “She asked me not to do anything. I promised her. That’s so like you, Linc. So reckless.”

Now Linc rises from his bed and moves right into Colt’s face. “One day, you’re going to have to branch out and stop doing only what they expect you to do.” He leans in close, and I see Colt tense. “You’re going to have to grow a pair.”

“Oh, like you, Linc? Drinking and partying all the time? Sleeping with anything that moves? All just to give Mom and Dad the finger?”

I can’t stand to watch them fight. Linc and Colt are a true conundrum. They’d die for each other if they don’t kill each other first.

“At least I’m not too afraid to use my dick, Colt.”

Linc’s eyes slide to me in a challenge, and I know it was to rile Colt up, but it hits me too. Our conversation in the kitchen on Colt’s birthday comes to mind. It’s as if Colt has positioned meon a pedestal, keeping me clean and in as in pristine of condition as he can. Linc, he’s different. I feel like he’s always trying to pull me down and make me as dirty as I feel I am.

“Stop.” I stand next to Colt, looking at Linc. “How could you do that? I wasn’t trying to hint that I wanted you to help me. I wasn’t begging you for help because I was too afraid to seek help myself. I didn’t want to report it because I don’t want to move.”

“That’s bullshit, P. You can’t fucking stay in a place where they beat you up.”

“There are worse things, Linc.” I fight the shudder threatening to run through me as I look in his eyes, thinking about those worse things.

His eyes darken. I hate how he looks at me, as if he sees the real Penelope, the one I’ve been trying to bury deep for years. “What’s worse than getting beat up? And why are you so scared?”

I can feel Colt’s curious eyes on me. If he knew the real me, the things I’ve seen and the way I grew up, he wouldn’t look at me in the same way. It’s not his fault. Colt is just so positive and good, and he grew up in a good home. He wouldn’t understand, and it’s why I don’t often talk about my life.

I glare at Linc. The only time I talk about my life is whenhepushes me to. “Don’t worry about it? I cannot believe you. What if he presses charges?”

Linc doesn’t miss a beat, his privileged life a precursor for all his bad behavior. “My father’s lawyers will handle it before he makes it to the police station. And I let him know that.”

“Jesus, Linc.” Colt runs his hand through his soft, brown waves. “It still wasn’t your place.”

“You’re right, little brother.” Again with the male dominance game, Linc crowds Colt’s body that has recently caught up to his size. They’re evenly matched now. “It should have been you.”

“Linc . . . don’t,” I warn because I see the fire in his eyes. I know he won’t hold back, and things are quickly getting out of control.

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