The Fight In Us: A Brother's Best Friend College Romance (The Four Book 4) by Becca Steele (read me a book txt) 📗

on between you and my sister.” His voice rose. “What the fuck, West? You know what she’s been through! Not to mention all of this shit that’s happening now!”

“Wait a minute!” Lena was suddenly in his face, all angry, baring her teeth and her eyes flashing dangerously.

Wrong time for my dick to get hard. But fuck, she was hot like this.

“Don’t even bother trying to defend yourself.” He drew himself up to his full height, his blue eyes dark and stormy. “You have no justification for this.”

“Stop being such a stubborn dickhead!” she shouted, and he spun around, his fist slamming into the wall of the house.

Both Lena’s and my mouths fell open as we watched the happiest, most generous and fun-loving person we’d ever known fall apart in a rage.

We’d done this.

No. I’d done this. If I’d been honest when he’d asked me about Lena, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now.

“Cass?”

“No!” he roared, and then he was gone, the glass rattling in his wake as he slammed the sliding door shut with all his force.

The guilt choked me, making it hard to breathe. It became suffocating when I looked over at Lena to see silent tears running down her face.

“He’s never—” she choked out, and I pulled her into my arms, letting her tears soak through my T-shirt and onto my skin as she shook against me. Seeing Cassius fall apart and now Lena crying?

How was I meant to handle this?

What was I supposed to do?

Against my will, tears obscured my vision, and I blinked hard, forcing them back.

This was all my fucking fault.

“Don’t you dare.” Lena’s face was suddenly in front of mine. She swiped her own tears away impatiently. “Don’t you dare blame yourself for this.”

“It’s my fault, though.” I ran my hands up and down her back, still needing to touch her.

“You’re not the only person in this,” she reminded me softly. “I know he’s your best friend, but he’s my brother. Let me talk to him first.”

Taking her hand, I led her over to the outdoor chairs and pulled her down next to me. “Before that?” I met her tearstained gaze. “We need to talk about us.”

She took in a deep, shuddering breath, then nodded.

“Okay.”

When she was in my arms like this, everything was clear. I lifted her into my lap, and she rested her head against my shoulder. I spoke first. This was the first time I’d ever had a conversation like this with a girl, and it was easier now she wasn’t looking at me.

“I like you.” My arms wrapped around her. “I want to see where things go. I know I said it before, but I want you to know that I mean it. But we have a problem now.”

“I know.” She sighed against me.

“Let me talk to Cass. I was the one who fucked up—I should have been honest with him in the first place. He didn’t deserve to find out this way.”

“Okay. What are you going to say to him?”

“I don’t know yet. But I think if I give him a bit of time to cool off, he’ll be okay. I fucking hope so. I don’t want to lose my best mate.”

“And I don’t want to lose my brother.” Lifting her head, she twisted to face me. “I can’t believe I’m saying this,” she muttered. “But maybe it’s best if we cool things off for now. I don’t want to be flaunting it in front of him.”

Her words cut me, but she was right. We owed it to Cassius. But I still found myself trying to work out a compromise in my head, a way that I got to keep both my girl and my best friend. “What do you mean? We already said we’d keep it friendly in public.”

“I know. But I don’t think I can do that anymore.” Her lashes lowered, and she murmured her next words so quietly that I had to strain to hear them. “I can’t be with you and not want to touch you.”

Fuck.

It wasn’t fair to her, or to Cassius, for us to sneak around behind his back. “Do you still want to be with me?” I voiced the question in a low voice. I had to hear her say it, even though I was sure of the answer.

“Yes!” Her gaze flew back to mine. “I just think, for now, we should take a step back. You—we need to decide if this is all worth it.”

I understood her subtext. She meant that I needed to decide if this was worth it. If she was worth it.

“Okay.” Scrubbing my hand across my face, I breathed out heavily.

She gave me a sad smile and leaned forwards to press a soft kiss to my lips, before climbing off me. “I’m going back inside.”

“Wait.” I caught her hand as she turned to leave. “I want you to know that there’s no one else. There won’t be anyone else for me.”

“Thank you.” Her fingers lightly squeezed mine, and then she dropped my hand and disappeared back inside the house. I placed my head in my hands. How had this all gone so fucked up, so fast?

I wasn’t left alone with my thoughts for long. “West!” There was the sound of pounding footsteps, and Lena appeared in the kitchen doorway, brandishing her phone. Excitement sparkled in her eyes, her sadness temporarily chased away. The change was so sudden, it took me aback, and I just stared at her, frowning. She continued. “Martin Smith. There’s a dog fight. Tonight. Late. And we have the location.”

I jumped into action. “Right. Tell Cade what’s going on. He’ll want to be in on this, and I trust him to come up with a plan. Text me the details when you have them, and I’ll be there.”

“Where are you going?” She stared at me as I swung off the seat and strode towards the door. Stopping in front of her, I leaned down to kiss her forehead softly before I drew back