Read Online Breaking the Rules by Suzanne Brockmann - Free Book Online Page B

a request for his mother to update her contact information, should they need to get in touch with her regarding Dan’s condition.
    Like, if he died.
    It was May fourth, and Dan could well already be dead, the letter containing
that
information already wending its way to Vegas. The room spun and Ben’s stomach heaved and he lunged for the fridge, yanking the door open. He grabbed the container of orange juice and drank straight from the bottle.
    And got slapped on the back of his head, which sent the orange juice container flying and made him smash his nose into the closed freezer door.
    “What’d I tell you about acting like a human being in my house?” said the man who’d just hit him so hard his teeth had rattled. “You drink from a glass, boy. God knows what kind of diseases a freak like you brings home!”
    Yeah, he’d woken up Greg.
    There was a smear of blood from his nose on the freezer, but that was the least of his problems as he turned and picked the letter up off the counter.
    “You clean up this mess,” his stepfather was saying, but Ben interrupted him—something he rarely did even though he’d long since given up on trying not to rock the boat.
    “Is Danny all right?” Ben demanded. “What did they say when you called?”
    “Is that letter addressed to you?” Greg tried to swat the letter out of Ben’s hand, but Ben pulled back. “I said, clean up—”
    “It’s not addressed to you, either,” Ben countered. “But whatever. I just want to know what they said when you called …” But as the words left his lips, he realized his mistake. He’d assumed that Greg had been as anxious and worried as he was. “You didn’t call.” He sidestepped Greg’s pathetic attempt to get back that letter even as he moved toward the dirty white phone that hung on the kitchen wall. He picked it up and … Of course. There was no dial tone. What a surprise.
    “Phone’s out again,” Greg said, as if that were the phone company’s fault, not his. “Now you give that to me and clean up this—”
    Ben hung up the handset with a crash as he stepped out of Greg’s reach again. “Phone’s
out
, because you didn’t pay the fucking bill with the money my brother sent you. Did you pay the rent? At least you paid the rent, right?”
    “Don’t you dare use that language in my house!”
    “It’s
my
house,” Ben shouted. “The only reason the rent gets paid is because Danny sends it every month—for
me.
”
    “Don’t you raise your voice to me, boy!”
    “He could be dead—right now!” Ben got even louder as he moved to the other side of the kitchen table. “And I know you don’t give a
shit
about what that means to my mother and me. But here’s a newsflash for you. If Danny’s dead, he can’t send home that money. Have you thought about that?”
    And in a newsflash of his own, he realized that Greg
had
thoughtabout that. But he’d thought about it in terms of the insurance payout Ben’s mother would receive if Danny died. He didn’t say as much now, but his answer was all over his ugly face. Besides, he’d joked about it in the past, plenty of times.
Maybe the kid’ll step on a landmine and we’ll have the money to start up that restaurant you’ve been talking about for years … Heh heh …
    “You probably spent the afternoon praying that he dies,” Ben whispered.
    “It would serve you right if he did die,” Greg spat as he hit Ben with a slap that stung his face and spun him into the wall. “It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if God punished you for your sins by—”
    Ben had had enough. He lowered his head and threw himself forward with a roar, and he hit Greg in the chest with his full weight, which wasn’t much, but was more than he’d ever done before.
    Normally, he’d just cower and take his beatings.
    But now they both went down onto the floor, right into the puddle of orange juice, with Greg kicking and scratching and slapping as Ben tried to keep that letter