Chapter 1
Brothers and sisters may fight like they hate each other, but they’ll always have each other’s backs. So watch your face if you say something about one in the other’s hearing.
-Note to self
Bennett
“I can’t fucking believe that that stupid cunt marked my face!” I hissed, staring at my face in the mirror of the exam room.
“Your face was too pretty anyway. You need to get over it,” my sister said distractedly, not even bothering to look up from her magazine.
I turned around and glared at the crazy girl.
“Why are you even here? How’d you know I was here so fast?” I asked with annoyance.
I loved my big sister and all, but she really was a shit head. We fought like cats and dogs, even now, with both of us well over the age of eighteen.
Payton was nearly thirty two, and I’d just turned twenty five. And I still couldn’t count the number of times we got into a hitting match each week.
Something that annoyed our parents and Max, Payton’s husband, to no end.
Then again, we found it amusing that they didn’t like it, which was probably why we did it so often.
“Hey, how about we not do this right now?”
That was Nico, always the voice of reason.
Nico was what I’d call my best friend, even though he was a little standoffish at times.
He was on the SWAT team with me and the reason I’d joined the team myself.
I’d been on the team now for three years and I enjoyed it, most of the time.
Today, however, wasn’t one of those days.
Today was a total cluster fuck that I’d like to forget if at all possible.
However, now I had scratches that started just under my ear and went all the way down my neck and collarbone.
“You’ll probably get rabies, and they’ll have to put you down like the dirty dog that you are,” my sister said helpfully.
I threw the bloody compress I was using, to stem the flow of blood oozing from the cuts at her, nailing her in the middle of her breasts.
“Bennett, you dirty, rotten bastard!” She hissed.
I grinned evilly at her. “What were you saying?”
She flipped me off, took the rag at the cleanest portion between two fingers, and threw it towards the trashcan.
She missed, and it landed on the foot of the nurse who’d just walked in through the door.
“Hmm,” the nurse said, lifting her foot and kicking it off into the trashcan. “Nice try, at least.”
I snorted, but didn’t say anything.
The woman was cute. Long wavy brown hair in a ponytail at the top of her head. The blonde and red streaks in her hair, paired with her makeup, as well as her jewelry, practically screamed ‘high maintenance.’
“Which one of you is Bennett Alvarez?” She asked, scanning the room.
It could be hard to tell, I was sure. There were five people stuffed into the tiny room, and I was the only one standing. I was fairly sure she would have a hard time figuring out who she was supposed to be taking care of, especially since the scratched part of my face was facing away from her.
“That would be me,” I said, drawing her attention, and the full force of her gaze.
It felt like she could see right through me.
It was almost as if she’d stripped me naked in the ten seconds it took her to take me in.
Then she offered her hand to me as she walked closer.
“My name’s Lennox Jane. I’ll be sewing you up today,” she introduced herself.
I took her tiny hand in mine, and shook it twice, up and down, before dropping it as if she’d burned me.
Electric shocks had poured into my hand from hers the moment our skin touched, and both of our eyes had widened.
“Are you a doctor?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, I’m a PA, or physician’s assistant. Is that okay?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
Was she even old enough to be that? She looked to be twenty two at most. Didn’t that shit take a lot of time to get accomplished?
She nodded her own head, and then gestured to the bed with her hand. “Have a seat and let me see what’s going on.”
My sister didn’t bother to move at all, which was why I sat on her.
“Goddammit, Bennett, you fat fucker,” she growled, pushing at my back with her knees to free her hand.
Lennox’s eyes narrowed at Payton. “If you’d move off the bed, then he wouldn’t have sat on you.”
Payton narrowed her eyes at Lennox, but nonetheless moved off the bed and went to her husband.
Max yanked her down onto his lap and promptly covered her mouth with his hand when she would’ve made a move to say something.
When I moved my eyes back to the sweet thing in front of me, I was surprised to see her not studying my face, but my hands.
I looked down, surprised that she’d even seen them over the bloody scratches on my face.
“Your knuckles might need a little Derma-bond, but other than that they look good. Open and close your hand for me,” she said, sticking her tiny hand in mine. “Good, squeeze.”
I did, unsure of if she wanted me to really squeeze, or just show her that I could.
I went with just showing her that I could so I didn’t crush her hands.
She looked like a crier.
“Excellent, I don’t see anything other than that wrong. That face of yours, though, will probably need a few stitches. Once the nurse gets them cleaned up, I’ll come and take a look, okay?” She asked, eyes on mine.
I nodded, trying to figure out just what it was about her that was so different. So intriguing.
She didn’t give me long to stare, though. She left without another backwards glance, and the room stayed silent for a full minute while everyone processed what they were thinking.
“Did she look like that girl off of House to you?” Payton whispered to her husband.
House, the TV show.
Payton was obsessed with that show and the show’s main actor, House.