Anguished (Crimson Elite 2)

“You need to stop this, Echo. You should know better,” my mother warns.

I shake my head at her.

“You need to stop picking him all the time, I’m your son, too.” Her eyes go wide at my words as my father says my name in a stern voice, “Echo.” His eyebrows are lowered and drawn together so hard they are forming a V over his nose, and the intense stare is enough for me to pay attention. “Maybe if you acted your damn age…” He pauses for a second and slams his hand on the table. “Your brother works, he’s built a good life for himself, and doesn’t drink until he can’t see straight.”

I look across at my straight and narrow brother, the one that’s holding my ex-girlfriend’s hand right now on the table across from me like it shouldn’t affect me. Again.

Assholes.

“I work.” They all look at me. “I own my own fucking business. Does he?” I raise an eyebrow, while they all just stare at me with blank expressions. “And do you want to know something else as well? I’m fucking rich. Richer than this asshole will ever be in his shit lawyer job.” I stand, my vision’s blurry while everyone watches me. “Stop inviting me to this shit-show. Especially, considering you’re making it perfectly clear you don’t fucking want me here,” I say mostly to my mother who guilts me into coming and then proceeds to put me down. Why I put myself through it all, I have no fucking idea.

“You’re a real piece of work, aren’t you?” my brother says sitting proudly in his spot at the table.

“I guess I am. Ask Selena… she should know. She fucked me almost every day for years straight, couldn’t get enough of me. Is she the same with you? Do you make her toes curl and her voice high pitched? Because believe me, brother, I sure as shit know how to.”

Selena lets go of his hand placing it in her lap as she looks down.

He spins to watch her then back to me. “But look where she ended up, brother. Look whose bed she climbs into every night. It isn’t yours, is it? You’re a drunk, you piece of shit.”

The love that emanates from this family sometimes even blindsides me, honestly. Jesus! What family speaks to each other the way we do. No one, that’s fucking who.

That’s why I don’t feel bad when I suddenly fly over the table. His chair pushes backward, and I catch his neck in my hands and squeeze until we’re both on the floor. I sit on him and sneer as I watch him turn blue.

“Oh my God,” Selena screams.

“Get off of him, now.” My mother tugs at my shoulder to pull me loose, but I stay still and taunt him until he starts to lose consciousness.

I hear the cock of a gun, then the tip of it hits the back of my head.

Fuck!

“Now, son.” I let go, slowly getting up as my father puts away his gun.

Selena drops to his side as I smile with disdain down at him.

“Don’t expect me to be this nice next time. This is your last warning.”

“Get out of my house, and don’t ever come back,” my mother says angrily as she points to the front door.

I reach for my beer, grabbing the neck and tip it to her as I walk backward. “Gladly. Have a nice fucking life with your perfect fucking son.”

“Get the fuck out,” my father says while shaking his head at me.

I don’t have to be told again. So, I make my way to the front door of my family home where I grew up but was always treated like an outsider. One where I was never appreciated like I should have been. One where my perfect fucking brother is treated like royalty.

No. I had Selena, and that was all I needed for a long time. Her and my three non-blood brothers who are there for me more than anyone in this world. They see him for the asshole he is, and when my brother attempted to be friends with my group, it never worked.

But, I guess he ended up winning anyway.

Because he got what mattered most to me—the girl.

He got her and rubs it in my face every chance he gets.

Again, I can’t stress the word asshole enough.

“How did it go?” Falcon asks the minute I get into my car, his voice booming through the speakers.

“As well you could imagine.”

“Shit,” he curses. “That bad?”

“I ended up having a gun pointed at my head. So what do you think?” Pulling away, I flip the house off and hope I never see it again or the people inside it.

“Want me to sic Creed onto them? I mean he does have a pregnant wife and all, but I’m sure he’s itching to lay down some bad shit on someone.” He laughs.