18

18
BRANDON
I was genuinely concerned that Alicia wasn’t going to want to walk with me, but she leaves the house so quickly that it surprises me. I guess she’s just that eager to be rid of me.
“Did I do something to you?” I ask. I’m worried she’s regretting the last time we had sex. I really hope it isn’t that, because I want us to do it again, not to mention that I’m enjoying the fact that we’ve been starting to bond, and I don’t want to let that go either. And I don’t see how that’s going to be possible if my presence is upsetting her this much.
“No,” she says. “You didn’t do anything. It’s not about you.”
I don’t know if I can believe that. It sure seems like it’s about me.
But I have no choice but to take her at her word. Besides, we need to talk about the things I came here to talk about. I don’t want to get distracted by this stuff. It’s important to me what she thinks of me, but not as important as the things Lonnie is planning.
“I need to talk to you about your brother,” I say. “What about him?”
“He’s not happy you’re back,” I tell her.
“Well, yeah. No kidding.” She laughs humorlessly. “Lonnie’s never wanted anything to do with me. If I fell off a bridge and drowned, he would probably throw a party in honor of my death.”
“I don’t know about that,” I say, “but I know he’s trying to get you off the Greystone territory.”
“What do you mean?”
“He told me,” I say. “He said he was going to start harassing you until you couldn’t take it anymore and went back home.”
To my surprise, she just laughs.
“I don’t think he was joking,” I say.
“No, no, I’m sure he wasn’t,” she agrees. “But really, he has no idea who he’s dealing with. He thinks he’s going to run me off the Greystone territory? I’m not afraid of Lonnie. Let him try.”
“He’s serious about this, Alicia,” I say. “He’s going to do whatever it takes.”
“Oh, please. What is he going to do? Kill me?”
“Well, no, I don’t think he’ll go that far. But he could definitely make your life uncomfortable. And he means to. He’s going to target you, Alicia, and he’s not going to stop until he gets what he wants: you, far away from here.”
“I don’t care,” Alicia says. “I was never planning to stay here very long, anyway. So he makes my life difficult for a few months. There’s not much he can do to me while I’m living in my father’s house. I mean, what is he going to do, attack me while Dad’s watching?”
“I wouldn’t put it past him.”
“You know he can’t. If he did anything that egregious, he’d lose his place in the chain of command. And Lonnie loves power more than he hates me.
He won’t do anything to risk his chance at becoming alpha.”
I have to hand it to her. She understands him better than I do. But even so… “Are you sure you shouldn’t do something?” I ask. “Maybe you should tell your father. Maybe he could intervene on your behalf.”
Alicia’s face turns fierce. “You want me to involve my father in this?” she demands. “You don’t think that poor man is going through enough, without dealing with his only son and heir being a fucking sociopath?”
“Maybe he should know.”
“No. I came back here to take care of him, not to add to his burdens.” “Something else, then,” I say. “There’s got to be a way.”
“I don’t know why you’re so worried about it.” “Alicia, he knows you have a baby.”
Her face goes white.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I guess you didn’t want to tell me. But he found out somehow, and he sees your kid as a threat. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t warn you about that.”
“Well, you’ve warned me,” Alicia says. “Thank you. I can handle it.” “I wish you’d let me do something.”
“Let you do something? What do you think you can do? You can’t stop him.”
“Maybe I could help you, though. Protect you. He won’t do anything to you if-”
“If what?”
“If I’m around to stop him.”
“So you want to start some kind of pack war over this?” she asks. “I’m not saying-”
“It’s a stupid little family squabble between me and Lonnie,” Alicia says.
“I knew there’d be shit with him when I came back here. But it doesn’t need to get any bigger than that, Brandon. Nobody else needs to get involved. I don’t need you to save me from my brother.”
“I’m just trying to help.”
“Well, don’t worry about it. If it gets too bad, I’ll leave.” “You’ll just leave? You’ll let him have his way?”
“I’m not going to stay here out of stubbornness,” she says. “I was always going to leave eventually, Brandon. If Lonnie gets too intolerable, I’ll just clear out tomorrow. It’s no big deal.”
“Wow,” I say. “Wow what?”
“I was right. You really haven’t changed.”
I don’t know why I’m suddenly so furious with her, but I can’t help the way I feel. Why am I willing to try when she isn’t? Why am I willing to stand up to Lonnie when she won’t? It’s fucked up.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alicia says icily.
“You want to run away,” I tell her. “The moment things get rough, Alicia runs away. That’s how you’ve always been. That’s how you handled your problems when we were kids, and that’s how you want to handle them now. You’re the same old Alicia you always were.”
Her jaw drops, but she’s right. I’ve done my job. I’ve given her a warning. I turn and walk away.