The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy 2)

He looked at me. “There’ll be a vehicle following. I’ll ride in that one.”

I wanted to ask if I could go in that one, too, but Matt must’ve sensed my thoughts. He threw an arm around my shoulder, his eyes falling on my backpack, which I was holding in my lap. He motioned to it with his drink. “What’s this?”

I was pleading with Scott not to leave me alone.

His mouth only twitched before he shut the door.

Matt’s breath was already strong. “What were you doing before this?” I asked.

He just laughed. The alcohol was rank.

His eyes were dilated and lazy. His smile was sloppy. “Partying. What do you think?”

“Partying?”

Both Guy and Tony had glasses next to them, and Tony was in the process of filling his with rum, but they didn’t look as gone as Matt.

“Why are you guys here?”

Guy lounged back, throwing his legs up on the seat across from him. He raised his glass toward Matt. “Your bro’s been on a bender since last night. We heard you got a visit from him, too.”

Whoa. Matt seemed sober earlier.

Tony finished pouring his glass and leaned back, but he was more sipping, with his eyes pinned to me, almost squinting. “The fuck called this afternoon at some chick’s place.”

Guy started laughing. “He was freaking, didn’t know where he was. Totally forgot he had two guards waiting on him.”

How much had he drunk between this morning and now? I must’ve been a pit stop.

Wait. He had breakfast at the Chesapeake Estate this morning. Had he been drinking during that, too?

I stiffened, throwing him a side-eye of my own.

Matt removed his arm from me, shoving to the corner, and he slipped farther down in the seat. He growled, “You both are assholes.”

Guy’s head tipped back. He just laughed.

Tony rolled his eyes. “Asshole friends that came to pick you up and acted like it’d been the plan the whole time so your babysitters didn’t report to your sister’s man, and the Great Authority Kashton Colello didn’t rain hell down on you. We’re super fucking horrible friends.”

My stomach was twisting up, hearing all of this.

Matt still growled, looking outside. “Whatever.”

Tony snorted before sipping his drink again.

I didn’t say a word. Matt was on a bender. Noted. I would be sharing that with Kash, but Tony was wrong. I knew Kash wouldn’t be chasing Matt. For one, he couldn’t, since he was in Brazil.

I looked at Matt. “Were you drunk at my school earlier?”

Matt froze.

And my second question. “Were you drunk at breakfast, too?”

Matt didn’t respond. His head was down. His phone was buzzing, and he was responding to that, not to me.

I looked at Guy and Tony. They weren’t looking at me.

“When did you pick him up?”

Neither of the guys spoke up, and that had my stomach twisting all the more.

I leaned forward and hissed, “You should’ve called Kash. Maybe then my drunk brother wouldn’t have been around my other brother and sister.”

Tony’s jaw clenched, but he still didn’t look at me.

Guy was just looking at his phone.

“How bad were you?” I squared off against Matt. He continued to ignore me. “If you don’t answer me, I’ll take your phone and load a virus to it so you’ll never be able to use another phone again.”

He continued typing, then stopped. He froze a second before lifting his head. “You can’t do that. You’re good, but not that good.”

My lips thinned. “Try me.”

Guy spoke up, his voice strained. “He wasn’t that bad in the morning. He called us early, around six. We got him, thought food and family would sober him up, because he wanted to go to another after-after-hours club. It didn’t work. He got all worked up about something, demanded we bring him to you, and then we’ve been at Octavo this whole time.”

“Octavo?”

“It’s another club in Chicago.”

I was going with a hunch here. “One that Kash or our father doesn’t own, right?”

I was met with silence. All silent.

I had to sit and contemplate, because what was my role here? I knew Kash used to deal with this, bailing Matt out before and after he got into trouble.

I ran down my list of options.

Option one: Blow a gasket that Matt was on a bender and be alarmed at how good he could handle his liquor, because I never once thought he was drunk at school.

Option two: Do nothing and tell Kash later. Let Kash deal with Matt.

Option three … I had no clue.

I went with a mix of all the options and I announced it. “Okay. This is what I’m going to do.”

All the guys looked at me, each with a different expression.

Guy was mildly curious.

Tony was glowering.

Matt was wary, but there was a “fuck ’em all up” look in his eyes, too.

“I’m going to sit here and do my coding for school. Then I’m going to text Kash later that you were drunk tonight, but you and I both know he won’t be flying in to deal with you. And three, if you do anything tonight to scar our little sister and brother, I will blow a gasket.” I leaned in close. “You’ve not seen me blow a gasket. You do not want the gasket to be blown. Trust me.”