Broken Bridges (Bridges Brothers Book 2)

by Lia Fairchild

  I take one last look at my other option—taking the cowardly way out—and proceed to the piece of shit in front of me. His back is still to me and he’s holding her by her shoulders.

  “You have my purse, there’s cash in there, so please just let me go. Take the car. I don’t care.”

  “Bitch, I saw your car take a crap when you pulled up. It’s done! So, why don’t we get inside…have a little fun.”

  I arrive behind him just as he stops talking and her wide, terror-filled eyes catch mine over his shoulder.

  “We got a problem here?” I say with more confidence than I’m feeling.

  Without letting go of the woman’s shoulders, the perpetrator turns his head to his left shoulder to look at me. He’s got a short crop of black hair and a thin black goatee. He shoots me an evil grimace. “Join the party or mind your own damn business.”

  “Yeah I’m not into little men who beat on women.” Hesitantly, I pull my gaze from his and scan down to see a purse on the ground next to his feet. Looks pricey too. “Much less ones who rob instead of getting a damn job.”

  When I look back up to meet his gaze, his lips are tightened and he’s squinting, nostrils flared. “You don’t know shit about me. Now, either get lost or I’ll show you who’s a little man.”

  I shrug nonchalantly. “Okay.” I turn on my heel and take a step away, keeping a sideways glance on the woman.

  She shakes her head frantically, tries to squirm away from him. “No, please…” she says in a strained whisper.

  When the thug turns to regain his purchase of her, I take hold of the strap at my shoulder, step out to a wide stance, and swing my bag around to slam the guy across the back of his head. As his head goes flying to the side, the woman slides down the car and lands on her hands and knees.

  “Bitch!” he says as he stumbles to the side.

  I add a shove to his momentum and it takes him down to his back. I quickly follow it up with a stomp to his sternum. Well, more like three stomps, punctuated by my words. “Mother! Fucking! Asshole!”

  I’m gasping from the exertion but fueled by my rage. He grunts in pain, grabs his chest, and rolls to his side. He’s struggling but I can’t tell if I’ve incapacitated him enough. My mamá told me if you’re going to fight back, you have to finish them off or they never stop coming after you. I grab my spray from my pocket and blast it in his eyes. He screams and tries to roll into a ball to protect himself. “You stupid whore, you blinded me!”

  Though I feel no remorse for what I’ve just done, some of my control returns now that he looks not only subdued but submissive. I step back and calm my breathing while he writhes on the ground. When I feel a hand on my shoulder, I jump. “Shit!” I say, turning to the wide-eyed woman.

  “What do we do now? Call the police?” Her confusion quickly clears and she turns to look for her purse.

  The man on the ground gets to all fours and panic rises back to my chest. “No, we get the hell out of here!” I grab her hand just as she takes hold of her purse and bolt past a still struggling hoodlum, pulling her behind me.

  I take a quick glance over my shoulder when we get to the other side of the street. He’s up but stumbling around. I don’t think he’ll follow, but I don’t stop. The woman pulls her hand from mine, clunking along in what I now see are high heels. I don’t know what she was doing on that street but she was definitely out of place. “Don’t stop,” I tell her as we get to the dirt lot. “Just follow me.”

  She’s panting and only a couple steps behind me. I’d tell her to take her shoes off but the lot is like a landmine of broken glass, dog shit, and trash.

  “Where are we going?” she finally says, her voice now sounding a bit annoyed.

  She can thank me when she calms her ass down. “Almost there.” I stop at the fence opening, squeeze through, and then turn to take her hand. “Watch yourself. I scratched my neck up pretty good on that left side.”

  She frowns and narrows her eyes as I guide her through. “What?” Then she stops in the middle of the yard and just stares at the back of the house. “Wait a minute…” She turns and looks at me with a questioning expression.

  “C’mon,” I say and step past her. “If that guy finds his way over here, we need to be inside.” I peek through the kitchen window, trying to see through a space in the blinds, hoping Mason is still inside. “Plus, there’s this guy… Maybe he can help you.”

