Fragile Lives: A small-town, age-gap, brother’s best friend romance (Little Hope series Book 4)

I promised myself I wouldn’t go to Little Hope under any circumstances. No matter how much I want to. No matter how bad it gets.

And that is precisely why I’m currently parked at the damn diner, watching Leila through the window like a creep four days and fifteen hours after I dropped her off at her house—I promised myself I wouldn’t, and I can’t keep a promise, apparently.

I looked into the messages she’d been receiving and couldn’t find anything. And that’s a good thing, of course. But if I had found something, I could have used it as an excuse to show up. The messages were sent from an internet browser, so it’s impossible to trail them. I even checked all her recent articles that might have made someone wish her harm, but the only guy I found is still locked in prison. So that was a dead end too.

I sure hope it was just some stupid prank, because the uneasiness I felt back there was alarming. But no matter what I did, I couldn’t find anyone who could physically cause her any harm. Of course, they could hire someone to do the deed, but the guy we both suspected is in a high-security facility with no visitors. I was thinking about installing a security system at her place; that will be my next move.

I glance back at the diner windows.

She’s alone even when she’s surrounded by people. Freya and Alex are back from their honeymoon, and she’s chatting with Kayla, who’s pouring coffee for everyone. Justin’s head rests on his crisscrossed arms—I hope the fucker is having the worst hangover. I can see Marina through the door to the kitchen, and there are a few other people in the diner I don’t know.

A knock on my window startles me, and I turn to look, feeling like a peeper who’s been caught red-handed.

Kenneth motions for me to roll my window down, looking between me and the diner with furrowed brows.

“What are you doing here?” His voice is stern.

I look ahead, respecting him too much to bullshit.

“What do you think?”

He sighs deeply and looks up at the sky, murmuring, “Heaven, fucking help me. This is gonna be a shitstorm.” He looks back at me. “Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“Inside, dickbag. Let’s get this over with.”

With that, he heads for the diner, expecting me to follow.

I can do that. Or I can put my car in gear, hit the gas, and hightail it out of here, away from these problems. I’ve been doing that for far too long, though, and besides that, I don’t want to leave Leila alone under the circumstances. No matter how much we wanted to stay there, we couldn’t, and it’s time to face reality. Kenneth saw me lurking here in the car, clearly watching her, and now I can’t leave her to deal with the questions alone. We might not be able to repeat what we had in the cabin, but we must face reality and move on with our lives.

And I want her to be able to do that. Once she sees me in her close circle, her brothers going crazy, she’ll know there’s no place for me here and will move on to someone else.

Someone else.

My blood turns hot when I imagine her with someone else, and a shudder rocks my body. But that’s what you wanted, my fucker of a consciousness helps out, for you to have her for a few days while you were both far from reality, and then you both move on.

“Are you coming?” Kenneth yells, standing by the door.

I stare longingly ahead, imagining myself driving away and avoiding all that is about to come, but I man the fuck up and climb out of the Rover to follow Kenneth. He waits for me, a shocked look on his face as if impressed to see me actually coming in. I’m not sure why he isn’t smashing his fist in my face, since he clearly knows something happened. And he knows me—no brother would want me for his sister. Not one.

He opens the door and gestures for me to go in first. As I’m walking past him, he smacks my back—a little harder than necessary—and says, “Good luck. You’ll need it.”

When we enter, everyone cheers up. By everyone, I mean the company I know. Kayla squeaks something. Freya feverishly waves her hand, holding her other to her still tiny belly, and Justin lifts his head and gives me a small wave. I nod to them with a tight smile—I can’t muster anything more.

Alex rises from his chair and walks to me, his hand outstretched. “I didn’t know you were coming to town.”

“It was spontaneous,” I answer, shrugging.

As we talk, I glance at Leila, finding her watching me, her eyes wide.

“Hi,” I mouth.

“Hey,” she replies.

Alex catches on because he looks between the two of us with a heavy silence. I let it slide for now—I’m not here to cause problems, but I won’t run away if they arise.

“Archie!” Kayla calls out. “Do you want the black death thing you call coffee?”

“Sure. Thanks.” I force a smile on my face as I keep glancing at Leila.

“Coming right up!” she chirps and begins fixing me a cup of strong, black coffee. “I don’t know how you can drink this crap. It tastes like garbage.”

“Tastes fine to me.” I smile again, but it must look too forced, because she pauses and gives me a good, thorough look.

“What are you doing here?” Alex’s voice turns cold.

I turn back to face him, knowing where all this is going.

“I was driving by.”

“Driving by,” he parrots. “Driving by in the middle of nowhere and decided to stop.”

“Yep.” I nod, straightening my body and prepping for what’s to come.

