Chapter 18

Holden

“What happens?” I release her hand at last. It takes actual effort to do it. “I never have and I never will be a second option, particularly not when my brother is the first. You’ll have to choose between us.”

“I—You just said I shouldn’t wait for you,” she replies, still holding the sheet to her chest though I’ve already seen what’s underneath. The outlines of her nipples poke at the cotton. “And you said I can’t be with your brother. So, that’s not much of a choice, is it?”

“Exactly,” I say, and my tone is gruff again.

“Then the choice will be you or just… leaving?”

That’s exactly the opposite of what I want. It makes me heavy inside, drags my arms and legs down. Losing her will eat at me, but we can’t go on this way.

“Take your time making the decision, Danielle,” I say. “I don’t want you to regret it.”

“This isn’t fair.” Her eyes flame, and she folds her arms across her chest. The sheet slips a little, revealing more of that tan cleavage. I look away. “I’m the one who has to make the decision for all three of us?”

“Well, I think you’ll find Joey and I are both biased toward one particular decision.” I slip off the edge of the bed and brush off my shirt. “Think about it.” I lean over and kiss her on the forehead, inhale her scent. Today it’s patchouli and something fruity. I walk for the door and head out across the living room, past the fucking sofa.

The sofa where I finally filled Danielle, and the one where my brother did, too.

This is a nightmare. It’s my worst nightmare for many reasons.

For as long as I can remember, my brother and I have been in competition. Equally. We’ve been the only two there for each other. Inseparable. We fought against and with each other.

It’s the reason we started the business together. It’s the reason he’s our “enforcer” and I’m the one with the home base in New York. The more we see of each other, the more we clash.

There’s a fine line to walk here, and Danielle has totally corroded it.

Not that it’s her fault.

No, this is Joey’s dumbass fault.

Trust him to try take my life into his hands. He’s always had the bullshit opinion that his carefree lifestyle, fucking chicks, partying, waking up with a hangover six days out of seven, is better than mine.

In a way, this is sabotage.

I open the front door and trudge out across the sand. There’s hardly any light tonight except for the lamps along the boardwalk that leads up to the main buildings, and a few solitary torches out on the sand, their flames guttering in the wind.

This is not the usual atmosphere. It’s not mellow or sexual. It’s tense.

The world holds its breath.

I shake my head at the stupidity—the world doesn’t give a fuck about our problems—and move down Danielle’s short path and out onto the beach. My villa isn’t far, but I need time alone tonight.

The sun will likely rise soon. Already the sky’s color lightens in increments. My skin prickles, and I stop walking, frown, look around.

A figure leans against a palm tree nearby, shrouded in darkness.

“What?” I shrug at him. It’s obviously Joey. Who else would lurk under a tree outside Danielle’s place? “You got something to say to me?”

“I heard what you said about me,” Joey replies, a little too loudly. His voice carries across the sand, and a gust of wind whips some of the fine powder across the beach. It stings the backs of my ankles.

“From there?” I ask. “What do you think you heard?”

“Not from here, cunt.” Joey pushes off from the tree and strides over.

I draw myself up and glare at him. The closer he gets, the clearer the anger on his face becomes. His lips curl back in a rictus, every line is pronounced, contorted.

“Oh, yeah? Then from where? You lurking outside Danielle’s window, waiting for scraps?”

He growls low. “Doesn’t matter where I was standing. I heard what you said to Dani.”

I hate it that he calls her that. It’s like he’s trivializing who she is. It’s a reminder that he doesn’t know her as well as I do, and that he shouldn’t. That he never will. “And what was that?”

“That I’m only in it for the sex.”

I snort. “So? That’s exactly true.”

“No, it’s not. It’s different with her,” Joey says. “It’s more than sex. And I don’t appreciate you implying otherwise.”

“I don’t give a fuck what you don’t appreciate, Joseph,” I reply. “Now, get the fuck out of my way.”

