“Wait, what?” Jameson placed his bottle of beer down on the table and frowned at his friend.
“Brittany’s dating a member of the Skeleton Kings,” Zack repeated sourly. He couldn’t keep the secret to himself any longer. By his second beer, he’d been bursting to tell Jameson all about Max, and now he was on his fourth, which meant the truth came tumbling out with no hesitation.
“Seriously?” Jameson looked truly astonished. “Your sweet, innocent little sister?”
“Yep.”
“Well,” Jameson rolled his eyes and gently shook his head. “She won’t be sweet and innocent much longer.”
“Hey,” Zack growled, kicking at his friend beneath the table. “That’s my sister you’re talking about.”
“And she’s busy being railroaded by a member of the Skeleton Kings. You know as well as I do how they treat women. They’ll be passing her around like some sort of joint.”
Zack could feel his heart hammering angrily in his chest, could hear its echo in his ears. He wanted to think that Jameson was wrong, but he knew the truth. To the Kings, women were objects. Maybe it hadn’t happened yet but Max would ruin Brittany. He’d take what made her special – her innocence, her sweetness, and destroy that.
“You think he’s with her to get to you?” Jameson wondered anxiously.
“The thought had crossed my mind,” Zack admitted sourly, gazing sadly at his half empty bottle of beer, the contents no longer cold but lukewarm.
“Mmm,” Jameson finished off his own beer and raised his hand to order them another round. “No wonder you were so fired up over this guy this morning.”
“Yeah,” Zack agreed, recalling how he’d felt when he saw Max’ picture.
“Did you tell her he rides with the Reapers?”
Zack shook his head. “Brittany doesn’t even know that I’m with the Red Riders. If I tell her about her boyfriend being with the Skeleton Kings, it opens up a whole can of worms that I don’t really want to get into.”
“But if you told her she’d end it with him, right? It’s too dangerous to let them carry on being together.”
“I know, I know.” But if Brittany knew the truth about Max, she’d also be learning the truth about Zack. She’d find out all the things he’d done for the Riders, all the blood that was on his hands. He risked not only Max losing her, but also himself. He wasn’t even fully convinced that it would scare her off of Max, but it was sure to hit a sore spot with his relationship with his sister.
“So, say you withhold the truth,” Jameson leaned forward, lowering his voice. He loved a good conspiracy.
“You don’t tell Brittany he’s with the Kings. You’ve still got the break them up.”
“Yeah,” Zack agreed, draining the last of his warm beer.
“You can’t let her stay with him.”
“I know,” Zack’s voice became strained as two fresh bottles of beer arrived at their table, courtesy of a buxom waitress. Jameson leaned back in his chair to thank her and give her a suggestive wink. She giggled coyly, batting her eyelashes and then walking off with an extra swing in her step.
“It’s just that she seems really keen on him, and I fear that breaking them up…” he sighed and reached for his fresh beer.
“Breaking them up means breaking her heart,” he concluded sadly.
“It’s a risk you’ve got to take,” Jameson replied fiercely. “Either you break her heart or the Skeleton Kings break every bone in her pretty little body. As her brother, which would you rather?”
“Neither.” Zack felt helpless. Either way, Brittany was going to get hurt. As her brother he’d failed to protect her, failed to shield her from the darkness of his world.
“The heart is a mighty resilient muscle,” Jameson tilted his new beer towards his friend and gave a knowing smile. “It can bounce back from all sorts of things. And the scars you wear down there,” he placed a hand against his chest, “no one can see them. But the other scars,” now his hand raised slowly to his cheek where the skin was mottled and tight. “You wear them forever,” he concluded sagely.