In my peripheral I see Justin lean back in his chair and cross his arms over his chest. “This should be interesting”

Freya punches his shoulder, and he laughs. “What? Something’s happening and I’m not involved for a change. Let me enjoy it.”

“Idiot.” She rolls her eyes, and I agree with her.

No matter what other people are doing around me, my eyes always seek her. So naturally I glance at Leila—again—which doesn’t escape Alex’s attention. He looks between us and notices her cheeks turning that pretty shade of pink that looks so good with her ginger freckles. He can’t not notice; it’s like a flame on her pale skin. The same one she has when I’m fucking her senseless.

“You fucker,” he growls. “You fucked my sister?”

And then, without warning—who even gives those during a fight—he punches me straight in the nose. Blood splatters everywhere, and I feel the bone crack. I’ve forgotten how it feels to have a broken nose, and with all my love for pain, it doesn’t feel fuckin’ good.

Freya yells. Kayla yells. Some other people start yelling as Alex lands another punch to my face. And then another.

I stumble back but straighten again to meet his next blow.

“Alex!” Leila’s voice cuts through the chaos.

“Alex, stop!” It’s Freya, and I see her running toward us. I’m about to put myself between Alex and her so I can cover her—I don’t want him to accidentally hit her in this rage wave he’s riding—when Justin grabs her halfway and pulls her back into him. Finally, he’s good for something too.

While I’m watching them, I take another blow to the side of my face, and this one makes me see fuckin’ stars. I’ve forgotten how much damage Alex’s fist can do when he really means it.

“Ken! Please!” Leila cries out, and the sheriff steps between us. At a very bad time considering Alex nearly lands his fist on his brother’s face. Kenneth’s reaction is fast, though, and he ducks just in time…or the blow to land on my face again. All right, I can take a lot of deserved beating, but I’m close to the point of having enough.

Kenneth pushes Alex back and yells, “Calm down.”

“He fucked our sister!” Alex yells as he lunges toward me again. I don’t back away, waiting for him to give me more.

“Calm down, Alex,” Kenneth orders in an authoritative voice.

“No fuckin’ way!” He makes another move to rush me. “I’m gonna kill this fuckin’ asshole.”

“Calm the fuck down, Alex.” Kenneth pushes Alex back harder. They’re both insanely bulky, but Kenneth has a few pounds over Alex. I don’t think that’s what causes him to take a step back, though. I think it’s Leila who suddenly appears by my side.

His attention switches to her, and he steps toward her and yells, “Why did you do that? Why did you play your fuckin’ mind games,” he taps his temple, “with him too? You took my fuckin’ friend away!” he cries.

The diner goes quiet. I don’t think anyone breathes after his declaration. That’s not what I expected. Not at all. I don’t think it’s what Leila expected either because her shoulders sag, and she swallows loud enough for everyone on the other side of the diner to hear.

“I didn’t play games with anyone.” Her voice breaks at the end.

He rolls his eyes. “We all know you love to play games, Miss Smarter-Than-Everyone-Else.”

“Alex,” Kenneth cuts him off curtly. He stands straighter, ready to fight.

“Oh no, not gonna fly.” His crazed eyes are trained on Leila’s face. She looks so tiny here, surrounded by everyone a head or two taller than her, in this diner where she’s probably had breakfast a thousand times. With her family standing around her. Brothers who are supposed to protect her.

“Alex!” Kenneth’s voice rises.

“What?” he barks. “He’s just her new project she wants to fix. But when she chews him up and spits him out, that’s it. We can’t be friends anymore. Because he fucked my sister. So much for bro code, man. Right?” He shifts his attention to me, looking betrayed. And I feel him, I really do—I was the one breaking the code, though; it’s not her fault. I’m older and clearly more experienced, and I should be the one who suffers, not her.

And bigger than that—we’re brothers in arms. We’ve seen some shit together. It makes what I did worse. Way worse.

But all my guilt fades away when I look at Leila, taking in her small figure and tight fists by her sides. The look of betrayal breaks my heart and mends it back together in an instant.

“Stop it” is the first thing I say.

“What?” Alex looks at me, his head tilted.

“Stop talking to her like that.” My voice is firm; I’m not allowing any arguments.

“Really?” he cackles. “Why? She’s my sister, and I can talk to her however I want. It’s not your place to get involved.”

I take a step forward.

“You have to stop, Alex. You’re going to regret this soon. Once this urge to destroy subsides, you’re going to regret it, but it’ll be too late.”

Kenneth sends me a brief, assessing look but carefully steps to the side. Alex has had severe anger issues since he was a kid, but I thought he reined them in recently. Turns out I was wrong.

He looks at Leila and smiles wickedly. “I can see you worked on his already fucked up brain.”

