“You had a motive for sleeping with him, and we’re going to figure it out. And then you’ll be lucky if someone here doesn’t hunt your ass down. You walking out of here, still breathing? That’s a blessing. After you’re gone, don’t contact me again. I’m done with you AND our mother.”

I reach for the bottle of water on my nightstand, and as it goes down my throat, I wish it was hardcore alcohol. The stress on me is too much, and Braxxon is going to rain fire down on Sabine when he finally makes it up here.

Mace Jr. was a fucking kid. A kid my stupid ass sister got killed because of her obviously addictive crotch. It has to be magical. It put little Mace under a spell that no one could break. He was so set on being accepted here, and then my sister came along and put him under some weird trance.

“He made his own decision to go to the club. I went along for the ride, and I got shot for it!”

Jesus, she thinks we’re going to believe that lie?

“Whatever, Sabine. I won’t listen to it anymore, but I can’t let you leave this room until our mother gets here, because someone down there will most likely kill you if you so much as open your mouth. So sit there, shut the fuck up, and don’t fucking piss me off!”

***

Tatiana

I rock back and forth and shudder at the dried blood caked to my arms. I can’t clean it up. I can’t move. I can’t talk. All I can do is replay the image of them carrying my brother into the compound, blood still leaking from the bullet wound in his neck.

I don’t understand what happened. I can’t even imagine what went down, or why my brother is no longer alive. Everything is a big blur, and everyone shouting about what went wrong isn’t helping me.

Funny thing is I don’t even want to know. Knowing isn’t going to bring him back from the dead. All it will do is scar me more. I am making myself numb. It’s the only way I will survive living this life that I was born into.

The first person I lost to a tragic death was my grandfather, and after that, it was a non-stop ride on the train of death. It hasn’t stopped chugging. The evil in this world keeps stocking the engine with coal.

What is my dad going to tell his adoptive parents? How do you tell parents that their only son is dead?

I can’t bear it. I can’t. All these emotions swirl inside of me, designing a tapestry of hate.

And Sabine, she’s been here a few days, and she had my brother so wrapped up in her, he couldn’t see left from right, or good from bad. She is the reason he is dead, I suspect. If I hear that she is the cause, there is no telling what I might do. The anger makes me so hot that my ears heat.

“Tea, baby, you need to clean up,” Shadow says quietly as he bends down in front of my shaking body.

He needs to go away. I can’t deal with all the extra emotions that emanate from being near him. The atmosphere that radiates is too strong for me to handle as I grieve in my shocked state.

“No, leave me alone.” I push him away.

He doesn’t listen. Instead, he rests his knees on the carpet in front of me, takes me in his arms, and yanks me into his chest.

“Cry, darlin’. Don’t hold it in.”

I don’t want to cry. I want to sit here and bounce back and forth in peace. Can’t he see that? I want to be left the hell alone.

“Please, let go of me,” I whisper into his chest. “I need time to myself.”

***

Shadow

“Please, let go of me,” she whispers into my chest. “I need time to myself.”

The plea in her voice is like a knife to the gut. She isn’t even crying, and that worries me. Tatiana has always been one to express her feelings. She doesn’t keep them bottled in. When her arms break free, she shoves me away, and then kicks off with her rocking.

I stay where I am for a few more seconds and then stand. She isn’t going to allow me to comfort her. If she is pushing me away, it speaks a loud message to leave her the fuck alone. I wish I could clean the blood off her at least. She’s too beautiful to be covered in gore from her brother. I step back slowly, turn around, and make my way towards the commotion in the kitchen.

“I’m gonna kill that fucking bitch! He was a prospect. He shouldn’t have even been there,” ZZ yells at the top of his lungs.

Storm and Piper scoot away from him. His face is bright red and the veins pulsate in his forehead. Blood covers the floor, and his dead son lies on the kitchen table. Bloody rags litter the room, but no one dares to pick them up.

“He wasn’t even fucking nineteen years old,” ZZ shouts as his fist plows through one of the cabinet doors, snapping it right off the hinges.

Prez comes into the room and looks around as he rubs his temples. He is stressed to the maximum.

“Get her the fuck outta here, Prez.” ZZ tries to speak more calmly.

No shit. Sabine wanted adventure. Who the fuck says that when guns go off? The stupid bitch.

“Winter made a call to their mom and left a message. If she isn’t gone by tomorrow morning, I’ll escort her outta town myself,” Prez answers ZZ. “Brother, what do you want to do?”

We look from the Prez to ZZ, and then back down to Mace Jr. whose eyes are wide open. Jesus, no one bothered to shut them? I stalk towards him, take two fingers, and close his eyes.

“Have him cremated, and afterwards, I’ll take his ashes to the family that raised him,” ZZ says. Defeat is written in every line of his body.

***

Chapter Twenty-Six