  The sliding glass door to my left slides open and Mason pops his head out. He smiles at me, shaking his head, and for a moment I think I see…relief on his face. “Ari, thank God you came back. I—”

  “Ari?” the woman says.

  We both turn to look at her confused expression as she stands behind me, still trying to catch her breath.

  “Megan, what are you doing here?” Mason says and starts to step out back.

  “No!” I hold up my hand. “It’s not safe out here. We have to go inside.”

  “What’s wrong?” Mason pulls the door open wider, scanning around the backyard. “What the hell’s going on?”

  I step inside without a word and turn toward the other two who apparently know each other. This should be fun.

  Megan eyes Mason as she comes through the door. “That’s what I want to know.”

  Mason slides the door shut and then secures the blinds so there’s no way to see inside. I walk over to the fridge and pull out a bottle of water as they both stare at me, mouths agape. “It’s not cold. I just put it in there like it works.” I hand the bottle to Megan. “You okay?”

  She takes the water with a smile and a nod. “Thanks to you, I am.” It’s the first time I’ve seen her with a pleasant expression and it actually gives me a feeling of warmth.

  Mason steps close to Megan and puts a gentle hand on her shoulder. “What happened?” His concern for her and the way he’s touching her makes that warmth turn cold and sit awkwardly in my stomach. He’s proved he’s a caring person, but this display tells me the two are something more than acquaintances.

  “My car broke down. I was coming to apologize.”

  Apologize? Hmm.

  Mason looks surprised but doesn’t say anything.

  “Not far from here. When it started conking out, I turned off the main road. I guess that wasn’t smart because by the time it stalled out, I was on a side street where…”

  I could see she was struggling, getting upset, so I jumped in. “Where some piece of shit shook her down. When I came up, it looked like he’d already taken her purse but decided he wanted a little piece of something else. Probably would have jacked the car if it would have started.”

  Mason was watching me in disbelief but then turned his attention to Megan. “Is that right?”

  She only nodded.

  “Damn. Did you call me?” Guilt converged on his face. “I didn’t even know you were coming here.”

  “I barely had a chance to ring you when he came up. Thought he was going to help at first.”

  “So what? Ari, came up and he took off?”

  Megan and I look at each other at that, both waiting to see who would tell him. Tension fades from the room and we both laugh.

  “What?” Mason says.

  Megan looks up at him. “She saved me, Mason.”

  “Ari… How?”

  “Element of surprise. It was no big deal.” I shrug and hold back a smirk. “I basically beat the crap out of him.”

  “And then we ran,” Megan adds. She places her head lovingly on his shoulder, and I wish in that moment I could do the same. Not necessarily in a romantic way, just to have the comfort of another human. I know I can make it on my own, but that doesn’t mean I don’t need others, no matter what I say out loud to people.

  “Wow,” Mason says and then lets out a sigh. He runs his hand through his brown hair. “Thank you.”

  Megan pops her head up and toward me. “Oh, my God. Thank you. I can’t believe I didn’t say that to you.” She steps toward me and runs a hand down my arm.
“Thank you.”

  I nod. “You’re welcome.”

  She looks to Mason. “Thank you isn’t enough. We should do something… Maybe a reward or—” She stops abruptly and looks at me and then at Mason. “Wait a minute. How do you two know each other?”

  Mason’s eyes shoot to me with concern, and I put my hand forward in an “after you” gesture. I don’t know how much he’ll tell her, but I don’t need to volunteer more to her than necessary. Plus, I still don’t know what her deal is or how she knows Mason.

  He proceeds to tell her how he found me here and the more he says, the more her expression pinballs from confused to surprised to concerned. “You’re seventeen!” Her voice softens. “And pregnant?” She doesn’t wait for a response from me. Instead, she turns back to Mason. “Well this changes everything. What will we do about this? She can’t continue to stay here”—she’s in her own world now, like she’s running a business meeting and I’m her project—“but after what happened, I think we at least owe it to her to make sure she’s okay until she becomes of age—Oh, and we need to call the police on that guy.”

