Page 59 of So Bad It Must Be Good

Liam drove to the police station frustrated and worried and wondering how on earth they would explain this to their parents, or if they even had to with everything else going on. Christ, his family was a damn mess.

Well, of course, things are going so well for you personally, this is what happens.

He shook that thought away and went into the police station. He was informed of what he needed to do, and went through all the steps, including paying the damn bond—money he was sure to never get back.

It took a little over an hour to go through all the rigmarole of getting Aiden out of jail. When they finally released him, Aiden only grinned. At Liam. At the other officers. He just grinned and grinned and grinned.

Liam didn’t trust himself to say anything so he walked Aiden out to his truck in complete and utter silence. Once inside the truck, Liam looked at his brother. Okay, so he did have a few things to say. Well, one thing.

“So, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

“Aiden Patrick, nice to meet you.”

Liam shook his head and started the truck, pulling out of the police department’s parking lot. “This isn’t you, Aiden.”

Aiden laughed. “Like you know shit about who I am.”

“I know you getting drunk every night is a problem. And I damn well know getting arrested is a big fucking problem, so why don’t you stop feeling sorry for yourself and tell me what the fuck is wrong with you.”

“You’re fucking her. Fucking my—”

“She was never your anything, Aiden,” Liam gritted out, hoping to end this line of conversation before his violent response bubbled over. Because Aiden had zero right to be pissed about him and Kayla. Zero. Right. “You disappeared, and—”

“You were what was left?”

It was a blow meant to hurt, and Aiden might be drunk and clearly in a shitty place in his life, but he knew how to land that blow right where it would hurt. “I’m not in the mood for your bullshit.”

Aiden made a considering noise, and clearly the time in jail and the time it took to process everything had worn some of the drunk off of him. He was alarmingly with it, and happily mean.

These kinds of moods never ended well, and Liam was exhausted. By just about everything. But he took a deep breath and reminded himself that he had to be the bigger person when it came to Aiden.

Hadn’t he been told his whole life he had to take the high road when his brother was being a manipulative ass? He was supposed to be the better person. The responsible, steady, counterpoint to Aiden’s capricious, volatile immaturity.

Only Aiden had ever made Liam hate that role, but Liam had come too damn far to abandon it now. Mom and Dad had enough on their plates right now, and Liam was the better person, damn it.

So he ground his teeth together and drove to Mom and Dad’s. He had a key and he could hopefully let Aiden in without waking anyone up, and then he could go home before he lost his tenuous grasp on control.

Liam pulled onto Mom and Dad’s street, slowing down as he approached where he usually parked at the curb.

“What do you think would happen if she had the choice?” Aiden asked before Liam had come to a full stop.

Liam hit the brake hard, the screeching of his tires echoing through the quiet neighborhood. When he jammed the truck into park to stare at his brother, Aiden was only smiling. Mean and vicious.

Liam was pissed off, by and large, but he reminded himself that it was the middle of the night and surely, surely his brother was going through some huge crap to be being this much of an ass.

“If I, say, ran into her at the farmers’ market, or maybe outside of her apartment, do you think she’d beg me off, or would she still agree to go out with me?”

“That’d be up to her, I guess,” Liam forced himself to say through gritted teeth. He refused to let himself consider the question since it was wholly and utterly stupid and pointless. He pushed out of the truck, making sure his key to the front door was ready to go.

“She’s sweet. Wouldn’t want to hurt anyone,” Aiden was saying as he got out of the truck and started following Liam—walking through the yard even though Dad had asked them approximately a million times to walk up the concrete drive in the spring so as not to disturb the grass seed or fertilizer he put down.

“But she always did have a thing for me. Probably be pretty hard to turn me down, especially if I was persuasive.”

Liam whirled on his brother, shaking with a rage he was desperately, desperately trying to swallow down. “Say one more thing about her, Aiden,” he said as calmly as he could manage, “one more damn thing and—”

“And you’ll what? Perfect Saint Liam. What will you do to me, huh?” Aiden stepped closer, poking him in the chest. “Lecture me a little more firmly? Give me a real talking to if I wondered aloud how willing Kayla Gallagher would be to suck my—”

Liam threw the punch before he even thought about it, and the blow landed with a sickening crack and shot of pain down his arm.

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