See How They Run (Embassy Row 2)

Alexei lunges for Spence, feral and brutal. All strength and wounded pride and fury.

There’s only one boy on the beach who is fast enough to reach them, strong enough to leap into the breach when Alexei charges again.

I watch Alexei spin as Jamie catches him around the waist, using his own momentum to change directions.

How many times have I watched the two of them play at battle, tussle and wrestle and fight like brothers? Jamie, older, always a little bigger. Alexei, always a little more wild.

But now it’s not like that. It’s like Alexei has been tackled by a stranger.

“Let me go!” Alexei shouts, pushing against the offending hands. He might not even recognize my brother.

And Jamie, being Jamie, laughs.

“It’s good to see you, too, buddy. I heard you were in Moscow.”

“I’m back,” Alexei growls, then lunges for Spence, who is breathing hard and bleeding from a cut on his eyebrow. His shirt is torn.

“Control your dog, Blake,” Spence shouts before spitting blood into the fire.

Alexei lunges again, breaking free. They’re going to kill each other, I think. Before I realize it, I’m moving forward. My arms are around Alexei’s waist. I can feel the sand that clings to him, the rise and fall of his chest. It’s like trying to hold back an animal, but Alexei won’t hurt me.

Alexei will never hurt me.

“Stop it!” I yell, forcing him back toward Jamie. I’m the weakest of us all, I know. But I have a power here, even if I can’t name it. “Both of you.” I stare down Spence. “You’re causing a scene.”

I glance toward the crowd that has gathered around us. Half of Embassy Row is represented here. Most of the partygoers have their phones out, capturing the whole thing on video. It doesn’t matter that the island is too far from shore for anyone to have a signal. Word of this will spread eventually. It will spread far and wide and at the speed of light. It will live online forever.

But Alexei doesn’t see, doesn’t realize, doesn’t think. He’s pointing at Spence, shouting, “Touch her again, and I will kill you. Do you hear me? I’ll kill you!”

“Hey!” I pull his arm down and make him look me in the eye. “Stop, Alexei. It’s over.”

And then it’s like he sees me for the first time. I can actually watch the rage begin to fade. When Jamie grabs Alexei and pulls him toward the beach, a little farther away from prying eyes, I follow.

“What is going on?” Jamie’s tone of voice would make most people cower. But Alexei only glares.

“I saw him follow Grace to the ruins.”

Jamie spins on me. “You went to the ruins?”

Alexei isn’t easily distracted. “And when I found them, he was all over her.”

I see the words land. It’s like a shadow crosses my brother’s face. In the distance, someone turns the music back on. People begin to buddy up, return to previously scheduled programming in groups of twos and threes. But the three of us are near the water. And a lot of people are still watching.

They see when Jamie spins and takes three long strides in Spence’s direction.

“That is my kid sister.”

Spence tries to laugh. “It was harmless.”

“She’s sixteen,” Jamie says.

“She seems pretty mature to me.”

Jamie doesn’t say a word of warning. He just hits him.

Spence’s head jerks but he stays on his feet. Slowly, he looks back at my brother and brings a finger to his bloody lip. He doesn’t fire back, though. Maybe it’s an army thing, or a West Point thing. Or maybe just a guy thing — but I’m certain that Spence thinks he had that coming.

When Jamie steps closer, he lowers his voice. It’s not the crowd he’s trying to hide his words from, I know. It’s me.

“You don’t know my sister,” he tells his friend, but his gaze echoes with the things he doesn’t say.

She is not mature.

She is not responsible.

She is not to be trusted in the dark with strange, mysterious new boys.

She is not to be trusted. At all.

I only wish I could tell my brother that he’s wrong. But Jamie is never wrong. And nobody knows that more than me.

“Touch my sister again and he won’t get a chance. I will kill you myself.” Then Jamie turns and glares at Alexei. “That goes for you, too.”

I want to remind Jamie that Alexei is still his best friend, that Alexei was the perfect proxy. But Jamie is here because I’ve been in trouble. Because somehow, in his eyes, Alexei has already failed.

“This isn’t over,” Alexei says. Maybe to Jamie. Maybe to Spence. Maybe even to me. But I don’t get a chance to answer, because Jamie is spinning.

“We’re leaving.”

My brother’s tone is clear, and I have no desire to argue — I have no desire to stay. So I follow him to the little boat he and Spence must have brought from the mainland.

Spence smirks at Alexei, a flash of teeth in the moonlight. But when he starts to follow, Jamie blocks his way.

“Find your own way home.”

Spence doesn’t argue, and that may be the smartest thing he’s done all night.

Then I’m in the boat, alone with my brother. Which, from the way he’s looking at me, feels a lot like being entirely alone.

Valancia is asleep when we finally reach the shore. Jamie docks the boat and offers me his hand, but I jump onto the dock without him. I’m not as helpless — as broken — as he thinks I am.