Good. Maybe it would knock some sense into his empty head.

I kept swinging the pillow until my arms got tired. Finally, out of breath and just too tired to lift the pillow again, I stood glaring down at him. “You think just because you go after his stepdaughter, no one will care? I don’t know what drugs you’ve been smoking and putting up your nose, but Ramirez adores his stepdaughter. He loves her more than he does his own son. You go after her, and he’s going to put a bullet in the back of your head.” My stomach cramped, and I tossed the pillow aside. “And if he doesn’t, Ryan will.”

Rubbing at his face that had red welts on it, he rolled his eyes at me. “I’m not scared of Ramirez or Ryan. Neither one of them has the balls to take me on.”

“Dumbass!” I screamed, slapping him in the face with my bare hand this time. “You’re not worried about Ramirez because you think Ryan will have your back. And you aren’t scared of Ryan because you know I won’t let him hurt you.” My palm was starting to sting from how hard I was smacking him, but that didn’t stop me. “Well, what are you going to do when you move to New York and I’m not there to get you out of trouble? I can’t always protect you, Garret!”

His arms caught hold of my wrists and tucked them back against my body before he rolled me beneath him so I was trapped. “I don’t need you to fucking protect me,” he snarled. “The world doesn’t revolve around you, Nova. I can take care of myself just fine without your help.”

I snorted. “Yeah, okay. Next time Ryan goes after you, don’t expect me to save your sorry ass, then. I’ll just let him kill you and then stand over your lifeless body, telling you ‘I told you so.’”

“What the hell is going on in here?” Dad’s voice boomed from the doorway. “Garret, let your sister go. Now.”

He rolled off me and got off the bed on the opposite side of the room from the door. “I was only protecting myself. She came in here beating on me.”

Dad’s green gaze scanned over Garret, his lips twitching when he saw the red marks on his son’s face and the scratch I must have made when one of my nails scraped over his cheek. “And what did you do to make her decide to beat your ass, boy?”

“I haven’t done shit to the little princess,” he grumped.

“Tell him,” I commanded through clenched teeth. “Tell him how you’re baiting Ramirez’s stepdaughter. How you told her you were going to do those vile things to her.”

I shuddered at the images that had entered my head as I’d read what Garret had posted. How he was going to tie her up, starve her, hurt her. Ramirez might have been the enemy, but the real evil was standing right there in that bedroom with me.