The Damaged (The Insiders Trilogy #2) - Tijan by Tijan

My stomach was twisting up, hearing all of this.

Matt still growled, looking outside. “Whatever.”

Tony snorted before sipping his drink again.

I didn’t say a word. Matt was on a bender. Noted. I would be sharing that with Kash, but Tony was wrong. I knew Kash wouldn’t be chasing Matt. For one, he couldn’t, since he was in Brazil.

I looked at Matt. “Were you drunk at my school earlier?”

Matt froze.

And my second question. “Were you drunk at breakfast, too?”

Matt didn’t respond. His head was down. His phone was buzzing, and he was responding to that, not to me.

I looked at Guy and Tony. They weren’t looking at me.

“When did you pick him up?”

Neither of the guys spoke up, and that had my stomach twisting all the more.

I leaned forward and hissed, “You should’ve called Kash. Maybe then my drunk brother wouldn’t have been around my other brother and sister.”

Tony’s jaw clenched, but he still didn’t look at me.

Guy was just looking at his phone.

“How bad were you?” I squared off against Matt. He continued to ignore me. “If you don’t answer me, I’ll take your phone and load a virus to it so you’ll never be able to use another phone again.”

He continued typing, then stopped. He froze a second before lifting his head. “You can’t do that. You’re good, but not that good.”

My lips thinned. “Try me.”

Guy spoke up, his voice strained. “He wasn’t that bad in the morning. He called us early, around six. We got him, thought food and family would sober him up, because he wanted to go to another after-after-hours club. It didn’t work. He got all worked up about something, demanded we bring him to you, and then we’ve been at Octavo this whole time.”

“Octavo?”

“It’s another club in Chicago.”

I was going with a hunch here. “One that Kash or our father doesn’t own, right?”

I was met with silence. All silent.

I had to sit and contemplate, because what was my role here? I knew Kash used to deal with this, bailing Matt out before and after he got into trouble.

I ran down my list of options.

Option one: Blow a gasket that Matt was on a bender and be alarmed at how good he could handle his liquor, because I never once thought he was drunk at school.

Option two: Do nothing and tell Kash later. Let Kash deal with Matt.

Option three … I had no clue.

I went with a mix of all the options and I announced it. “Okay. This is what I’m going to do.”

All the guys looked at me, each with a different expression.

Guy was mildly curious.

Tony was glowering.

Matt was wary, but there was a “fuck ’em all up” look in his eyes, too.

“I’m going to sit here and do my coding for school. Then I’m going to text Kash later that you were drunk tonight, but you and I both know he won’t be flying in to deal with you. And three, if you do anything tonight to scar our little sister and brother, I will blow a gasket.” I leaned in close. “You’ve not seen me blow a gasket. You do not want the gasket to be blown. Trust me.”

Matt’s eyes filled with that crazed look like he was going to call my bluff, but he only raised his glass for another sip—make that a gulp—of alcohol. Guy was back to lounging; he almost looked like he was going to fall asleep. And Tony’s eyes were narrowed and fixed on me before I looked at him. He raised his chin up, in a slow way, like he was almost challenging me, but then his gaze slid away to the window. From his profile, he looked pensive.

And me, I set my bag on the floor, pulled my computer out, and did my coding assignment.





FOURTEEN


Cyclone thought Guy was hilarious. That was fine.

Seraphina had a crush on Tony. That was not fine.

Matt gargled mouthwash, spit it out, rinsed it with water, and was the best actor I’d ever seen. Really, really not fine.

If I hadn’t smelled the booze, I never would’ve known he’d been drinking. As we ate—it was a spaghetti night—the only person who gave him a long, questioning look was Theresa. Chrissy, no clue. Payton, I was assuming no clue, but then again, it was a repeat of the other time. She said nothing. She kept in the background, only there when Seraphina and Cyclone went to talk to her or hug on her.

Cyclone and Seraphina really had no clue. Matt was the most charming and sober acting around them.

That was scary to think about.

He didn’t have a great history of being sober—or being drunk, for that matter. Having an affair, getting trashed, and inviting a crap ton of randoms to his place … and that was just the highlights I could remember from this summer. His being drunk but acting sober was almost terrifying.

We ate. We bowled.

After, I was right in the time frame. We were in the limo heading back, fifteen minutes to ten. If I’d been worried about how Tony and Guy would act around my siblings, I would’ve worried for nothing. Both were normal, and both did the mouthwash trick right alongside Matt before walking inside. Tony was quiet, almost competing with Payton for who was the quietest. Matt and Guy cracked jokes, and Guy loved teasing Chrissy.

As for me, I was too distracted with watching Matt like a hawk, while trying to make sure Ser and Cy had no idea I was tense as hell, so I forgot to pull Chrissy aside and talk to her about my dad. I also wasn’t sure if I wanted to talk to her about it. Kash seemed sure nothing would come from it, and I still didn’t know how I felt about the whole sleeping together thing. So when I did not get an invitation to extend this party at Naveah—where I knew they were going, even though they didn’t tell me—I was mostly thinking about what I needed to finish before hitting the bed.