“Now why would I do that?”
“Good question, Pan. Don’t you have enough?”
Pan narrowed his eyes. His brow furrowed and his eyes dulled. “Enough what?”
“Of everything.” Monster slapped his palm on the bar. “Give me another one.” He barked. “You have the pretty face, the charm, the better luck of the draw. So, why the fuck do you care about someone like Symone?”
“Someone like Symone, are you listening to yourself? You don’t know anything about her.”
“I know she’s like me,” Monster whispered.
“Like you, what are you talking about?”
“Scarred, ignored and reminded daily how different she is. Even Frankenstein got a wife. What use would you have for her?”
“I can’t believe this!” Pan shook his head. “You’re really this hung up o
n her? She turns you into someone I haven’t seen in a long time. You think I’m going to leave you to the wolves?” Pan asked.
“Thanks for the concern, baby brother. I take care of myself just fine.” Monster shook his head.
“Younger by three fucking minutes!” Pan exclaimed.
The brunette bar bitch for the night was one he’d only seen briefly. She slid a fresh bottle across the counter and took away the old.
He nodded his thanks.
“She’s not like anyone we know. I’m intrigued. You need me, or this shit will never get off the ground.”
“Fuck you.”
“It’s been so long, you’ve got shit all twisted.”
Monster rolled his eyes. They were an unhealthy pair of assholes. Of course, being the product of near death experiences that wiped out your entire family would do shit like that to you. Any girl he was with had to accept the pain in the ass that was Pan. “And tell me, how do you plan for this to all go down?”
“Now you’re talking.” Pan clapped him on the shoulder. “She might be wary of me, but she likes you. A blind man could see that.”
Monster shrugged. He wanted to believe him, but hope came with pain. He’d felt enough of that emotion to last him for the rest of his life. “I think you’re reading too much into things.”
“I know I’m not and this is why I can’t leave you alone to do this.” Pan shook his head. “We need to do this together. It feels right to me.”
Monster toyed with the label on his beer. He wasn’t sure he wanted to share something with his twin brother. “We’ll see, Pan.”
“Better than a no.”
Monster sneered but remained silent. Anything he said would be giving him more fodder. He downed his beer. “I’m not feeling it tonight. I’m going to hit it early.”
“Uh huh.” Pan did nothing to hide his skepticism, but he remained silent, so that was something.
He walked away from the bar taking in the scene. Loud rock music filled the smoky air and bodies moved together on the dance floor, against walls and over a pool table. He envied the freedom they had. It was part of the lure of the club. They did what they wanted, when they wanted and only answered to one another. He’d lost the ability to live by that code when the fire ruined him. Revealing his scars was more than a sore point—it’d been a joy killer.
There was nothing worse than knowing something about you sucked the happiness out of everyone else. The life could be more than hard and it left plenty of scars and ruined lives in its wake. If you didn’t keep up, you ended up road kill underneath the tires, because the machine never stopped for anyone. He moved around the couple fucking up against the wall and escaped into the quiet of his room in the middle of the hallway. The door shut with a definitive click and he leaned against it.
Symone had him off his game and he couldn’t even pinpoint why. Infuriated by his involuntary infatuation, he plopped down on the bed. Expectations were a dangerous thing to have, because they could lead to horrible disappointment. He tucked his hands behind his head and thought back to the time when he was Hayes instead of Monster and Pan was Hartley.
To the night that changed everything…
* * * *