Alex’s POV
Lucas inspects David for the longest time.
It’s safe to say I have no idea what he’s thinking right now, and his silence was not a very reassuring sign.
Suddenly, he gets up and drags David outside by his elbow, his face emotionless, not giving anything away.
Mathew and I follow behind frantically trying to see what my crazy brother is trying to do.
He drags him over towards the gate, where three men were standing guards there.
“Give me your gun Sebastian” Lucas orders strictly.
The guard complies right away, handing him the gun instantly.
He let go of David and spat out “Kneel”
David kneels before him in surrender, even though his limbs were visibly trembling.
“Lucas” I say in a tight tone, trying to get his attention because apparently he lost his grip on his self control and threw everything I asked him to do before we came inside Matthew’s house through the freaking window.
He turned to me frantically and said “He wanted my forgiveness brother,” then he turned back towards David and said to him “well tell you what, since you said you’re willing to die for me and you want desperately to be my brother again, let’s put that to the test shall we?”
He opened the revolver’s cylinder, tilted the gun upward, causing all the bullets inside the chamber to fall down to the ground.
He bent down, picked one bullet up, and stuck it inside one of the empty slots.
He flipped the cylinder with his free hand in a fast motion and pushed it back inside the revolver. That move he did made the bullet’s specific location inside the chamber unknown to all of us.
He cocked the gun by pulling the hammer backwards, and aimed its barrel towards his own head, or the side of his head specifically.
I lunged at him in fury, once I realized what the bloody hell he was intending to do, but I wasn’t fast enough for he had already pulled the trigger without any hesitation.
I stopped in my tracks as I felt my heart drop down along with the trigger he pulled, which turned out to be empty of that bullet.
We were all gaping at him with the same shocked expression on our faces.
He’s officially the craziest son of a bitch I’ve ever seen in my entire life, that or he somehow knows that he wasn’t going to stupidly get himself killed just to prove a bloody point. I wasn’t sure, which increased my boiling temper.
It was a miracle I stayed silent and didn’t shoot him myself after that stunt.
He looked at each of us in amusement and addressed David at last in a serious tone “Brothers die for each other David. They take bullets for each other. Death is more than welcome if it saves my brother, which you already witnessed me doing when I, without blinking, jumped in front of a bullet to save Alex. I’ll gladly die for him David. I’ll gladly… die for you….be your brother….take a bullet for you. Are you willing to do the same?”
He cocked the gun again and extended it towards him, to take it in his hand.
It took David a few seconds to be able to move.
But when he did, his movements were confident and lacked any fear or hesitation.
He took the revolver from his hand and aimed it on the same spot Lucas did before him, to the side of his head.
He stared at Lucas without blinking and pulled the trigger.
I released a breath I didn’t know I was holding when it didn’t blow his brains out.
My heart dropped down again when David cocked the gun again and pulled the trigger one more time, still staring up at Lucas.
Just before he was about to do it a third time, Lucas leapt and pointed the gun towards the sky a millisecond before the gun went off, for real this time, barely saving David from a certain death.
Lucas lifted David up from his kneeling position and engulfed him into a tight hug.
David was still shocked, either by the fact that he was one second away from dying, or that Lucas saved him, or that he was currently hugging him. Probably all three were contributing to that shock.
Two seconds later, David returned the hug and tightened his arms around Lucas as a silent sob shook his body.
I heard multiple footsteps nearing us and I turned around to see everyone inside the house hurrying towards us with fear etched into their faces.
“What happened?” my mom asked intensely.
Lucas broke the hug and surprisingly wiped away David’s tears gently as he said casually “I was just welcoming my brother David here into the family, that’s all”
I couldn’t help but shake my head at the reckless maniac that is my brother.
“Mom, are you sure you didn’t drop him on his head when he was a baby? Because I can swear he’s missing some brain cells in that head of his” I asked her strictly.
He looked at me and teased “You’re just jealous because you can never have the balls to pull that stunt like I just did”
“What stunt?” my mom asked Lucas with a glare.
“Go on brave heart, tell her, what stunt?” I said casually as I crossed my arms against my chest.
He cast me a brief warning look not to open my mouth and proceeded to speak casually to her “Mom, aren’t you going to welcome David back into the house? The dude is starving, he hasn’t eaten anything in two days”
Mom; totally not buying into his distraction, gave him a pointed look that clearly stated that they were going to talk about his stunt later, and walked over towards David.
He froze in his spot and cast his head down in shame, unable to look at her.
