Page 1 of Reclaimed

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Aiden

Each of my four brothers have all found their happily ever after’s when they weren’t looking. Me? I almost died a virgin.

Stepping in front of a gun aimed at my brother’s girlfriend wasn’t a hard choice to make.

After all, my brothers have been stepping up for me for most of my life.

But in the weeks that followed, it was all I could think about.

Sex.

And how I’m not having any.

The low lights glint off the amber liquid resting in the crystal glass in my hand, and I clench my teeth as the pulsing music crescendos. The incessant thought ceases momentarily as the curvy, blonde bombshell sashays across the stage.

A raucous cheer thunders in the humid room. Sweaty, eager men train their eyes on the beauty they only know as Stella.

Starin Italian.

Only I know her personally as Isla.

And I’ve developed an obsession.

My phone vibrates beside my hand. The screen illuminates but I flip the device upside down. I don’t bother to see which of my meddlesome siblings drew the honor of calling me this evening. Right on fucking schedule.

Four months have passed since I stepped in front of that bullet. In that moment, nothing about me mattered except making sure that my brother Jude didn’t lose the only person he allowed to freely love him. I couldn’t fathom seeing him return to the broken shell of a man he was in the decades before she came around.

And I survived with minimal damage.

With a humorless snort, I sip my drink and lean back in the padded seat. The arm I drape across the back of the booth paints a relaxing picture that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The truth is that sitting in this club night after night is the only remedy to the demons that moved in the minute I woke up in that hospital room with a bandage on my shoulder and an IV in my hand.

The carefree reality I’ve lived in ever since the Powells took me in as a kid was shattered in an instant. I went from the baby of the family, the comedic relief posed against my stoic brothers, to almost having my life snuffed out by a vengeful lunatic.

In that moment, everything flashed before me.

Things I didn’t know I wanted that before seemed like a far-off dream. A wife, a family. Stability and peace. The milestones I’d shrug and grin at, shaking off the idea of settling down like a joke. Like I had the rest of my life ahead of me to make such adult decisions.

One barrel.

One hospital bed.

I bite the inside of my cheek as my phone vibrates again.

Corjan:

Want to watch a movie?

Me:

Busy tonight

Corjan:

How about tomorrow? We could catch a late one at the East Branch theater

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