He swallows, contemplating actually not doing anything.
“We’ll do it for you then.”
She turns to me. “No. You can’t. They’ll still question me. They’ll move me. Not you.”
“So fucking what. They’ll move you somewhere better.”
She looks disturbed, her red lips turning into a frown. “Are you kidding? The next place could be worse. It’s like playing roulette, and I’m tired of spinning the wheel.”
We’ve always known Penelope was in foster care and goes to a different school than us, but she’s never seemed any different. Facing the harsh reality of the vastly different way she’s grown up is unsettling.
“Okay, fine. I’ll talk to the fucker myself and make sure he never does this again.”
Colt seems on board with that, but P shakes her head vehemently. “No. You guys need to let this go. You’ll just cause trouble for me.”
“We have to do something, Pea.”
She turns to Colt, desperately pleading with him because she knows it won’t work on me. “You have to promise me, Colt. Please tell me you won’t do anything. You won’t go near my foster father. You won’t report it. You’ll just leave it alone.”
“Don’t you fucking dare promise her that, Colt,” I growl.
Neither of them look at me, and I see my brother is lost in her blue-eyed, red-lipped trance. “Please, Colt.”
I watch his throat bob as he nods his head, still looking into her eyes. “Okay. I won’t.”
“Promise?”
He nods his head again. “I promise.”
What the everloving fuck? I shake my head and look at my brother, disgusted that he could promise that. “Colt.”
Penelope lays a quick kiss on his lips, brushing his cheek with her hand and then turning to me. “Don’t make any trouble for me, Linc. Let it go. Please.”
“I’m not making any promises.”
She looks furious, and I see that fire I enjoy. “You’ll only make it worse. Stay away from him.” She turns to Colt. “I love you. I’ll see you in a couple of days.”
She walks back inside the house and closes the door behind her. I turn to face Colt. “What the fuck were you thinking?”
He walks toward my car. “I don’t want to make more trouble for her. She seemed adamant.”
I follow him, standing by the driver’s side. “She’s a victim of abuse. They never want to report it. You’re her boyfriend, for Christ’s sake.”
“Linc, drop it.”
“We have to do something. Send him a fucking message.”
“No. I promised her we wouldn’t.”
“No.” I point at him, my keys in my hand. “You promised you wouldn’t. Leave me the fuck out of it.”
“Linc, you can’t do anything.”
I open my door and climb behind the wheel as he joins me. “I’m just going to talk to him.”
“Don’t. I promised her.”
“You did. I didn’t.”
I start the engine and take off. How the fuck are we even related?
There’s no way I’m letting this go.
Three Years Ago
“Linc!” I burst through the front door of the Sterlings’ massive home. I never do that, but I’m furious. I could kill him. How could he do that to me?
“Lincoln Sterling! Get down here!” I shout up the stairs from the family room.
Colt comes out of the kitchen, holding a sandwich, looking horrified by my crazy shouting. “Pea? What’s wrong?”
“Where’s your brother?”
“Upstairs.” He walks to me, concern dripping from him. “What’s going on? Why are you so upset?”
I don’t answer him, I just fly up the stairs in a fit of rage, pushing open Linc’s bedroom door and busting in. He’s sitting on his bed, looking at his cellphone, but he doesn’t look all that surprised to see me.
The asshole probably heard me screaming downstairs and just sat here in wait.
“What’s wrong, P?”
I glare at him, one hand on my hip, annoyed with his cavalier act. “You know what’s wrong.”
“Well, I don’t.” Colt takes my hand in his, urging me to face him, but I don’t. I stay focused on Linc.
“What the hell were you thinking? You beat him up?”
Colt looks over at his brother in shock. “You did what? Who? Her foster father?”
Now, I know with certainty Colt wasn’t involved in this. Although, I was pretty sure before his face showed me how shocked he is. How could Linc do this? I asked him not to, but when I sat down to dinner tonight, my foster father’s face was beat to hell. And not just a black eye but also a broken nose and a swollen cheek.
Linc just sits on his bed, his legs out straight, unbothered by my anger.
Releasing my hand, Colt takes a step closer to his brother. “You assaulted someone? How the hell could you do that?’
Linc’s eyes lift slowly to Colt’s face, his voice cold and low, “How could you not do that?”
Colt stands straighter. “She asked me not to do anything. I promised her. That’s so like you, Linc. So reckless.”
Now Linc rises from his bed and moves right into Colt’s face. “One day, you’re going to have to branch out and stop doing only what they expect you to do.” He leans in close, and I see Colt tense. “You’re going to have to grow a pair.”
“Oh, like you, Linc? Drinking and partying all the time? Sleeping with anything that moves? All just to give Mom and Dad the finger?”
I can’t stand to watch them fight. Linc and Colt are a true conundrum. They’d die for each other if they don’t kill each other first.
“At least I’m not too afraid to use my dick, Colt.”
Linc’s eyes slide to me in a challenge, and I know it was to rile Colt up, but it hits me too. Our conversation in the kitchen on Colt’s birthday comes to mind. It’s as if Colt has positioned me on a pedestal, keeping me clean and in as in pristine of condition as he can. Linc, he’s different. I feel like he’s always trying to pull me down and make me as dirty as I feel I am.
“Stop.” I stand next to Colt, looking at Linc. “How could you do that? I wasn’t trying to hint that I wanted you to help me. I wasn’t begging you for help because I was too afraid to seek help myself. I didn’t want to report it because I don’t want to move.”
“That’s bullshit, P. You can’t fucking stay in a place where they beat you up.”
“There are worse things, Linc.” I fight the shudder threatening to run through me as I look in his eyes, thinking about those worse things.
His eyes darken. I hate how he looks at me, as if he sees the real Penelope, the one I’ve been trying to bury deep for years. “What’s worse than getting beat up? And why are you so scared?”
I can feel Colt’s curious eyes on me. If he knew the real me, the things I’ve seen and the way I grew up, he wouldn’t look at me in the same way. It’s not his fault. Colt is just so positive and good, and he grew up in a good home. He wouldn’t understand, and it’s why I don’t often talk about my life.