sleeping in the back.”
“I know you.” He pointed at me. “You leave her alone. She’s a good girl.”
At the warning, the slight concern I had felt for Marissa left. In its place, the old emptiness and anger settled back in. They were like a second layer of skin, and it wasn’t until then that I realized they had lifted for a moment. It was because of Marissa. They didn’t press so hard on me when I was around her, but they were back and I’d gone back to being the bad guy.
“No, no. He’s going. He’s getting his brother and he’s going.” She waved at me. “Go.”
When I ducked into the back office, Logan was sitting up, cradling his head with his phone in the other hand. He saw me and blinked, dazed at me. “Mason? Did you just text me a bunch of times?”
“I’m surprised you heard them. Marissa said you were wasted when you got here.”
He groaned, then looked ready to puke. “I feel like shit.”
“What happened? I thought you were at that party.” Hearing Marissa’s uncle begin to yell, I took his arm. “Come on. Let’s go. We have to get out of here.”
Logan clutched his stomach. “Shit. What the fuck did I do?”
“I have no idea, but we need to go. The owner is going to call the cops.” When I helped him through the door and saw his face in the light, I almost dropped him. “Shit. What happened to your face?”
“What?” Logan touched his cheek and cursed. “It was throbbing in there, but it’s killing me now.”
His cheek and jawline were swollen. I touched the corner of his eye and Logan sucked in his breath. “Man. You’re going to have a black eye.”
Before I could fully comprehend that someone had done this to my little brother, Marissa’s uncle descended on us. He was pointing and shouting at the same time. “You! Get out. Get out of here! Now.”
Logan flinched from the harsh tone. When the guy got closer and closer and didn't look like he was stopping, I moved Logan behind me and shoved the guy backwards. “Back off.”
He paused, taking in my size and height, but shook his head again. “Him. I want him gone.”
“Uncle?” Marissa was standing behind the aisle. She looked confused. “What’s going on?”
“That’s what I’d like to know,” I bit out. “Logan?”
He shook his head. “I have no idea. I can’t remember a thing.”
“Him!” The uncle started again. His hand was up once more. He advanced again, his tone was irate. “He started this. Someone dropped him off.”
Logan groaned then. “I think I got laid. I can’t remember.”
The owner kept going as if he hadn’t said anything, “Then the Broudous showed up and they all started fighting.”
“Wait. What?”
“The Broudous. Budd and Brett Broudou, and their slob of a sister,” he spat out. His chest was heaving and the veins in his neck bulged out. “My son was here and he went to stop the fight. They started to hit this one, but this one hit my son. I had to take him to the hospital.”
“Oh my god,” Marissa muttered. She had paled. “I never saw the side of his face. He was sitting on the curb when I told him to go inside.” She raised horrified eyes to me. “I wasn’t looking at him close. I’m sorry, Mason. I would’ve called for an ambulance if I had known. I was more concerned about calling you and letting you know and then taking care of the store.”
“And your cousin.”
She turned to her uncle. “What?”
“You should’ve been concerned about your cousin. If he was okay or not.”
Her hands were twisting around each other and she gulped. “I was, but you called and told me he was fine. I’m sorry.”
I didn’t care. I didn’t give one iota about her cousin, about the owner, or anything else. I turned so my back was to them. I asked Logan, “You remember anything?”
He shook his head, frowning with his eyes narrowed. “Not really. Wait…something about their sister? They were saying you slept with her?”
“Their sister? I don’t even know who she is.” It didn’t matter. My decision was made. I was taking Logan home. I was calling Nate. I was calling anyone who wanted to come along and we were going to find the Broudous. This was going to be handled tonight. They hurt my brother. I was going to hurt them.
“Wait.”
I looked at Logan. “What?”
He cleared his throat, wincing from the pain. “Wait. Whatever you’re planning, I want in. Wait until I’m healed. You’d want in too, if it had been you.”
I gritted my teeth. He had a point, but fuck, I hated it. “Fine.”
“I don’t want you guys back here,” the uncle started in as I helped Logan out. He kept following us but I tuned him out. As soon as Logan was in the car, I shut his door and went to the other side of the Escalade. Marissa’s uncle was there, tapping on the window, and I scanned a look over Marissa. She was standing inside the gas station, her hands pressed against her mouth. I tried to apologize to her, but didn’t know if she got it. Then I stopped caring. Her uncle began yelling again through the window at Logan. I had enough.
I grabbed him by the throat and pushed him backwards. This was the second time that night I had physically moved another person. I was a lot rougher with him, but not enough to hurt him. It was just enough to remind him I was bigger and stronger. When he shut up, I glared down at him, but removed my hand. He started to open his mouth, but I shook my head, stopping him.
I said, “I’m sorry Logan punched your son. I can tell you that he didn’t mean to. Now, I am taking my brother and I’m going home. We will stay away from your gas station, but if you even think about suing my family, we’ll counter sue.” I gestured to the camera in the corner. “My brother was attacked here and no cops were called. I don’t know, but there might be room for negligence on your end.”
I could tell it was hurting him to hold back.
“You might want to ask your niece who our father is. He’s a rich asshole. Those pricks always seem to win, one way or another.” Then I got in and started the engine.
I shot away from there, but hadn’t gone far before Logan said, “I don’t like that one.”
“We’ll use a different station.”
“No.” He was in pain, but he wanted me to hear him. “I don’t like her.”
“What do you mean?” I was trying to quell the anger in me, the need to protect my brother, but I tried to stuff it down. “Who are you talking about? Marissa?”
He nodded, swallowing and groaning at the same time. “I was out of it, Mason, but I noticed that she’s not right. There’s something wrong with her.”
I frowned, but didn’t say anything. Logan was still out of it, but I couldn’t tell how out of it he was. When he didn’t say any more, I didn’t question him on it. I took him home and I took care of my brother.
12
THE CAFETERIA
I was tired.
It’d been months since Logan was attacked by the Broudous. They were angry at me, saying I used their sister for sex. When I realized who it was, I laughed. She had come onto me months ago, but I rejected her advances. She had come onto all of us, Nate first, then Logan, and then me. None of us wanted anything to do with her. I didn’t know why she waited so long to say anything, but her brothers didn’t want to hear the explanation and a war was launched between our schools. We retaliated for Logan’s attack by burning down their barn. It was their turn now, but they weren’t the only problems on the horizon. I hadn’t forgotten my promise to Tate, but Kate seemed to have started taking her anger from me out on Tate even more. I didn’t understand the logic, but I wasn’t arguing. As long as both of them were hurting each other and I didn’t have to deal with them, I wasn’t going to stop them. The fighting was becoming hostile between them and after another explosive confrontation in the hallway broke out between them, I ducked into the cafeteria. I needed a breather. Logan acted like he didn’t care about what Tate had done anymore and maybe he d
idn’t. He had gone back to his laughing, smart-ass ways and he seemed to be fine. That meant I was fine too, but if Tate tried to get back in with Logan, she’d have to deal with me. She had done enough damage to my brother. She wasn’t going to do more, or even have the opportunity to do more.