Bond (Klein Brothers 1)

The new guy was way more intoxicated as the hot-but-full-of-himself gladiator because he squinted and leaned in, swaying slightly as he stared at the screen. “Maybe. Think sheesh on baloooney.”

He was definitely drunk.

Clapping him on the shoulder, the hot shit gladiator guy pointed at the kitchen. “Randy has water on the counter in the kitchen, Aston. Go drink some for me before you puke everywhere.”

Saluting him, Aston stumbled in the direction he’d been pointed in.

Turning back to me, the guy waved at the sliding glass doors to the balcony. “After you, babe.”

Sighing, I squeezed between bodies and deliberately rubbed my blue arm against the back of a guy’s Miami Vice style white jacket. Hey, if I had to go through the torture of being around highly intoxicated people while music blasted so loudly that my ears were itchy, then some guy could wake up tomorrow with a hangover from partaking in the event and wonder how he got blue paint on his jacket.

I felt the gladiator guy laugh. Well, I felt where the front of his costume was pressed against my back in the crush of bodies move with it and assumed he was laughing. For all I knew, he was coughing.

As I got to the door, he leaned down. “That wasn’t nice.” The fact he was laughing as he said it, though, implied he thought it was still funny.

Shrugging, I scanned the people standing talking. “I didn’t ask to be painted blue, and he wore a bright white jacket to a party like this. He was asking for it to happen.”

Moving so he was standing next to me, the guy took his gladiator hat off and looked around us.

“Is she your sister?”

Funny how his words minutes ago had left me cold, but a guy saying I was young enough to have a sixteen-year-old sister was the best flirting I’d come across in my life.

I was disappointed when I answered him honestly instead. “No, she’s my neighbor’s daughter.”

Grabbing my hand, he pulled me toward the far corner where a couple was standing close to one another.

“Yo!” he called, getting the guy’s attention. When the girl followed where he was looking, I cringed at how much makeup Jenny had on her face, and mentally rolled my eyes at the cliché cheerleader outfit she was wearing. “Not sure if y’all know each other well, but you might wanna take a step back, man. She’s only sixteen.”

Jenny’s face turned red as the guy did a double-take and almost jumped away from her.

“Heidi, what are you doing here?” she hissed.

Out of patience and with no more shits left to give, I grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the door.

“Don’t give me one ounce of bullshit, Jenny. Your mom’s going out of her mind with worry. Your baby sister’s sick, too, so this was the last thing she needed tonight from you.”

Jenny tried to pull out of my grasp, but the trojan—no, the gladiator—was behind her and gave her a nudge to keep moving.

“Rule of thumb, girl, you don’t turn your back on family when they need you. Mine lost a good woman two years ago, and I wish I’d had more time with her,” he said, sounding more serious than he had in the last ten minutes. Not that it was hard, but still, it made my heart hurt for him.

“Your sister’s sick and sounds like your mom needs you. We’re not guaranteed any time on earth, but there’s definitely enough time to feel regret, guilt, and to kick our asses for doing something we can’t fix after we lose someone.”

Rolling her eyes, Jenny sneered as she turned. The thing was, in all of her ‘teenage drama,’ she hadn’t taken a good look at the troj—fuck it, the gladiator—and when she did, her jaw dropped.

“Are you even real?” I didn’t hear her say the words, but I read her lips as he moved to stand next to me.

A united front in the face of adversity. How often had I wished for this exact thing since I’d had Nemi? The irony that he was dressed in a costume, we were standing in the middle of what looked like a frat party, and he had the maturity of a sixteen-year-old weren’t lost on me, though.

He just sighed loudly and leaned behind me to put his helmet down heavily on the table next to my leg.

Jenny’s eyes didn’t leave him once, and when he straightened back up again, I swear it looked like she was drooling slightly.

Would it be mean to point out to her that the muscles on his abdomen were part of the costume? More than likely, yes, but would it really, though?

“I’m old enough to be here and to party with you guys,” she finally said, glancing around at the stupid shit people were doing. “No one even noticed I’m younger.”