Sitting up, I let the beer bottle, along with the list and the ring, fall to the floor. Then I stood and faced my brother.
“We all mourned for you,” I said, “when your marriage failed.”
“You were never married to Mari,” he said. “You got lucky. You learned the truth about her feelings before you committed your life to the wrong woman.”
“The wrong woman?”
“Yeah,” he said. “The. Wrong. Woman. Accept it, Harrison. It’s over. She’s gone. Time to move the fuck on.”
“Okay,” I said, sarcasm dripping from every word. “Let’s review your steps, bro, since you seem to be the master at moving on. I forged a deal with a criminal—my boss. That’s your style. I put the family in jeopardy—that comes with it, right? Occupational hazard. Nothing to worry about.” I grinned at Declan and Owen. “What’s the next step in this plan? Fuck everything with legs, including a cougar who supplies bird food!” Without meaning to, the last two words roared out of my mouth.
“She’s a nice lady!” Lachlan shoved against my chest.
I shoved back. “Still don’t change the facts.”
“Fuck facts!” He shoved me even harder. “I do what I have to.”
“Typical Lach,” I said. “Always doingyou—until the rest of us are left picking up the pieces.”
“I fucking live!” He pounded his chest. “You’ve never had to attend my funeral while I was still alive. This is the second time we’re going to yours, bro. It’s getting old. Last time I checked, life hurts, but it doesn’t stop moving forward unless it kills us. You have dreams? So does everyone else.”
He put a hand to my arm to stop me from moving closer to the door. He set his finger against my temple. I swatted it away.
“You ever stop and think, genius, that maybe what’s out there waiting for you is better than what you dreamed of?”
“This was waiting for you,” I said, meaning the hole-in-the-wall we were standing in. “Now you’re a slave to the devil.”
“We’re talking about you, not me.”
“What’s the fucking difference?”
“You’re Harrison and I’m Lachlan—that’s the fucking difference. You deserve better.”
His words stopped me cold. After a few minutes, when I composed myself, I cleared my throat.
“We all deserve better,” I said, feeling a fire rush through my veins, a renewed sense of purpose. I was going to fix this. All of it.
“Where are you going?” Lachlan called out when I got to the door.
“Where else?” I said. “Sicily.”