  When did I suddenly disappear from the room? She’s got her back turned to me now, but I see her rummage through her purse. “First we need to make sure this baby is okay after what happened.” She pulls out her phone. “I’ll get her an appointment with my doctor.”

  Crap! Here we go again. I step up behind her and touch her shoulder. “Please, don’t.”

  She turns and eyes me expectantly. “It’s no trouble.”

  I sigh and avert my eyes. “It’s not that… I’m not…”

  “What is it?” Mason says, looking over Megan’s shoulder.

  “I’m not pregnant.”

  Their identical high-arched brows and open mouths send a flush of heat to my cheeks. “I know. I’m sorry.”

  “Was this some sort of scam?” Megan asks, her tone hinting she’s already losing patience with her once hero.

  I take a step back to give myself some distance. “I’m sure you two have no idea what it’s like to have no one but yourself to rely on. You do what you need to do.”

  “I think we get it,” Mason says. “But why pregnant?”

  “It…keeps the men away, if you know what I mean.” I lift one shoulder and let it fall. “When I saw Mason here, I just…reacted. Plus, when you’re on the streets, or go to the shelters, and people hear you’re pregnant…they help you, give you stuff.”

  I can’t read their expressions while they seemingly consider my explanation. The silent stares feel like judgment I don’t need. “You know what? I’m going to just go. I’ve got a cousin I can track down.”

  I open the fridge and grab the last bottle of water I had in there, cringing that they don’t seem to be stopping me. But when I head to the back door, Mason steps in front of me.

  “You can’t go, Ari,” he says. “Tracking down a cousin? That sounds a little too vague to me. Unless you’ve got an address, I can’t let you leave.”

  My brows shoot up. “Can’t let me?”

  Megan comes over and touches my hair, and I can’t tell if I’m annoyed or moved. “He’s right. We need to take a moment and figure this out.”

  “We can help you get on your feet. Find you a place to stay…at least until you’re eighteen.”

  “Yeah, I’m not going to some shelter or foster home. I told you that.”

  “There’s only one solution,” Megan says, looking between the two of us. “She’ll need to stay with one of us for the next few weeks and then we can reassess.”

  “Whoa,” I say. “I can’t do that.”

  “Why not?” Mason says.

  They seem nice but I couldn’t do that to either of them. I already hate the way they’re looking at me. “I don’t know…” My mind whirls for a better reason. And yet…I know I’m out of options. This place I stumbled upon was my saving grace and now it’s gone. I’ve got no other choice here unless I want to brave a shelter.

  “It should be you,” Mason says to Megan.

  My stomach drops. If I’m being honest, I feel much more comfortable with Mason and Megan just seems too…too, everything. But how could I even voice that?

  “You’re right.” Megan seems hesitant but nods. “It’s settled, then.”

  My heart beats erratically as seconds tick by and my new reality sets in. I’ve already lied and if they knew the whole truth, they might not help me at all. I think I’d rather take my chances than go with Megan and be her little charity project. I go for the hail Mary and blurt out, “You don’t have cats, do you?”

  She narrows her eyes at me. “I have two. Why?”

  “I’m deathly allergic.”

  “Oh…” She looks to Mason and he shrugs. “I’m also heading to the desert with my dad…” she says.

  Mason turns to me. “Guess you’re with me, then.”

  “Guess so.” And then I have to hold back my grin.

  Chapter 6

  Mason

  What the hell just happened? This is not just inconvenient—it’s downright bizarre. My life just went from predictable and…acceptable, to chaotic and uncertain. I glance over at Ari, who’s been staring out the window the whole drive to my place. I can’t blame her. Hell, I can’t even blame Megan. Didn’t she come to apologize for last night? What exactly does that entail? If I didn’t know where we stood before our blow-up, then an apology wouldn’t clear it up. And thanks to her little field trip, I now have a teenager to contend with. It’s not like I don’t know anything about them, but I’ve got all brothers. The eldest of four boys—with sixteen years separating me and the youngest, my half-brother, Ryder—I often had to take care of them. I’m sure having Ari stay with me will be nothing like that. I’m still shocked she told me she was pregnant, and who knows what else she lied about.

