Revenge is a Dish Best Served Hot

Grayson

Briar pov

Flashes of her life growing up crossed her mind as she walked the mile to see her son. Oliver keeping other little boys away from her. Eric telling little girls they were just jealous of her. Briar passed the park and she remembered watching the twins off in their own world, nothing could penetrate them. Then gradually everyone went away and her mother promised her that her brothers would be back. She told a young Briar that kids need to grow and stretch their wings. That was the only lie her mother ever told her. Her blood family never came back, at least not to her. Greyson was proof of that. Briar didn’t know how long she had been standing in front of her son’s headstone. Wave after wave of happy memories flashed through her head, mocking her. Memories with Liam bled through as well.

“Why?” She cried out and fell to the ground.

She had gotten the phone call last week that his headstone had been installed, but she didn’t have the heart to go see him. She didn’t have the guts to see him. Briar couldn’t face her son again, not after that day. She was ashamed of herself for ever being that low.

Tracing her son’s name with her finger as she cried her heartache. Why did she loose her son? What did she do wrong? The doctor said her spike in blood pressure caused an issue for her baby. Though sometimes these things just happen. Briar knew it was all the stress and heartache she was under. If she was able to get over what Liam had done then her baby would be alive. It was her fault. Briar was the reason her baby was gone. She tried to push the guilt down, but sometimes it just bubbled out of her. She wished she could be stronger, but she just wasn’t. Why was life so hard. She did everything that was expected of her. Why didn’t the people she love, love her back?

“Briar!!! Please don’t do it!!” A voice shouted from behind her. Briar who had been crying on her son’s headstone looked up to see Nicole running toward her, frantic.

“Don’t do what?” She asked confused looking at her friend who ran to her panicked. Nicole ran to her and grabbed her wrists and examined them.

“Nicole, no I didn’t do that again I promise,” she swore to her friend. Nicole gave her a critical look and Briar could faintly hear motorcycles in the distance.

“Are you sure? Let me see your purse.” Briar gave Nicole her purse and she rummaged around. The sound of engines got louder.

“Nicole! I didn’t take anything! I wouldn’t do that again!” Briar had promised Nicole when she found her the first and only time her depression had got the best of her.

“Look at me,” Nicole said making Briar look her in the eye. Briar looked her in the eye and the engines continued their approach.

Then as if it was a scene from a movie Briar watched Liam come in from the West end of the cemetery and Axel came in from the East end. The two men stopped their bikes and quickly got off of them. Axel stayed silent while Liam spoke.

“Rose! I had no idea you went through all of this.” Liam continued to approach her and she stayed still. “Let’s go home and I will take care of you.” Liam came up to her and tried to touch her arm. Briar pulled her hand away.

“Come with me my sweetness and I will give you whatever you want,” Axel’s deep voice called out to her. Briar looked at the handsome man who made her body sing in pleasure. Then she looked to the man that absolutely destroyed her. Briar walked away from both of them and went to Nicole.

“Want to binge watch Supernatural?” She asked Nicole. Nicole looked at both of the men at her backs briefly before nodding her head.

“Yeah Briar, let’s go to my place.” Nicole started to walk back to her car, but Briar had to say goodbye to her son. She bent to his headstone and gave him a kiss.

“I’ll be back soon Greyson, mommy loves you.” Briar walked out, not caring if she looked crazy or not.

Eric pov

He stayed down trying to disconern if that asshole cracked a rib.

‘You deserve it,’ his inner-voice told him.

“Bro, I need to go to the hospital,” Oliver told him. Eric ignored him as he breathed through the pain. “Eric!”

“Take yourself you selfish prick!” He roared as he finally managed to stand up. Eric looked up to still see the bar at a standstill, just with more people now than there had been five minutes ago. The twins showed up and the cheating prick from the other night was there. Eric focused on his brother who was trying to stop the blood flow of his clearly broken nose.

“God you are just like our father, does your fiancé know you cheat on her?” Eric asked and his brothers eyes widened. Eric knew he hit a bullseye. He only had his assumptions that his brother was cheating, Eric wasn’t sure until this exact moment.

“Pathetic,” Eric said and started walking off.

“Where are you going?” One of the twins asked him. Only mom and Briar could tell the twins apart with one glance.

“I’m doing what our sister asked of me, I’m leaving,” he told them.

“What about dad?” Eric knew that was Caleb asking as he had turned around. Caleb’s voice would take on a whine when he talked.

“f**k our father!” He yelled not giving a s**t if he was causing a scene.

“Our father was was cheating on our mother during her cancer treatment. Now that he has his own and needs someone his new wife ran off. It sounds like karma to me,” Eric declared.

“What are we supposed to do now?” Jason whined like a toddler.

“The bastard can go into a nursing home or one of you can take care of him.” Eric got close into the twins personal space. “You leave Briar alone, we never should have come here.” He declared when the twins tried to argue with him. He left that bar with his brother still bleeding on the ground and his ribs aching in pain.

Eric walked out of the bar and started walking with no clue as to where he was going. He walked around this small town in Missouri and reflecting back on his life the past several years. How he wished things were different. Eric wanted to help with his mother when she was sick, but he couldn’t face her. He knew his father was cheating with the forty year old secretary at work and Eric couldn’t face his mother. He just couldn’t. He knew that he should have told his mother, but there was no handbook on ‘how to tell your dying mother that your husband is cheating.’ There was also no handbook for ‘when your mother is dying from cancer’ either.

Eric also couldn’t face Briar. She was an amazing sister, better than the whole family deserved. Growing up the two of them bonded so deeply and when he left for Iraq she wrote to him every week. Eric still carried a letter with him in his wallet.

Briar would also send him care packages every month. He was the envy of every man in his unit when those care packages came. Eric would share several of his items, but some things Briar sent he would keep for himself. Briar sent books, magazines, baby wipes, lip balm, and snacks. The snacks he kept for himself as she made the jerky and cookies from scratch.

Eric read every letter multiple times before putting it away in his duffel bag. Briar would often write about unimportant things such as her test in history or the tractor getting stuck in the mud. It was hard for Briar to write one-sided letters, but she managed. There were so many times this first few months that Eric had planned to write Briar, but as he sat on his bunk and tried to made the words come out of him…the words refused to come out. What would he tell her? The horrors of war? The fact that he had to kill children because terrorist put bombs on them? It was take out the kid or his men would die. How do you tell a fifteen year old girl that? Hell he wasn’t over what he saw.

Eric found himself on his sisters front porch. He didn’t know if she would find it, but Eric pulled out the letter that he still carried in his wallet. Eric also pulled out his noted book and quickly wrote her a note. He left the two where she could find them and left her house.

While Eric couldn’t do much for his sister he could make sure his brothers leave town and leave her alone.