My fist flew through the air and smashed into the side of his face. I hit him so hard his entire body fell back into the SUV. I didn’t think before I did it. I just reacted to the eruption of red-hot rage in my blood.
“Hey! Hey!” Enzo jumped between us, but I shoved him out of the way.
Grabbing Tristan by the hair, I yanked his head up to mine. “Don’t you ever fucking talk about her like that. Do you hear me?” Then I shoved him back into the side of the car.
Tristan spit a wad of blood onto the ground. “You don’t think it’s true?”
“No,” I ground out. “I don’t.”
“Then what are you so fucking mad about? Huh?”
Enzo stepped between us. “Luca, just think it through before you go flying off the handle.”
“Little late for that,” Tristan muttered.
“You.” I stuck my finger in his face. “Shut the fuck up.”
“Jesus Christ, would you stop?” Enzo yelled.
I spun on my heel and paced a few steps away. I couldn’t get enough air in this fucking heat.
“Luca, I don’t think Tris is out of line. It’s a possibility, and you know it.”
“If Veda is a fucking rat, then why the hell hasn’t she come out of the bedroom?” I challenged them. “Why doesn’t she ever ask me any questions? I don’t think she even knows what I do. Not really. No.” I shook my head. “No. She’s a victim of this fucked up relationship between me and my brother. That’s it.”
Tristan caught my eye, and my attention was immediately diverted to him. I closed the distance between us. “You ever say shit about her again, and I’ll cut out your fucking tongue. Comprendere?” I knew I was only focusing on him because he was the one who’d actually had the guts to say what they both were thinking, but I didn’t give a fuck. “And you stay the fuck away from her from now on.”
He stood toe to toe with me and didn’t back down. “You’re being unreasonable,” he said calmly. “Thinking with your cock instead of your head.”
With a roar, I shoved him back into the car and hauled back my fist to hit him again. But Enzo caught my arm and pulled me away from him. “Get off of me!” My eyes never left Tristan. I couldn’t have said why I was so hellbent on kicking his ass. All I knew was it made sense in my twisted head.
“Not until you calm the fuck down,” Enzo told me. When I continued to struggle, he held both arms behind my back. “Look what you’re fucking doing, Luca! You’re trying to beat the fuck out of one of the only two people who’ve stuck by you. And why? Because he’s trying to look out for you? This guy, who took a fucking bullet for you. More than once! How does this make any fucking sense?”
It didn’t. I knew that. It made no fucking sense at all. But right now, the only thing I wanted to do was get him on the ground and beat his face into a bloody pulp in the dirt.
Tristan walked up to me and got right in my face. And it wasn’t because Enzo was holding me back. He’d do this shit even if he wasn’t. “You wanna kick my ass, Luca? That’s fine. We can take this into the gym if it’ll help you get all this pent-up anger out of your system. Because you’re not fucking mad at me. It’s Mario you want to go after. I know that. And you know that. But I’m here for you, either way.”
He was absolutely right. “Let me go,” I told Enzo. “Let me go!”
“Go ahead,” Tristan told him.
Stepping back, he held up both hands as I yanked my arms out of his hold.
“We’re just trying to look out for you, man,” Tristan told me.
“She’s not a fucking rat.”
He nodded. “Okay.”
“She wasn’t fucking turned.”
“Okay.”
“She was fucking hurt.”
“All right.”
“And we’re gonna pretend like this conversation never fucking happened.” I looked back and forth between the two of them, making sure they understood.
Tristan nodded as I heard Enzo say, “Got it.”
“Are we done here?”
Tristan looked over my shoulder at Enzo, and then he nodded. “Yeah, man. We’re done.”
“Good.” Leaving them both standing there, I went into the house and headed right to the gym. I was still fucking starving. But right now, I didn’t want to see their fucking faces.
Or anyone’s.