“I haven’t been letting anyone in. I thought that was obvious enough when I changed the permissions on security. Which you seem to have ignored.”
“You can’t keep me out, bro. You should know that by now.”
Being the cunt I am, I hop up onto my barstool and let him continue.
“This place is a shithole. I’m amazed Bri was willing to stay here.”
“She didn’t have any interest in my flat, Tobes,” I quip. “Her eyes were solely on the prize.”
“Pig.”
“Pot calling the kettle black.”
“Hey, I take offence to that. I treat Jodie exactly as she deserves,” he argues.
“Now you do. It wasn’t always that way.”
“Yeah, well. I fucked up. And I’ll spend every day of the rest of my life making up for it if she lets me.”
“See right there, that’s the difference. I don’t want the rest-of-my-life bullshit. So fuck what she thinks of my messy flat. As long as she’s sucking my dick well, nothing else matters.”
“Jesus. Have you heard yourself? No wonder Bri hates you.”
I shrug, refusing to allow his words to cut into me any more than they already have.
“She’s a bit of fun, and she’s under no illusion that it’s anything more than that.”
“So you’re going to let her do her job?” he asks, pinning me with a deadly look.
“Sure. I’ll let her teach me a few lessons. If she’s lucky, I’ll be a really, really bad boy.”
“Fuck my life. Come on, you’re a mess.”
Kicking my dishwasher closed, he marches over, wrapping his fingers around my upper arm and practically dragging me off the stool.
“Fucking hell, Tobes.”
“You’re out of shape and we all need you on top form. It might be quiet now, but war is coming and we need to be ready.”
His words make my heart sink, but I can’t exactly argue. As soon as Damien gets the intel he needs, we’ll make a move, I have no doubt. It’s just the when that’s in question.
* * *
Just like he promised, Toby pushed me as hard as he possibly could in the gym. By the time he let up, I was a sweaty, trembling wreck. But I can’t deny that it didn’t feel good.
The gym used to be my safe place. The place I could escape to when life got too much. I could put my headphones in and forget about the bullshit that was happening outside that room.
I’ve lost that since Dad died. Everything I used to enjoy, everything I used to know feels like it’s been ripped away from me.
But if being down in the basement with Toby taught me anything, it’s that I need to find a way to rediscover the person I was before that building started falling on our heads.
Brianna and Toby are right with what they’ve said recently. Dad would be ashamed of me right now. Losing myself in drink, drugs, and Brianna’s pussy.
It’s not how he’d have dealt with all this.
He’d have been focused, determined, and burning the motherfucking city down to get answers, to find the men responsible for causing such devastation on our Family.
After stumbling back into my flat, with a sweaty Toby right on my heels, he shoved me into my room to shower again while making use of my main bathroom. Then, he proceeded to order us dinner and placed a whole bunch of textbooks in front of me.