Last year
“Look! Look at what he’s done to me!” I hold up my finger, the stump so gnarly it hurts to even look at it.
The nerves have been firing off all day, reminding me of the finger that no longer exists, and it’s driving me mad.
“Felix did this to me. All because of that fucking girl,” I grit at him, but he refuses to even look at me. “You made me do this. This is your fault.”
“Boy, I told you what was at stake here,” he mutters.
“I didn’t agree to lose a fucking finger!” I yell.
“You should’ve done your job more carefully then.”
“Why did you even want me to bully that girl?”
“Not important for you to know,” he replies.
“Of course … you refuse to tell me, yet you still want to use me. Why?” I take a stance. “No. I’m done.”
He approaches me slowly. “I paid off a portion of your parents’ debt.” He grabs ahold of my painful finger, squeezing it. “Do I have to remind you of all the information I own about your parents’ … hobbies?”
My eyes twitch, but I don’t say a word, despite wanting to spout every swear word in the dictionary.
He towers over with a vindictive look on his face. “I suggest you start obeying. Before I take away more from you than those three fucking boys ever could.”
I swallow away the lump in my throat.
He’s threatening to put my parents in jail.
Or worse.
Have them killed.
Finally, he releases me. “Now go.”
Present
Her face turns pale as snow, her pupils dilating as they witness the depth of the sadism of her own damn brother.
“He cut off a limb … all because he wanted to make me pay for bullying the girl I was forced to bully or my own family would go to jail.”
She swallows, but her fingers slowly unlatch from my wrist as though she no longer has the strength to hold me down. And even though I hate to admit it, I was growing quite fond of her hand latched around my wrist.
“I did what I had to, and I paid the heaviest price of all,” I say, the pain of that day still so fresh in my mind that it makes my voice crack. “Do you know he still has it?”
“What?” she replies in shock.
“He keeps it in a jar like a wet specimen. A trophy. Me.”
When she tries to move away, I grip her hand with mine, showing the four fingers I have left.
“This is why I hate. Why you call me evil.” I slowly lower her until her face is mere inches away from mine. “Does it make me evil to love my family to the ends of the earth? To the end of me?”
Her eyes well up with tears, but she swallows them back.
Just like I always do when I know it would be better if I just let them go.
If I just let someone see that part of me … the part I’ve always been told was weak.
Stay strong. You’re a Reed. Reeds don’t cry. Reeds stick together. Reeds fight for what belongs to them.
That’s what my father always used to say.
Until he vanished and disappeared into the belly of the justice system.
I grab a few loose strands of hair and push them behind her ear. I understand now why Kai was so fixated on that ribbon of hers … on this picture-perfect face that hides a beautiful lie.
“If I’m evil for killing and using people, then so are you.”
She frowns. “I don’t kill for—”
“Sport?” My brow rises. “What then? Excitement? To feel powerful?”
“To make sure those fuckers are erased from this goddamn earth,” she retorts, still holding me down. “And I won’t fucking stop, not even if you threaten me.”
“Oh, by all means … kill as many of them as you like. I won’t stop you,” I reply, struck by how pretty she is when she’s angry and on the verge of yet another murder.
Would she kill me if she had the chance?
Or does she feel the same electricity sparking between us when we touch?
With my hand on her cheek, I pull her close, her lips almost puckering as mine approach, ready to stake my claim.
Suddenly, the door opens from the outside, and our heads rise to look.
Kai’s dangling a key around his finger, the amused look on his face making her blush because he’s seen her sitting on top of me.
She scrambles off me and pats down her clothes.
“Are you done?” she asks.
“Hardly,” I reply.
“If you have nothing else to say to me, then I’m done here,” she seethes, and she blows out a breath before she marches toward the door.
“Are you gonna let me pass?” She stares Kai up and down.
A slow smirk spreads on his cheeks before he finally steps aside and lets her go wherever she needs to go.
Home, probably. To wallow in her growing rage over the fact that she almost tried to kiss me back.
“What were you doing with her?” Kai asks.
I flop onto the bed with a massive boner and groan out loud. “She’s a handful.”
“Oh, I know,” he replies. “You can leave her to me if it’s too much for you.”
“Fuck no,” I retort. “I won’t let you have all the fun with her.”
“Seems like this was more than just fun,” he says, leaning against the doorjamb.
“What? Can’t I just give her a fucking kiss?”
“Hmm … you keep telling yourself it was only just a kiss,” he muses before he turns around and walks off. “I’m going to bed. See you tomorrow. Good luck sleeping with that boner.”
“I’ll take care of it,” I say.
“I can help you with that.”
Milo’s voice makes me lift my head, and he closes the door, leaving just us two in my bedroom. I sit up straight, legs spread, cock springing right back into action when he licks his lips.
But I don’t trust that he’s wholly mine anymore.
“You bowed to her,” I say as he approaches.
He drops to his knees in front of me. “I would do the same for you.”
I grab his hair and make him look at me. “I don’t like to share.”
“We can make it work,” he says.
My nostrils flare, and I rip off his shirt from seam to seam until nothing is left, revealing the marks she left on him. Dozens of slashes and a clear puncture wound in his shoulder.
“Was this from before or after the fight?”
“Before.”
The pain he endured hits me like a brick in the stomach. Not because of how much it must’ve hurt but because I didn’t inflict it.
“You want to be hers so badly?” I ask, letting my hand slide over his wounds until I grip his throat. “Or do you prefer being mine?”
“Don’t make me choose. Please. I want both,” he squeaks. “Can’t I have both?”
My nostrils flare, but my rage is not purely his fault. He can’t help that I’m a jealous bitch, just as much as I can’t help him being such a sucker for someone who can own him. We both have our weaknesses.
All of which now point to her.
Lana fucking Rivera.
The girl who’s got all three of us vexed.
“Fine. You want to make things right with me?” I ask.
He nods eagerly. “Punish me. Use me. Make me yours.”
I zip down and pull out my raging hard-on.
“Open your mouth.”
I drag his face over my length and shove him down to the base, feeling his tongue circle my length.
“Earn the fucking right to eat my cum.”
And I pull out my knife and stab him right in the shoulder where she hit him.
Moans follow his cries as I thrust deep into his throat again, owning every part of his submissive soul, just like I always do in the pits of these darkened halls.
My parents would die if they knew the truth.
But for now, there’s no one here to judge.
No one here to tell us we’re wrong for enjoying what we do.
No one here to hear him scream.
