"Finn isn't my brother."

He looked up. His dark eyes were cold and deep. He was far too calm.

"Did you give him your heart, Eric?"

"How could you give him something that belongs to me?"

"He isn't good enough for you. I'll show you. I'm the only one who is."

7

It was well past midnight when we got back to the Sterling house.

Four in the morning. Still dark outside, but the living room lights were on.

Finn sat there staring blankly at the television.

At the sound of us coming in, he turned sharply. His eyes lit up when he saw me.

"Eric. You're back."

Felix followed me inside and stopped behind me.

Finn stiffened when he saw him. His expression changed.

"Felix," he said awkwardly.

Felix didn't even look at him.

I walked quickly over and crouched in front of Finn.

"Why are you awake so early?"

Finn lowered his eyes, looking hurt.

"I woke up, and you weren't there. I couldn't get back to sleep."

Guilt stirred in me.

I'd promised to stay with him last night.

And broken that promise.

Finn studied my face. Then he lifted a hand and touched my lips.

"Eric, why is your mouth swollen?"

His cold fingertip rested against my hot lip. The feeling was strange.

"I kissed him."

Felix came around behind me, leaned over, and pulled Finn's hand away.

"Look a little closer. His tongue might be swollen, too."

Finn's hands curled into fists. He stared at Felix, his face pale.

"Stop joking. Eric's a man. So are you. How could you..."

I took a deep breath and imagined smashing Felix's head into the wall.

Then I reached toward Finn.

"Don't listen to him. Let me carry you upstairs. You can get some more sleep."

Before I could touch him, Felix kicked the wheelchair back a few feet, reached past me, and hauled Finn over his shoulder.

"I'll take him upstairs," he said mildly. Then he looked at me. "You've been up all night, too. Get some rest."

Finn couldn't break free. He called to me as though begging for rescue.

"Eric!"

I stayed where I was.

Let Felix carry him away.

Finn couldn't keep depending on me like this.

At the end of the day, I wasn't family.

8

Frank Sterling had hinted at that himself.

"Eric, you can't stay beside Finn forever. Some things he has to get through on his own."

Over the past year, I'd deliberately put some distance between Finn and me.

Last night, he'd simply been too distressed.

After Felix returned to Harbor City, Frank gradually handed him part of the family's operations.

He told me, "Eric, Felix takes things too far. Keep an eye on him for me. I trust you."

Felix didn't just take things too far. He had no regard for his own life.

He was too ruthless. Too absolute. It made enemies.

The Sterlings called themselves businesspeople now, but most of their circle consisted of former criminals dressed up as respectable men. Push them hard enough, and knives and guns still came out.

Felix was attacked several times. Every time, he came close to dying.

The worst was a knife to the stomach. He spent three months in the hospital.

I smoked half a pack outside, went back in, and told him,

"I'm begging you. Take better care of yourself."

Felix looked ill and exhausted. He still found a way to flirt.

"Kiss me once, Eric, and I will."

One kiss, and he'd study.

One kiss, and he'd stay out of the bar.

One kiss, and he'd never leave.

It was all fucking lies.

I looked down at him.

"Don't be pathetic, Felix."

The six months I spent working for him felt longer than three years. We were constantly on the road. I barely went back to the Sterling house.

On Frank's birthday, he held a dinner at home.

The house glowed with light. I was crouched out back, smoking.

Suddenly, someone called my name.

"Eric."

I looked up. Finn sat on the second-floor terrace.

"If I jumped from here, would you catch me?"

I nearly swallowed my cigarette.

"Don't move," I said, pointing at him. "I'm coming up."

I ran upstairs and pulled him back from the terrace. Sweat had broken out across my forehead.

Before I could scold him, Finn wrapped his arms around my waist and held on tightly.

"One hundred and forty-two days."

"You haven't come to see me in one hundred and forty-two days, Eric."

My throat tightened.

"I'm sorry," I said hoarsely. "I've been busy."

I had been.

I'd also been avoiding him.

"If only my legs worked."

Warm tears soaked into my shirt.

"Then I wouldn't have to sit here waiting for you to come see me. I could hold on to you, just like Felix does."

I was starting to feel warm. I tried to push him away.

"Finn. Let go first..."

His warm hand suddenly slipped under my shirt and gripped my lower back.

"Whatever Felix can do, I can do, too."

"Be good to me, too, Eric."

All at once, I realized the heat in my body wasn't normal. I couldn't even summon enough strength to push him off.

I'd been too distracted to notice before. There was an unfamiliar scent in the room.

Given the circumstances, it was almost certainly an aphrodisiac.

Finn left a trail of wet kisses across my stomach. His mouth moved against my skin as he whispered through tears,

"Don't push me away. Please, Eric."

I caught his hand. Before I could say anything, someone kicked the door open.

By the time I registered Felix standing there, he'd dragged me behind him and punched Finn in the face.

He pulled Finn out of the wheelchair, threw him to the floor, and raised his foot to kick him.

"Felix!"

I grabbed his arm with everything I had.

He stopped. The kick never landed.

With his back to me, he said,

"Could you stop protecting him right in front of me?"

He turned his head, the corners of his eyes red.

"I won't touch him again."

"Just stop playing the hero for other people. Please?"

I wasn't in any condition to listen to his bullshit.

I held on to his wrist, breathing hard, barely able to stand the heat.

"Call a doctor. Get me something for this."

Felix didn't answer. He picked me up and walked out.

Finn screamed behind us.

"You can't leave!"

"Eric Reed, don't you dare go with him!"

9

I still had enough sense to know what Felix intended.

I enunciated every word.

"Felix. Call. A. Doctor."

"I'm your doctor."

By the time we reached his room, the heat had burned through what remained of my judgment.

When he kissed me, I turned the tables. Pushed him against the door, buried my fingers in his hair, and held his head still as I claimed his mouth.

Felix might as well have been drugged himself. He was even more feverish than I was.

He tore open my clothes and kissed my ears, my neck, my collarbone...

Murmuring to himself,

"Eric. God, I've missed you."

We were like two wild animals, each trying to devour the other.

We didn't even make it to the bed.

The next morning, I couldn't find the buttons from my shirt.

Clothes lay scattered from the doorway to the window. Ornaments had been knocked to the floor.

Felix wasn't there.

I stood by the window and smoked a cigarette. My phone vibrated.

A message from Frank.

[Come upstairs. Third floor. Chapel.]

Frank's private chapel held a statue of Saint Michael, the patron he looked to for protection in battle.

Felix knelt in the middle of the room, his back straight.

Frank sat on a sofa to one side. A cane lay beside him.

"Fighting with your own brother, Felix? Is that how an older brother behaves?"

"Older brother?" Felix gave a cold laugh. "You forget. My mother only had one son."

Finn lowered his eyes and said quietly, "If he won't apologize, punish him."

Frank handed me the cane and told me to do it.

I opened my mouth.

"Mr. Sterling, last night..."

Felix hadn't been the one at fault.

Frank lifted his eyes. Calmly, with no room for refusal, he repeated,

"Eric. Do it."

I lowered my gaze.

"Yes, sir."

There was nothing more to say.

Frank knew everything.

This was his house.

He knew exactly what had happened last night.

He wanted to rein Felix in and protect Finn.

And put me in my place while he was at it.

A hundred strokes.

Felix didn't bend his back once. Didn't make a sound.

By the time it was over, I was sweating more than he was.

Felix pushed himself upright and leaned against me. His voice was hoarse when he addressed his father.

"Any more? If you're done, can I go?"

I helped him out of the chapel. He said nothing for a while, as though considering something.