Page 60 of Give Me Forever Love

“Something you don’t want me to see?” I ask suspiciously.

“Nope,” he says, sliding the phone into his pocket as he heads for the fridge.

He opens the beers again against the counter, handing me one before he scratches the back of his neck, taking his seat. He tastes his beer before resting it on his knee as he picks at the label.

I see the battle on his face. He wants to talk to me about something, but he doesn’t know how. I practically raised this boy. I know all of his expressions.

“Spit it out,” I say before I down the rest of my beer and switch it out for the new one.

His eyes jump to me before skipping over to the wall. He swallows and then clears his throat. “I’m sorry for what happened. I never should have let her in there. I fucked up.”

“Yeah, you did.”

His eyes go back to me. “Way to kick me when I’m down.”

“That’s not my intention.” I sit up and rest my forearms on my knees. “That club was my life, and your dumbass choices took it away from me. You know how hard I worked. You know I put everything I had into that place, and in a matter of minutes it was gone. All of it.”

He sits up, too. “You think it would have lasted forever? You really think you never would have gotten caught?”

I don’t reply.

“Exactly,” he says. “If it wasn’t because of her, it would have been someone else.”

“Yeah, but it was her and it was because of you. You always do this shit. You’re careless and you play around too much. You think that life is one big fun game. That’s why your ass got discharged from the Army. You fucked around and got caught selling cocaine. How could you be so stupid?”

“Oh, I just fuck everything up, don’t I?” he spits, his eyes burning into me.

I instantly feel bad, but he needs to know how pissed I am at him and this conversation was long overdue. I rub my chin and take another drink.

“You’re still seeing her, aren’t you?”

“No,” he lies like I’m not the man who fucking raised him.

I smirk in disgust and shake my head in disbelief. “You’re so goddamn disappointing.”

He stands up quicker than the words came out of my mouth. “Disappointing?” he seethes. “No, what’s disappointing is when your brother tells you he’ll never leave, but what do you do the first chance you get? You fucking leave. You stayed drunk while youwerethere, just likehimand then you abandoned me, just likeher.”

I stand up, too. “I’m not your fucking parent. I was a kid, too!” I yell.

“You were my older brother. You were all I had, and you left me alone.”

“You act like Pops and Emily weren’t good to be left with.”

“That’s not the point.” He jabs his finger at me. “You were my family.”

I can’t believe this shit. Even after all these years, he’s still hung up on that.

“Jace, I had to go and do my own thing. I had to make something of myself.” I try to reason with him.

“Oh, and you did a great job. Turned your club basement into an illegal gambling operation, and then you did an even better job by getting mixed up with murderers.”

Jace reaches down and scoops up his pack of smokes. He hits it on his palm and slides one out before putting it between his lips and lighting it.

Smoke drifts into the apartment and then he sits down. “Why don’t you get the hell out of here before we say any more shit we’ll regret?”

I look down at the floor, my mind on overdrive. He’s right. I need to leave before one of us swings a fist. I set my beer down and point my finger at him. “You need to get over this shit.” I turn and slam the door shut on my way out, heading for the stairs instead of the elevator.

I don’t like any of this.

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