“Does he know that?” Mason asked before following me into the garage.
Fortunately, Eric was still on the couch, squinting toward where he could hear our approach. We stopped, standing right behind the light. He couldn’t see us, but he knew we were there. Mason shook his head.
Whatever. We’d done stupider things. It wasn’t like we’d get arrested for this…I didn’t think. Not wanting to dwell on that, I started forward. “I’m back, and that means you need to start talking.”
“But—”
“Now,” I said.
He let out a breath. Some of the fear had faded from his face, but he was still wary. “Or what? I don’t understand why I need your permission to talk to my girlfriend.”
“Ex-girlfriend, bro.”
I grabbed one of the folding chairs leaning against the wall and set it up in front of him. I dropped in to straddle it, now glaring from eye level at the guy. This was better. I could intimidate up close and personally.
I smiled, waving my fingers. “Let’s cut the bullshit. I know what happened that day.”
He grew still. “What do you mean?”
“I know.”
“Bullshi—”
“You ran like a coward.”
He paled and fell silent.
“Dipshit,” I leaned closer, tipping the chair on its back legs, “I’m sleeping with her.”
“No.” He shook his head. “I don’t believe you.”
I laughed. The guy didn’t want to believe me. “What are you doing? Are you holding on to her? Is that it?”
“I know Taylor. She would never get over me that fast.”
“Well.” I gave him a pitying look. “She did. Sorry.”
“No.” He kept shaking his head. “Jason told me she would need me tonight. He said I could make everything better. I—” He stopped, studying me, before his head moved from right to left again. “No way.”
“She has a firecracker tattoo on her thigh.”
That shut him up. His eyes turned ragged. “No. No way.”
“When you’re inside of her and kiss her throat, she arches her back, and it’s the hottest thing I’ve seen in a long time. She makes a little sound that makes you want to go harder, just to make her do it again because you don’t want to disappoint her. She makes you want to satisfy her, makes you need to satisfy her—”
“Shut up,” he snapped, his chest heaving. “Shut up.”
“I could tell you a lot more. I won’t, though, because this isn’t about further hurting Taylor. This is about helping her. You being here is not helping her. It’s going to hurt her.”
He put a hand to his forehead and started rubbing. “Jason told me…” He cleared his throat. “Jason said, uh—”
I moved the chair closer, folding my arms over the back of it. “What did he say?”
“He said I could come back and make things right. This was the time to do it, if I was going to. That…” He hesitated. “That…he was leaving. I don’t know why,” he added hastily. “He wouldn’t tell me, and our conversation was really rushed. He was already heading out of town, but he said she’d need her family.”
“The fucker left town?” Wait. “Why’d he send you?”
“Because he—uh—.” He wouldn’t look at me. “He doesn’t like you, and he thinks I still have a chance. He doesn’t know about…”
I grunted. Delray would have a different opinion if he knew what Eric had done. I’d be the knight in fucking shining armor then.
Mason moved up behind me. I knew what he was thinking already. If Delray was gone, so was part of our problem.
“Yeah. That’s the only reason I went to find her.”
“How’d you know where she was?” Mason asked.
Eric looked up, his gaze shifting to my brother. “He told me a few days ago she’d started working there. I figured it was Friday night. It’s the best night to work. I’m not in contact with Taylor, and she doesn’t update any of her social media, so I guessed. That’s it.”
I grunted. The fucker had guessed right.
“Why’d you punch me? I wasn’t going to hurt her.”
“Because I wanted to.” I stood and put the chair back against the wall. The guy either had no clue, or he was just choosing to be stupid. “Delray has no idea what you did to her. You must know that, right?”
He continued to glare at me, but after a beat, he jerked his head in a nod. “Yeah. I figured.”
In that moment, I saw into him. He wasn’t there to hurt her; he didn’t think he would. He had no clue. “You’re delusional, you know that?” I scoffed, running a hand over my face. Before he could reply, I said, “You had her. You were with her for years. Even she admits that she would’ve married you. You had her.” I shook my head. “You have no idea how lucky you had it, but you did the one thing that would cut her deep, and it will continue to cut her deep for years. You left her. You could’ve saved her, and you ran like a dog with its tail between its legs. You were a coward.”
“You don’t know—”
“Yeah, I do.” I leaned over him. I wanted to make sure he didn’t walk out of my garage with the same delusions. I wanted every single one of them dead and shriveled up like dust. “Family never leaves each other. You save each other. If it ends, it ends together. That’s all you can do, because even if you get out, you’re alone. Don’t you get that? When you left her, you chose yourself. You chose being alone. You did it. You decided. Not her. If you hadn’t? Shit, you’d still be with her. You’d probably be cozied up to her right now instead of me being there in a few hours. You ended the relationship. Not her. Don’t put that on her, ever. You got that?”