“Or what?” He cocks his head to one side. He’s a mirror image of me in some ways, in others, completely different. “You know I’m the fighter between the two of us. I’ll fucking kill you, Holden. I’ll destroy you. You stay away from her.”

I laugh in his face.

“That’s funny to you?” he asks.

“It’s fucking hilarious.”

Gray light spreads among the trees. Joey’s muscles are taut. He flexes them then slaps one of his cheeks. “Let’s see how funny you find this.” He swings up his other fist and pounds me in the stomach.

I grunt a breath but don’t back down. Never back down.

Adrenaline streaks through me. My muscles are steel, corded, pumped up. I charge at him, a wordless roar tearing from my throat, collide with him and tackle him onto the sand.

“Motherfucker,” I growl. I’m on top of him, but we’re equally matched. Same height, same strength, same size knuckles.

I punch down at his face, and he punches up at mine.

We crack each other, and my head snaps back. Stars sparkle in front of my eyes, but I blink them away, sway, regain my hold on the slippery fuck.

“Gerrof,” Joey roars and aims punches at my abdomen.

I grab him by the throat, pin him in the sand, the veins on the back of my hand protruding.

I’m zoomed in on him. Totally focused.

“Stop it! Stop!” Danielle’s voice splits the fight in two. Her arms latch onto my neck, and she tugs. “Get off him. You’re hurting him.”

“He deserves it.”

“Fuck you,” Joey snaps, spit frothing from him lips. “You’d better fucking kill me, because if you don’t—” He thuds another punch into my stomach, and I wheeze. A trail of blood trickles from his nose.

Hopefully I fucking broke it for him.

“Holden, get off.”

I shrug off Danielle’s arms and raise another fist.

“Hey!” A male’s voice snaps through the sand, but I don’t stop. I aim a punch at Joey’s jaw.

He tugs away, and it impacts the sand instead.

Joey wraps his legs around my waist and flips us over. My back hits the sand, and the wind rushes from my lungs. I tighten my grip on his throat and he chokes, reddens.

“Fuck-in—” He can’t get the words out properly.

“Stop!” Another scream from Danielle.

Thick arms wrap around Joey’s waist and his pressure is lifted, my hand is ripped free of his throat. A strong-armed motherfucker in a black T-shirt appears over me and yanks me to my feet. He twists my arm behind my back, and I cast a glance in his direction.

“You’d better let me go,” I say, calmly.

“Strict orders from the top, sir,” the guy says, just as serenely. His eyes are hidden behind a pair of tinted sunglasses. “You’re disturbing the peace. You signed a disclaimer at the beginning of your time with Mystique Island. You have one warning only before you’re asked to leave forever. Consider this your warning. The same goes for your brother over there.”

Joey isn’t struggling. He stands beside his bouncer, dabbing at the blood beneath his nose, a shit-eating grin distorting his lips. He doesn’t look at me, just stares with a look of mania into the sky.

I’ve seen that look before. It’s the one that’s almost seen him dead. It’s the one that scared me enough to pull us both out of the “family” before it was too late.

Danielle hovers in the space between us, looking first at me, then at him and back again. She’s clothed in her robe again, and her cheeks are pale. We’ve upset her. This whole weekend has fucked with her head, and it’s all Joey’s fault.

“It’s time for you to return to your villa, sir,” the bouncer says and clamps a hand down on my forearm.

I shake him off. “I can walk on my own.”

“As you wish.”

I walk off across the sand but pause a few feet from Danielle. Joey stiffens, switching his maniacal gaze from the clouds to us.

“All of this,” I say, watching her closely, taking in the line of her nose, the smooth slopes of her cheekbones. “All of this is because of you, Danielle. Because I love you.”

She gasps but doesn’t reply.

It’s the first time I’ve told her the truth.

It’s been hiding out of sight for the past three weeks. I love her. I love everything about her. It’s too late to turn back now.