Page 34 of Code Violation

“Why is she talking shit about me?”

“She isn’t.”

He leaps to his feet and begins pacing the room, downing the rest of his beer as he continues to spiral.

“Your behavior is intimidating, and you scared the shit out of an innocent woman. Do better. Next time, security might not be so lenient, and you’ll be spending the night in a cell. I won’t be coming to bail you out either.”

He spins around to face me. Fury in his features.

“And you would know all about the inside of a jail cell, wouldn’t you, Silas? How many nights have you spent in one because you couldn’t keep your fists to yourself?” He shakes his head and sets his empty bottle down on the window ledge, where he’s already forming a collection. “Although jail time runs in the Stanton bloodline, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

I step toward him. Honestly, I couldn’t give a fuck what he thinks about me; he has no place passing judgment on my past, given his current reality. I’m mad as hell that he still isn’t showing an ounce of remorse for what he did to Vesper, even now, after I’ve called him out on it.

“You never loved her, did you?” I bite out, unable to temper my emotions.

“She made it really difficult to love her,” he volleys back immediately. “Vesper was a pain in the ass ninety percent of the time, and the other ten percent, she was at work.”

He snorts a laugh, and my fingers twitch at my sides.

“Leave her alone.” I enunciate each word. “Or I’ll happily see the inside of a cell again once I’ve taught you a few lessons.”

Kane scrubs a hand over his jaw, which looks like it hasn’t seen a razor in days. “Are you threatening me, Silas?”

Here’s the thing: While my half-brother doesn’t take care of his body, he has always been decent in a fight. If it came down to it, I’m almost sure that I could lay him out, but Kane is a dirty fighter, like his father was, and will use weapons to come out on top.

“A promise is different from a threat,” I clarify. “And for the record, I would step in and protect anyone who was being abused. Vesper or not.”

He looks off to the side, hands now shoved into the pockets of his dirty blue jeans. “I plan to stay away. I showed up there during a moment of weakness. Vesper has always thought that she’s better than me, and that night, she made me out to be some sort of abusive ex-boyfriend.”

I could hold my tongue to avoid him losing it, but he needs to hear the truth, even if I’ve told him it a thousand times before.

“Your behavior is abusive. Just because you haven’t laid a finger on Vesper doesn’t mean your actions and words aren’t dangerous, hurtful, and downright wrong. Look at the way your dad treated Mom. He lived in a perpetual state of denial, and I’m here to tell you that you’re doing the exact same thing.”

“Don’t compare me to my dad!” he snaps, searing tension rising between us.

I shrug it away, not caring about Kane’s feelings or sugarcoating the truth anymore.

Sorry, Mom. But I can’t keep protecting this guy. I won’t.

“Then don’t act like he did.”

Kane falls quiet.

Satisfied that I’ve said my piece, I make for the front door.

“Silas,” Kane calls after me, but I don’t stop until I’m standing on the porch.

Oftentimes, I wonder what the neighbor living directly above has witnessed since Kane moved in with Vesper all that time ago. A part of me doesn’t want to know either. There’s nothing I can do to change the past. All I’m capable of is protecting my girl, going forward, and I get the feeling that she wants me to.

Despite the cold look on Kane’s face, my chest floods with warmth. Memories of the way she opened up about wanting a family one day hit me just as hard now as they did when she told me five nights ago.

The selfish side of me wanted to volunteer myself right there and then.

Vesper would make a great mom, and I’d happily give her my babies. I told her that I’d never thought about having a family, but that wasn’t strictly true. I have thought about it, and the woman carrying them is always the beautiful bartender who lives rent-free in my head.

Call me obsessive, down bad, a simp. They’re all true.

“What?” I eventually respond.