Adored (Masters and Mercenaries #8.5)(54)

Likely because she thought she could help in some way. Because Flynn had given her some kind of sad story and Laurel had bought it hook, line, and sinker.

He was about to get into his car when something struck the windshield. A rock. He turned and Flynn had another one in his hand.

“What the f*ck is wrong with you?”

Flynn threw that one, too. He let that sucker fly and it cracked against the windshield. “Me? What the f*ck is wrong with you? You think my life is so cushy? Dad is dying, you *. He’s dying and the only thing he wants is to spend a few minutes with you. I have no idea why since it’s obvious to me you aren’t worth talking to, but does he listen to me? Fuck no. I’ve spent the last five years of my life taking care of him, but he wants you. And I won’t even go into what’s happening with Chase. I’m going to lose him. Do you even care? You’ve got a little brother and he’s going to die because I can’t convince him life doesn’t suck. Because for him…for him it does. So I’m going to be alone and miserable very soon, and I’ll still be happier than you are because at least I’ll have tried.”

He wanted to pick up one of those rocks, shove it right back at Flynn, get in his car and leave. This wasn’t his problem. Laurel was his problem. Laurel was all that mattered now.

He’d screwed up with her so badly she would likely never come back, so it didn’t matter.

It didn’t matter that Laurel would want him to have some small piece of empathy for the brother who hadn’t asked to be born either. It didn’t matter that Laurel would think more of him if he would put aside his pride for two seconds and talk to the man he hated for no good reason except the circumstances of his birth.

Flynn hadn’t asked for any of this. He hadn’t had a choice in parent or birth order, but he was making a choice by seeking out Mitch.

And Mitch had to make a choice, too, and it didn’t matter what Laurel would want because Laurel was gone.

So he was going to smash his brother’s face in and that would make him feel better.

For a second the sun caught Flynn, illuminating his features, and Mitch realized he’d seen that face in the mirror. He’d seen the starkness, the emptiness. He’d seen the hopelessness reflected there before he put on his mask for the day.

Damn it.

“How bad is he?”

Flynn’s head came up. “Dad has stage four pancreatic cancer. He doesn’t have long. I don’t know what to do. He asked me to reach out. He wants to talk to you before he dies.”

“I don’t want to talk to him.”

“Please. You don’t have to talk. Please just listen. What do I have to do? If you want me to beg, I will.”

“Why would I want you to beg?”

Flynn shrugged. “Maybe you would like seeing me on my knees. Maybe it would make you feel better.”

To see the chosen child beg and squirm and plead? “No, it won’t make me feel better, Flynn. Let me think about it. Can I have a day or two?”

“Yeah.” Flynn suddenly looked younger than he had before, his eyes wide. “Of course. Take the time you need, but know he doesn’t have a lot of it.”

“What did you mean about…” He’d been about to pretend he didn’t know his youngest brother’s name. He did it out of habit. He did it to show the world he didn’t give a damn. “Chase? How old is he anyway?”

Flynn stepped forward, his shoulders sagging a bit. “He’ll be seventeen soon. If he makes it.”

Don’t ask. Don’t. Stay the f*ck out of it. He didn’t want to go into this. He liked his life the way it was. Except he didn’t. He only liked it because Laurel had been with him, and now she was gone. “Why do you say that?”

“He got mixed up in drugs. He says his overdose was an accident, but I found out he’s being bullied by this kid at school. I tried to get Dad to pull him out and let him go to the public school, but they have a problem with violence there. I don’t know what to do.”

“It’s only one kid?”

“It’s a group, but you know how these gangs work. One * runs the crowd and the crowd runs the school. They outed him. Publically. One of them found out Chase likes boys and catfished him.”

“I don’t know what that means.”

“It’s where you make up a false presence on the Internet. He claimed to be another gay kid and they started an online relationship. Once Chase was sure the kid loved him, the group posted every embarrassing moment online.”

“Huh. Go after the parents. Go after them hard. Threaten to take them for every dollar they have and I bet the little shit will fall in line.”

“They don’t want to talk about it. They said it was all kid stuff and Chase should be stronger.”

“Did you threaten to sue them and take it all public so their darling baby boy can’t show his face at college? I don’t know where you’ve been but most places don’t take kindly to bullying anymore. The tide turned a while back. No one takes the side of the mean kid, and threatening to haul them all into court might give Chase some peace. He needs to stand up for himself. A lawsuit could give him that.”

“Our lawyers don’t do those types of suits. I don’t know if I could even convince Chase to consider it. He thinks it’s all going to go away. Or he tells me that and then I find him barely breathing. I take him to the hospital and find out he’s been buying pills at school.”