Page 55 of Moonstruck
Asa had seen his share of shitty parents. Hell, until Thomas, he’d had two very shitty fucking parents himself, but Bev was different. Her method of torture was insidious. Death by a thousand cuts and her weapon was her sharp tongue. She wanted every barb to pierce just deep enough to wound but never enough to kill.
To people like Asa and Avi, there was no way to psychologically torture them. They lacked the capacity to be wounded emotionally. But not Zane. He tried to hide his soft heart behind biting words and dark humor, but there was no masking the pain in his eyes and that was what made Asa fear for Bev’s safety. Zane was his. He belonged to him.Withhim. Forever. That meant protecting him with extreme prejudice, even if the attacker was Zane’s own mother. Maybe especially so.
But Thomas would never approve of Asa taking matters into his own hands with Beverly Scott, and he didn’t think ‘it was a wedding present’ would be a valid excuse for unaliving the woman, no matter how odious she was. But she was definitely not invited to the wedding. He’d have her dragged out of there in cuffs if he had to.
“Where are we going now?” Zane finally asked, bursting the bubble of tense silence.
“My brother, Atticus, has his research facility nearby. I can clone the hard drive from there and then we can have a courier return the laptop to your mother.”
Zane nodded. “What do you think Calliope will find on Gage’s computer?” he asked, voice dull.
Asa knew what he was asking. Would they find out his brother was murdered or that he took his own life? But Asa knew the truth. It didn’t matter. There was no answer that would bring Zane any real comfort. His brother was still dead either way.
“What doyouthink she’ll find?” Asa countered, hoping the question would let Zane vent some of the feelings he seemed to be bottling inside.
“Part of me hopes nothing. It would almost be better to never know why he’s gone. There was a suicide note, but my mother never let me see it. Maybe Calliope will find that. But knowing that there was a game being played invalidates the authenticity of the note, no? Like, it could be fake, right? So, that doesn’t matter, right?” Zane asked, voice cracking.
“I wish I knew the right thing to say in this situation,” Asa said sincerely. “I can tell you that, if my brother died, there would never be a reason good enough to satisfy me. There would never be a way to stop the bleeding in here.” He tapped his aching chest. “There would be no punishment harsh enough, no retaliation barbaric enough for the person who took him from me.”
“But what if you found out the person who took him from you was him?” Zane asked, voice thick.
“I would probably go crazy,” Asa answered honestly. “You’re much stronger than me.”
They pulled into a parking space outside of Atticus’s fancy office, but before Asa could open the door, his phone pinged with a text message from Avi:What’s wrong?
Of course, Avi had felt Asa’s pain and panic over the idea of losing him.I’m okay, just comforting a friend.
Avi’s response was immediate.Comforting somebody? You? A friend? You mean your little reporter? That friend? I hear congrats are in order.
Shit. The Mulvaney’s gossip hotline never closed.It’s not like that.
Avi: So, you didn’t decide to wife up a reporter less than forty-eight hours after I left the state?
Okay, maybe it was a little like that. What could he say? Yes, he’d moved at lightning speed with Zane. Yes, he was planning on keeping him forever. Asa loved his brother more than anything in the whole world. He was the only person Asa had imagined ever being capable of loving. But what he had with Zane was more than that. So much more.
He looked at Zane and there was this gut punch of need, this primitive, animalistic knowledge that Zane belonged to him, was made for him, was meant to be loved and fucked and protected by him. He wanted to hurt him so he could heal him. He wanted to know that he was the only one Zane trusted to bend him without breaking him.
Avi: I’d ask if Dad’s making you do this but I can feel how much you want him. I feel it so much it’s distracting.
“Are you good?” Zane asked, frowning hard enough to cause tiny lines to form between his brows.
Asa gave him what he hoped was a reassuring smile. “Yeah, brother stuff. Two seconds.”
Asa typed out his response and hit send, hoping Avi would be reasonable about this.Listen, I need you to like him.
He received three rage face emojis and then:Not going to happen.
Asa made a disgusted noise, earning another anxious glance from Zane. Asa didn’t know why Avi was being so difficult about this, so he called his bluff.Why do you even care? Do you think I don’t know who’s distracting you across the country? It’s not Aiden.
Three dots bounced for an inordinate amount of time considering the short response.I brought him along so we can work.
Asa snorted.Work on what? His gag reflex? Don’t forget, I feel what you feel, too, you know. You’ve wanted Felix since the moment you laid eyes on him. You can pretend all you want, but this is a two-way street. Be nice to my reporter and I’ll be nice to your…intern.
This time, the dots started and stopped four times before his response arrived.There’s nothing going on between Felix and me. You’re imagining things. I just like playing with him. He’s so easy to rile up. Just because you’ve decided to tie us to a stranger doesn’t mean I’m going to give up my bachelor status.
Asa rolled his eyes.Who even says bachelor anymore? Gotta go. Very busy.
He didn’t wait for his brother to text a response, just exited the car and slid his phone into his back pocket before coming around to extract Zane from the passenger seat.