She stood in front of him, cupped his face tenderly, and lifted his head up, prompting him to look at her. He did so with tearful eyes.
“Welcome to our family son. You’re my sixth son now, right after Jenny, and I want you to know and believe, with all your heart, that I am your mom from this moment onward. Come to me whenever you need a hug, a kiss, a shoulder to lean on, whenever you feel blue, know that you can always come to me and find my arms wide open to give any comfort you seek” she said passionately.
David broke down the second time in less than five minutes as he sobbed into her chest while she hugged him tenderly and ran her hands on his back, soothing him with calming whispers.
“It’s okay dear…. It’s over… you have us now”
“I’m sorry…. I’m so sorry… I couldn’t be….. Strong enough.. To stop him from the… start” he said between sobs.
“Shhh, don’t say that. It’s not your fault. You didn’t know any better. You never knew Isaac. It was you father’s manipulated version that kept you from saying anything. I understand, stop blaming yourself”
After a few seconds, David managed to calm down and pull himself together again.
My mom broke the hug and kissed his forehead softly.
“Come, let’s get you something to eat before you leave with Lucas” she said as she pulled him with her gently towards the direction of the house.
“Leave where?” he asked in confusion.
“I’ll fill you in on everything after you eat and take a shower, don’t worry about it” I told him firmly.
Jenny came over to my side and took my hand in hers as we started walking behind everyone else heading back to the house.
She was looking at me curiously as she asked “What did Lucas do that’s got you so mad?”
The prick had excellent hearing as he fell behind and draped his arm around Jenny’s shoulder, answering her question to me playfully “Something your small innocent heart cannot handle dear Jenny”
“But then again, Alex’s heart can’t handle it either; most probably, judging by the anger that emanated from him when I pulled said stunt” he continued with sarcasm.
I bore daggers into him and said icily “I got angry because said stunt could have cost you your life and broke our mother’s heart”
“I totally had it under control big brother” he said confidently.
“So you knew exactly where that bullet was?” I asked him doubtfully.
“Wouldn’t you wish to know” he said smugly while wiggling his eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes and decided to totally ignore him from that point onward.
I was ninety percent sure he had perfect control over that weapon and knew exactly where that bullet was.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have jumped to stop David the third time he tried to shoot himself. He knew it was the killing bullet.
Despite that, it was still risky as hell for he could have made a mistake and messed up the placement of that bullet.
Jenny decided to drop the subject too before Lucas could get on her nerves any further, and asked warily instead “Did you tell him about what his father did? How did he take it?”
“I didn’t get a chance to go there yet” I said tightly as I glared at Lucas.
“I’ll do it on the road, when we head back to Snow. He doesn’t need an entire audience to witness his world crashing down on him. Better to give him some privacy to digest it” he said firmly.
“I’m not sure you’re the right person to break that news to him” I said doubtfully.
He gave me a smirk and said confidently “Relax, I know when to be sensitive and serious, and when to be my lovable playful self which is a little under appreciated by everyone I might add”
“More like unbearable, unstable, crazy self” said Jenny under her breath.
“Now that hurt my feelings, little sis. Take it back” he said with a pout, feigning offense.
“Make me” she challenged smugly as we all entered through the front door.
Suddenly, he engulfed her in an embrace and began to tighten his arms around her with a bear hug while she thrashed against him, shouting his name in frustration.
“Lucas! Don’t! You’re crushing me!”
“Take it back” he teased playfully.
“No! Let go!” she said as she tried to stifle her smile and shook her head at him in stubbornness.
He tightened them even more and she thrashed harder against him to no success, screaming in his ear.
“Alex! Help me please!” she begged me with a pleading tone.
I jumped to her rescue as I started tickling him on both sides of his waist area.
A battle of wills and screaming erupted in front of the living room entrance as all three of us fought one another. Me tickling him ordering him to release her, Lucas trying to hold his tight grip while trying to push me away and stifling his laughter, Jenny trying to break free and trying to bite him to get away.
Eventually, he couldn’t hold himself any longer from my torturous tickling and he ended up releasing her.
She ran for the hills to get away from him.
When she knew she was at a safe distance, she turned around and stung her tongue out at him.
“You just wait when your hubby is not here to come to the rescue. You’ll beg me to take those words back Jenny” he promised breathlessly.
I smacked him lightly at the back of his head and said causally as I went over to her side “Don’t threaten my wife”
“She started it!” he said in defense.
“And I just ended it” I said as I tossed him a smirk over my shoulder before we walked into the kitchen.