I move in front of her, shielding her. With her out of sight, he might direct his anger at me. I don’t give a fuck what he throws at me, but his words are doing more damage to her than any physical blows to me ever could. I push onto his chest, and he stumbles back. I haven’t fought back yet, and he may have forgotten what we went through in the Navy. While he was the team leader, I was the vicious enforcer.

He was only landing blows to my face because I let him.

“You need to stop, Alex,” I hiss through gritted teeth.

“Huh.” He looks at me curiously. “Did you suddenly change your stripes? We both know you fuck everything that moves. I just didn’t know you have so little respect for me and everything we’ve been through that you’d fuck my sister.”

Good. He’s focused on me again. That’s what I wanted.

“I resp—”

“Don’t, Stephan.” A small hand lands on my back.

Alex’s eyes shoot to my face, and his lips part. After a moment, his eyes dart between Leila and me for what feels like hours until they eventually fixate on mine.

“What?”

Not many people know my real name, but Alex does. I’d never give it to someone I just slept with, no matter whose sister she is. I accepted a new life when I joined the Navy, and they conveniently gave me a call name right away, so I could forget about that part of my life and my mother along with it.

“I was leaving anyway,” she whispers to me, and I nod, my eyes still on Alex.

When her palm leaves my back, all the warmth evaporates from my body and follows her.

The ring on the door chimes, and I know she’s safe outside. I glance back just to ensure she’s out of sight before I move in one swift motion, landing my fist on Alex’s face. He stumbles back and looks at me, shocked. I take a step forward, getting into his face in order to make sure he hears what I’m about to say.

“That was for the way you talked to Leila,” I say evenly. “I let you land a few punches on me because I deserved it, but when it comes to her, all bets are off, and you’ll get what you deserve.”

He watches me, looking dumbfounded. “She’s your sister too. Why are you quiet?” he asks Kenneth.

Kenneth squares his shoulders, looking at us both. “One brother making an ass out of himself is more than enough for one family.” He shrugs and folds his arms over his chest.

“He slept with her.”

“And yet here you are, worried about yourself.” Kenneth sighs loudly and shakes his head. “I’m disappointed, brother.”

Alex rears back as if only now realizing what’s happening. When his eyes sober up, he looks around, and the good side of his face turns red. Yes, I’ve seen Alex go into a rage before, but it was never directed at those close to him. I’ve seen him be a vicious asshole, but this was next level.

Because he was never close to Leila, she always yearned for his approval and looked up to him, searching for ways to prove herself when she shouldn’t have had to do anything. She didn’t need to earn his love. She’s his sister. He used to tell me stories about how his little sister followed him everywhere, and he was annoyed with it. He wanted nothing to do with her, even though I saw his hidden affection in his complaints. To be frank, Alex never tried really hard to be a part of his family, and I was on his side because we were a team. But all that changed the second I saw that look of betrayal on her face.

“Where is Leila?” Alex looks around, lost, as if he just entered the room and this shitstorm happened without him.

“Alex,” comes Freya’s voice. “Let’s go home.”

He turns toward her, blinks the fog of madness away. Freya carefully walks toward him, clearly familiar with him in this state. I’m a little worried about her and glance at Kenneth, looking for any cues for what to do next.

He subtly shakes his head. “Let him go. He embarrassed himself enough,” he says quietly.

Freya takes Alex’s hand and leads him outside. His head whips around—most likely looking for Leila.

When he’s out, the whispers start. Every patron in the diner is whispering, firing up the rumor mill with a story that’ll feed the town for weeks, if not months.

“Well, I guess you really do have big balls.” Justin comes to stand beside me. “To sleep with your friend’s sister.”

I give him a death stare.

“What?” He shrugs. “There were a lot of broken noses when local guys tried to date her. Though,” he shifts his attention to Kenneth, “I wonder how you haven’t tasted the sheriff’s fist yet,” he wonders curiously.

“Justin,” Kayla ambles over to us and smacks him on the back of the head, “just stop already.”

They start bickering like an old, married couple, and I tune them out, not interested in hearing it.

“I didn’t know he was jealous of her,” I say quietly so only Kenneth can hear.

“He’s never been,” he replies while watching the door as if either of them would come back. “I don’t know what happened, to be honest.” Then he looks at me. “Are you alright?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I be?”

He raises a brow, letting his eyes roam around my face. I’m sure it looks like ground beef now.

“Yeah.” I touch my nose. “I’m fine.”

“Want me to set that for you?”

“And next week we’ll paint each other’s nails? I’ll manage.” I roll my eyes, and he cackles.

“Offer still stands. I could inflict some pain on you.” His brow quirks. “You know, the legal way.”

“And here comes the real reason for the offer.” I let a smile slip.

His face turns serious. “Are you gonna go check on her?”

I roll my lips. “I want to, but I’m not sure she wants to see me now.”

“I think you’re the only one she wants to see.” He smacks my back and walks away. “I’ll text you the address.”