Oranges & Roses

Chapter Six

My eyes snapped open when I heard the gun shot. The only thing I could think was Oh god, my brother. I got out of bed and like a streak of light, I was out the door. But before I could get anywhere, I was pulled to a stop by a firm grip on my arm. Familiar tattoos filled my line of sight and I stopped resisting for a moment to consider what this meant.

“My brother…”

“He’s fine,” Rey rumbled quietly. “You have to stay up here while they clean up downstairs.”

“But…”

“He’s fine, Oranges.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders while I stared at the top of the stairs. “He’s just blowing off some steam.”

“Can’t he do it without shooting someone or something?” I buried my face in the crook of his arm. “Not to mention it’s like four am and he’s doing it in the house.”

“It’s three, actually. You haven’t been asleep that long.”

“Who or what did he shoot?”

“You don’t need to know and more importantly I don’t need to know. Just go back to bed.”

“How am I supposed to go back to bed when I know there might be a dead body downstairs?” I turned around and looked at him, squishing down feelings that were no longer relevant when it came to him. “Without Dom, my brother is flying solo and he needs my help.”

“Oh no. No, no, no. You won’t be helping him by going down there. He can clean up his own fucking mess and he has more help than you think. So come on, you’re going back to bed.”

Like so many other people in my life right now, Rey was bossing me around and it wasn’t a good idea on his part. I didn’t have to listen and I was going to use that to the fullest extent that I could. So when he took a hold of my arm and tried to pull me back to my room, I resisted him and twisted a little to get him to let go. He didn’t though, just readjusted like he expected me to fight him.

“Rey,” I hissed. “Let go.”

“All this could’ve been avoided if you’d just come home with me earlier but no. You had to do things your way, the wrong way.”

Wow. He sure knew how to win a girl over. “You’re a jackass. Let go of me.”

In response he just jerked me in his direction, throwing me off canter and getting the advantage. Like the cop he was, he took that advantage and pulled me in the direction of my room. He tossed me inside and I expected him just to leave me alone but instead he came in and closed the door.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Keeping your ass out of trouble even if it means I have to babysit you. Jesus, Oranges. I know you’re trying to work through this funk you have going on but you don’t need to be stupid.”

I glared at him. “What do you care? I can screw up my life all I want. That includes helping my brother haul out a dead body if needed. So get out of my way.”

“No. I’ve dealt with your mopey shit for the past month and I let it go because it’s what I thought you needed. But enough is enough and if you think I’m going to let you go downstairs and put yourself at risk, you’ve got another thing coming. You need to come to your senses, let it go, and move the fuck on.”

“God. Does everything that comes out of your mouth have to be so damn crude? You don’t know what I’m going through. You didn’t bother to talk to me about it let alone ask. So who are you to judge if it’s time for me to let go or not?”

“I was there, Oranges. I saw what happened. I know what was said and I know what was done. It was horrible, I get it but you didn’t even love the guy.”

“Could you be more insensitive? Do they make you take a class when you enroll at the academy?”

“It’s true and you know it. If you loved him and wanted to marry him, you would’ve said yes when he proposed but you didn’t. If he’d survived you would’ve said no to his face anyways.”

“You don’t know that.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “You don’t know that.”

“Yes, I do. And it’s ok. You’re allowed to feel guilty. You cared about him and he knew that. That’s what matters.” He walked over and dropped his hands on my shoulders, looking me in the eyes. “It’s ok to mourn and move on. He’d want you to be happy not to be…this.”

“What am I supposed to move on to? You want me to trust you, trust that you and your cop friends can take care of this, put Marco and Rob and everyone else behind bars. But how am I supposed to do that when I trusted your little taskforce to be there if things got hairy at the warehouse. In case you were wondering, things got hairy. They got bloody and someone died and no one did anything about it. You just stood there and let another cop get shot. And how exactly do you lose track of one of your detectives? How did they not know it was him in there and not…” I bit my tongue and stopped talking, knowing what I was about to say was horrible and shouldn’t be said. He kept eye contact with me and drew his hands up so they were framing my face.