Hurricane Hearts (Storm MC Reloaded 1)

“I’m going to find Max. We need to get over to Dad’s place and find this will.”

I exited the room without another word and went in search of my brother. He was with Melissa at the dining table, in the middle of what looked to be a heated discussion.

Melissa saw me first and shot me a filthy glare. She didn’t waste time on small talk before getting into shit with me. “I can’t believe you, Matt. Hiding stuff from your brother.”

“Yeah, I bet, Melissa. Especially when it’s stuff you would have wanted a hand in,” I said, pushing her so we’d have the conversation Max and I had been avoiding for too long.

Her filthy glare turned filthier and her body tensed. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”

Max stood and attempted to stop us from careening down this nasty path. “Let’s all just calm down and—”

Melissa turned on her husband with as much anger as she’d shown me. “Let’s not, Max. Your brother has had it in for me since the day he met me, and I am over him and his shit. If he’s got something to say, let him say it, because I’ve got just as much to get off my chest.”

Regret raged in Max’s eyes. Fury raged in his wife’s. This was not going to end well for any of us.

“I haven’t had it in for you,” I said. “But it is true that I don’t appreciate the way you handle my brother.”

“For fuck’s sake, Matt,” Max said. “She doesn’t handle me.”

“No? Well what would you call it then, because I sure as hell wouldn’t call your marriage equal ground? Not when it comes to our family stuff.”

Melissa cut him off as he opened his mouth to speak. “You have never been married, so don’t you come in here and tell us how to run our marriage. You don’t have the first clue about how to make a long-term relationship work.” Every word she uttered was laced with venom. Melissa was going into battle to protect the control she had over her husband. My fear was that he would refuse to open his eyes to what was going on in his life. Still. After all these years and all these attempts I’d made to help him see. But I couldn’t stop trying. I loved him too much for that.

“You misunderstand, Melissa.” My voice turned hard as I thought about the shit I’d seen going on between them for thirteen years. “I’m not here to tell you how to manage your relationship. I’m here to talk to Max about the way you’ve tried to cause problems between him and me for years. And about how your money-grabbing ways were the reason Dad didn’t tell him about the will.”

“Don’t blame your troubles with your brother on me,” she spat. “That blame lies solely at your feet. You always thought you could blow in here whenever the mood suited and take charge of your family. Then, after you left, we were the ones who had to pick up the pieces of whatever fallout you caused between everyone. You never had to deal with the consequences of your actions.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?” I demanded. None of what she said made any sense.

She slammed her hand down onto her hip as she let loose on me. “I’m talking about the time you came home and convinced your father to renovate at a huge cost he could barely afford, and the time you caused that fight between us and all your cousins that took us months to fix, and the times you made us change holiday destinations because it didn’t suit you to go where we’d all decided. Oh, and not to mention the hardship you’ve caused our family because you refuse to sell your mother’s home. And there’s a lot more instances I could give you if you want them. You screw shit up all the time for us.”

I glanced between her and Max. “Let’s go through all that, starting with the renovations Dad did. I didn’t talk him into anything he didn’t want; I simply talked him out of what you told him you thought would be best. And the reason why you thought that? Because it would eat into Max’s inheritance. Next, the fight with the cousins. Again, to do with money and the despicable way you tried to go into my uncle’s home and scavenge every damn thing you could after he died. The holiday destinations I’ll accept some blame for. But if you stop and consider your actions in that, Melissa, you know it wasn’t all on me.” I paused briefly before tackling the biggest issue between

us. “And yeah, let’s get into the hardships I’ve caused you guys over Mum’s house.” I looked at Max. “It’s time for you to speak up brother. Tell me how hard I’ve made shit for you guys, because from where I’m standing, I’m not seeing you two struggling financially. What, with the brand-new car parked outside, and the brand-new television I saw on my way in, and the brand-new couch you sit on to watch that television.”

Fuck, I was being a prick to him, but Melissa always had brought out the worst in me.

Footsteps sounded behind me, and Melissa’s glare shifted to Birdie who came to stand by my side. I met her gaze as she placed her hand on my lower back. It was another show of support. One I was grateful for because I’d struggled over the years trying to decide if I was too hard on Melissa in my judgement of her, and Birdie had always been there letting me know I wasn’t.

“This is a family conversation,” Melissa said as she ran her eyes over Birdie. Her tone was condescending, as was the way she looked Birdie up and down.

“She’s not leaving.” I put my foot down. I wasn’t standing for Melissa getting her way all the time from here on out.

Birdie looked at me with uncertainty. “I can leave if that would be better,” she said softly.

I shook my head. “No. Stay. I want you here.”

Melissa crossed her arms. “Well I don’t. And I’m not continuing this conversation until she leaves.”

My eyes bored into hers and I did my best to convey every ounce of distaste I had for her as I said, “At this point, Melissa, I’d be more than happy for you to leave. The conversation I want to have more than anything is with my brother, not you.”

There was no going back from this now, so I was intent on laying all my cards on the table.

Melissa’s eyes widened with surprise and all the bad blood that sat between us. “You are—”

Max finally stepped the fuck up and joined the conversation. Gripping his wife’s arm, he pulled her back as if to tell her to stop talking, and thundered, “That’s enough. I’m not going to stand here and listen to you two tear each other apart.” Eyeing me, he said, “Our father just fucking died, Matt. Why do you think this is a good time to start fighting over all the things you don’t like about our family?”

Regret slammed into me. This was not how I’d wanted this to go down. But at the same time, it had gone down, so the only thing to do was deal with it. “I don’t think it’s a good time, but unfortunately, Dad’s will has left us no choice than to talk about this stuff. Not unless you guys are willing to respect the choices he made to write it and to fill it with what he did. That would be the adult thing to do here.”