“Stop standing around and come help me with these,” he commanded.
Rolling my eyes, I walked over to find there were only two other boxes in the back of the SUV, and they were both small and light enough that he could have easily carried them himself if he’d taken the time to come back for another load. With as much muscle as he’d gained since he’d been working for the Vitucci family, he could have carried all three of the boxes and me on top. But some things never changed, and my brother’s laziness was one of them.
“Pussy,” I muttered under my breath as I stacked the two smaller boxes on top of each other and picked them up. I wasn’t sure what was in them, but they were so light, they could have been empty for all I knew.
He grumbled something back that I didn’t catch, and I resisted the urge to kick one of his legs out from under him as I followed him back into the bar. Inside, the twins were still being extra careful not to crush the table toppers, but Garret wasn’t watching what he was doing and tripped over the box on the floor.
My brother cursed viciously, trying to stay upright, but he dropped the larger box he was carrying right on top of a box that still had at least a third of the toppers inside.
“You broked them!” Ian shouted, pushing the larger box off the one he and his twin were responsible for. “You messed up all of Nova’s pretty flowers.”
“You shouldn’t have left them in the middle of the floor for anyone to trip over,” Garret snarled at him. “Someone could have gotten hurt because of you two little brats.”
“Maybe if you watched where you were going, you would have seen it,” I shot back, getting between him and the twins because I didn’t trust him not to strike out at them. I didn’t trust my brother with a lot of things, and hurting someone smaller than himself would have been something he would have done without hesitation. “They didn’t do anything wrong. You’re the one who was clumsy. And on top of that, you’re yelling at little kids. Does that make you feel more like a man, Garret? Does trying to scare little boys make you feel powerful?”
“What’s wrong, Nova?” he countered, stepping into my space. “Are you feeling bitchy because you’re not getting your way for once? Ryan isn’t here yet, and you don’t have the entire world fawning over you every second of the day?”
I huffed in amusement. I didn’t get why he was so jealous of me. He hated that people actually liked me, when, more often than not, they tried to avoid being around him. I couldn’t really blame them, though. Garret’s personality hadn’t changed all that much over the years. If anything, it had only gotten worse since he’d begun working for Ryan’s family. Now that he’d moved up a little in the ranks, he thought he was invincible.
“I don’t need Ryan or anyone else to drop you on your ass.”
“What are you going to do, little sister?” he sneered. “Run to Dad and tell him I hurt your feelings?”
The things I could have done to him would have made him swallow his tongue in shock, but I just stood there, smirking up at him.
And it only pissed him off more.
He lowered his head and his voice. “Ryan is never going to love you the way you want him to. He doesn’t even want to be your friend these days. His dick finally started working, and he’s been using it on every bitch in heat that comes sniffing around. It might have taken him longer than normal to learn how to use his cock, but he’s become a pro now. Where do you think he was last night?”
His grin was evil, full of all the hate that was in his heart. When my brother had stopped loving me, I wasn’t sure, but right then, I seriously wondered if he had ever cared about me in his life. “He was between his new whore’s legs, Nova. Her name is CeCe, and he told me she’s wild in bed. I can hear them from the other side of the apartment every night, and she has him screaming all night long. He can’t keep his dick out of her. Yesterday, he was too busy fucking her brains out to worry about spending even a minute with you. Because you don’t matter to him anymore.”
It took everything in me to keep my smirk in place, but the ability to fight wasn’t the only thing Anya had helped me perfect over the years. I would never let the enemy see my weakness, and at that moment, my brother was very much my personal enemy. He would never know that his words had caused an avalanche of pain to consume my entire body.
So, that was it. That was why Ryan had moved out of the Vitucci mansion. Not even into one of the smaller houses within the compound, but as far away from me as possible. Whatever had kept him from having intimate relationships with women—or even men—in the past had corrected itself. I’d known it would happen one day. I’d just held out hope that when he finally wanted someone like that, it would be me.
“What’s wrong, Garret?” I batted my eyelashes up at him innocently, keeping my voice sugary-sweet. “Are you jealous that Ryan didn’t start batting for the other team after all, and now you won’t get the chance to suck his dick?”
“You little bitch.” He took a step in my direction, but I didn’t back down. He would be on his ass in two seconds flat if he so much as—
“What are these tears?” Aunt Raven demanded as she came out of the office, and I looked down to find Ian and Isaac crying silently as they tried to fix one of the table toppers.
“We didn’t mean to make him trip, Auntie,” Isaac told her. “We’ll try to fix them.”
She crouched down beside the box, stroking her fingertips over their damp cheeks. “Ah, boys, this wasn’t your fault. I shouldn’t have left the box in the way. You both did a great job. The tables look perfect. Thank you for all your help.” Straightening, she turned her glare on Garret. “Clean this up. Now.”
“Do it yourself,” he told her, keeping his menacing gaze locked on me. “I have shit to do.”
She’d been about to turn away from us, but at his smartass reply, she jerked around, her green eyes blazing. “Excuse me?”
Slowly, he turned his head and looked at her. “You heard me. I don’t work for you, and I have other shit to do.”
“Nova.” Aunt Raven spoke through clenched teeth. “Take the twins outside to play.”
She didn’t have to tell me twice. Placing the boxes I was still holding on the nearest table, I offered the twins my hands. “Let’s go, cuties.”
Sensing the new tension in the air, they latched on to my fingers and practically dragged me out of the bar. As we left, I caught sight of Mom watching what was going on across the room, and I knew it was already turning ugly, even if I couldn’t hear what was going on. Despite Garret living on the other side of the country now, he still caused Mom so much stress, it was a wonder she even got any sleep from all the worrying she did for him.
“There you two are,” Mila grunted as she walk-waddled toward us, her swollen belly getting in her way from seeing more than the tops of her sons’ heads. “Have you two been goo