I couldn’t imagine my brother doing any of those things, but the fact that he’d threatened them in the first place told me that he wasn’t even worth saving.

“What did you do, Garret?” Dad’s voice was full of fury and steel as he took a step into the room.

Mutinously, Garret kept his mouth shut, glaring down at me like I’d betrayed him.

“Garret!” Dad’s roar shook the windows.

“I would never do it,” he said in a petulant voice. “It was just talk.”

“Nova.” Dad’s voice was softer now, but his eyes were locked on my brother, and the look in them was enough to have me jumping to my feet. “Get ready for school. Your mom will drop you off. It’s Max’s day to pick you up.”

I didn’t argue. I knew the schedule. Max was supposed to pick me up, but I’d also promised to go shopping with him after school. Not wanting to see Garret being murdered, I made a run for it back to my bedroom. Shutting my door behind me, I grabbed my phone off my bed where I’d dropped it in my rush to confront my brother.

The comment he’d made on Calista Ramirez’s post made me physically sick to my stomach. How could any man say such things to someone, let alone actually do them?

Just reading the words made me want to go back and hit my brother a few more times.

Maybe this time with a baseball bat.

Before I could stop myself, I clicked on Calista’s profile and messaged her. I kept it short, telling her that I’d already beat some sense into my idiot, disgusting brother. And would continue to do so until he pulled his head out of his ass. To my surprise, she replied instantly.

Calista: Don’t worry about it. I get crap like that from guys all the time. I’m not scared of some punk in another country who thinks he can get to my stepdad through me. I have other things to worry about than what some nobody like your brother fantasizes about doing to me. He’s just pissed he doesn’t stand a chance with me.

A laugh left me, and I found myself liking the other girl. Maybe if her stepdad hadn’t tried to kill me, we could have been friends.

13

Nova

Ryan Age 21 : Nova Age 16

“Miss Hannigan, we will be landing momentarily,” Oliver, one of the Vituccis’ flight attendants, told me in his gentle voice.

In all the years he’d been on these flights with me each summer, I’d never seen him be anything but friendly and calm. Even when my brother was with me and being a total ass. Garret could try the patience of a saint, but Oliver had never once been anything but courteous to him.

I lifted my head from the book I’d spent the entire flight reading and smiled up at him. With his salt-and-pepper hair cut short, and dressed in the typical uniform of any cabin crew, he didn’t look like he’d just spent the last twelve-plus hours in the air. More than six of those hours were flying out to fetch me from Northern California, and then the rest of that time was spent seeing to my every need on the return trip. Other than the occasional drink request, I hadn’t required his services, and I could have easily retrieved the soft drinks myself. But Ryan would have been furious if he knew no one had been around to see to my every possible need.