The Jealousy Plot

51) Broken

I feel Luke freeze beside me at the man's words. From what I knew about Luke's father I could tell that the fact that this man was a friend of his meant that he was not a person of good judgement.

"You were his friend?" Luke seethes through gritted teeth. I put my hand on his lower back in an attempt to calm him down but the touch has no affect whatsoever on the angry boy beside me.

The man lets out a chuckle. "I guess he never talked about his friends did he? I'm Gabe" he says, holding out his hand to Luke as if he expected that he would take it.

"Get your filthy hand away from me" Luke states and I can tell in his voice he is straining to keep calm.

The man Gabe pulls his hand back slowly before leaning back on the souvenir rack. "How's your old man doing by the way?" he asks.

"He's dead" Luke states with no emotion in his voice.

"Is that so?" Gabe asked, tilting his head slightly but otherwise not looking very surprised at the news that a friend of his was dead.

"He died 4 years ago to this exact day" Luke says.

I look up at him, shocked, but he keeps his fiery gaze on the man in front of us. Suddenly it dawned on me why he was so mad tonight. Not just because of Zack and I being partners, but also because on this day four years ago was the night of the event that pushes itself into every nightmare he has. The night his father tried to kill him, his mother and his siblings.

"Well shit, no wonder I haven't heard from him in years" Gabe states in a slightly humorous voice that makes me want to step away from him. Who laughs at the news of the death of a friend?

"He was a good man, son" he states, looking back up at Luke.

Luke's fingers curl into fists. "He wasn't a good man at all. He was a bastard that deserved to die and don't fucking call me 'son'" Luke growls back.

Gabe glances over at him. "I guess you and him had some issues" he says.

"If you count him trying to kill me, my siblings and my mother as issues then, yeah, we had a lot of fucking issues" Luke says.

Gabe finally glances over at me and I can practically feel my skin crawl. "Now who is this little thing?" he asks in a taunting voice that makes me want to punch him straight in the face.

Luke steps forward so that he is in front of me. "You keep your disgusting eyes off of her unless you want me to put you in the same place my father is right now" Luke growls in a low voice and I can practically feel him shaking from anger.

"She looks like her" Gabe says, still trying to look at me, ignoring Luke's threat. "Like Amanda. She has that scared look in her eyes your mom always held, and the same fit body that made me want to throw her onto a bed whenever I saw her".

It takes all of my strength not to let go of Luke's wrist and let him loose on the man, but as Luke steps forward, I grip his wrist with one arm and wrap my other one around his waist. "Don't" is all I can manage to say.

Gabe lets out a sickening laugh. "She is even holding you back like your mother used to do with Adam when he got mad at someone. Of course he would later brag about putting her in her place for holding him back".

I step in front of Luke and step closer to the man so I am a foot away and can smell the cigarettes on his breath. "If you know what is good for you, you will walk over to the back of this store right now before you end up in more trouble than you already are" I say to him, no hint of fear in my clear voice.

"Freedom of speech sweetheart" he says, shooting me a grin that makes me want to both run far away and shove his head down a toilet at the same time.