  “Are you hungry? We could stop for food before we get there?”

  “A little, but I don’t need you to stop.”

  “I’m not much of a cook.” I glance over and smile so she won’t feel like an imposition.

  “I am.” She says it with the confidence of someone older or maybe she just had to take care of herself or others growing up.

  I try to keep the uncertainties at bay for now. “You’re my guest. You don’t have to cook.”

  There’s a slight pause and then I see her body shift toward me. “Look, man. I’m not your guest. I appreciate you helping me, but I’m not some foreign exchange student you need to entertain or wait on.”

  I understand her reaction and I’m not put off by it. “Okay…”

  “I’m sorry…this is just really…weird.”

  “You think?”

  “I do appreciate it even if I don’t sound like it.” Her tone is softer but for some reason, I don’t like it as much because it sounds…defeated.

  “I understand. You’ve had a big day. I would think beating up that guy built up an appetite.”

  She smiles and it feels like a little victory. “I guess I am a little hungry.” She folds her arms across her chest. “But I can eat whatever.”

  “Fair enough. We’ll go home and see what’s there. If it doesn’t work for either of us, we’ll order take out.”

  “Either way.” She shrugs.

  I’m not used to this indifference. Megan is always precise, specific about her needs. Maybe it’s something people grow into. But then again, I can’t picture Megan ever not being that way. And Ari doesn’t seem the type to become high maintenance. Did I just call Megan high maintenance? I hold back a chuckle but not very successfully.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “I, uh, was just thinking about you kicking that guy’s ass. I wonder what he’s thinking right now.”

  “He’s thinking you don’t piss off a Latina.” She punctuates it with a pointed index finger to the roof.

  I pause and measure my words. I want to get to know her, but I also don’t want to offend her. “Oh? So then, where are you from?” I look over to see her rea
ction.

  She smirks and rolls her eyes, and before I can ask why, she responds. “Don’t worry, I’m not illegal.”

  Damn. “That’s not what I was asking…but good to know.”

  “I was born here, but my mother was born in Colombia.”

  I grin at the way her accent comes out when she says Colombia. I’ve noticed it a few times, like there are certain words that just deserve to be said correctly. “But you speak Spanish too?”

  “Yes. My mamá raised me bilingual, taught me to cook Colombian food, told me stories of growing up there. I think she regretted coming to the US.”

  The turn her tone takes stabs at my chest. “I’m sorry to hear that.” I chance another question. “And your father?”

  “I don’t remember him. He was an engineer for an oil company. Mexican American, a US citizen working in Colombia when he met my mother. She was running my grandparents’ restaurant and I guess he used to come in whenever he traveled there for work.”

  “And the rest is history?”

  She shrugs. “Apparently.”

  “And you don’t have any other family you know of?” I cringed, waiting for the I told you backlash.

  “We used to get calls and letters from family in Colombia. I don’t know how to reach any of them now.”

  “And your father’s side?”

  She shakes her head and I think that’s all I’ll get, but then she adds, “My mother mentioned some names from time to time…” When she trails off, I glance back over to find her deep in thought before she says, “Actually, someone came once…my grandfather.”

  “Your dad’s dad?”

  “Yes. I believe he came from Mexico, but I don’t know where he is now. Gave me my first art set.”

  I pull into the driveway and stop the car, turning to her. Ari’s brow is furrowed, like this new memory somehow doesn’t make sense. I don’t want to upset her before we go in, so I don’t ask anything else about it. “Here we are. You ready?” No idea why I just said that other than she’s probably a little nervous going into some strange guy’s home.