Page 51 of The Casella King

“I know.”

“You have no idea what goes through my sick, twisted mind.” I grit my teeth at my brother’s words. I try to understand him, and it hurts that I can’t be the one to help him. The things we saw as children, the things we did, will always be with us, no matter how hard we try to change it. I’ve learnt to bask in the pain, the dark, the nothingness, but Nico was too young to have witnessed everything he did.

I was sixteen and Nico was thirteen when our father forced us to kill for the very first time. I wish I could say I didn’t revel in the power that came with it, but I know Nico didn’t. I know it affected him more than it did me, and I can’t pretend to know what it must have felt like for him.

“She’s alright you know.” He smiles a half smile through the drunkenness. “Aries.”

I feel a tug in my chest at her name.

“She’s more than alright, she’s the bullet in my guns, the blood in my veins, but mostly, she’s the reason I think I’m starting to believe we can be loved.” I grit my teeth as I watch a tear roll down my brother’s face.

“Whatever you do, don’t lose her,” he whispers to me as I help him into the car and shut the door.

You have no idea how much the thought of losing her terrifies me, brother.

After dropping Nico off at his house, I head to the one place I know I can find solace. Putting the key into the lock, I turn it and walk into our home and straight upstairs to the master bedroom in search of my wife. It’s been one hell of a day, and the only thing I want to do is slide right up inside my beautiful wife and make her scream my name, then watch as she drifts off to sleep, tucked safely beside me. The door creaks as I push it open, revealing an untouched bed, perfectly made with crisp white sheets.

“Sweetheart?” I call out, my eyes landing on the door to the en suite bathroom. The light is off, and my mind begins to race. “Are you in there?” I turn the knob and walk through.

Empty.

My heartbeat picks up, thrashing against my chest as I race into the other rooms in search of her, but I come up empty each time.

“Boss, you better come see this.” I hear Henry from downstairs, my footsteps banging on the staircase as I reach him. The door to the basement is wide open, the stench of blood and sweat seeping into the hallway. My jaw clenches as I walk down the stairs, into the basement, the light still on. Not many things can shock me given the circumstances I grew up in and continue to live in, but the sight of dead Ray with a note pinned to his chest is a first. I rip the paper off his body, the pin staying in place.

I know what I must do now. I know how to prove to you that I belong in your world. Don’t come after me. Let me do this for you, Ezra.

My stomach flips, bile rising to the surface as I rack my brain for what she could possibly be up to. Heat surfaces within me until the flames lick at my edges, fury bubbling to the surface.

“Find her,” I say through gritted teeth to Henry standing beside me.

The door flies open, banging on the wall behind. I scan the room, my eyes falling to my brother lying on his couch, still asleep,dead to the entire world. I kick one of his feet that is dangling off the edge, and he murmurs something inaudible.

“Get the fuck up!” I yell, rage lacing my voice. His eyes shoot open, his hands immediately finding his gun and aiming it at me.

“Ezra?” He turns the safety back on and places the gun on the table, sitting up to face me. He’s still very much drunk given I only dropped him off an hour ago.

“What did you say to Aries?” I force myself to stay calm, wanting to hear what Nico has to say.

“What?” He looks up at me confused, and my mouth turns into a snarl as I lunge forward, grabbing the front of his shirt with both hands, lifting him up, our faces now just inches apart.

“If she’s hurt Nico, I swear on our dead father’s grave that I will bury you next to him. Alive.” My veins pulse as I watch something change inside his eyes, as if realisation had set in. He grabs my wrists and pries my hands off his shirt, his eyes never leaving mine, and it reminds me of our childhood when we used to fight. I’d always win because I was older, stronger and faster, but somewhere along the line, Nico caught up.

“I know it’s not your thing, but you need to stay calm for what I am about to tell you, because if she’s done what I think she has done, I have a plan.” His voice is calm and calculated, making me think about the feeling I have in my gut, the feeling I’ve never had before. The ugly, swirling, awful sensation that I may never be okay again until I have Aries in my arms. As Nico explains, the anxiety grows inside me, thrashing like waves in a storm when I realise what she has done.

I grip my brother’s forearms, my knuckles going white. “She’s gone to the Brayfords,” I whisper, the fear inside me growing at an unfamiliar rate.

“She’s smart. She will be okay,” Nico tries to reassure me, but it’s no use. I want to storm their home, kill everyone in sight, and take my wife home, no matter how many people must die for it.

“I should have seen through her questions, I should have picked it up, but I didn’t.” His hand lands on my shoulder, squeezing. “She wants to prove herself to you.”

She doesn’t fucking need to.

All the shit I said to her was to make her sweat, to make her realise that she’s not the good girl she thinks she is, not for her to waltz right into the enemy’s home to prove a point, and least of all to me. Regret slices through me like a sharp knife cutting into fresh meat.

“What’s your plan?” I ask, my eyes finding his, desperate to know what he’s thinking because at this very moment, all I can think about is her and for her to be okay.

Nico smiles, the familiar psychopathic smile I see three seconds before he kills. “I think we finally have a way in, brother.” His teeth white against the shine of the moon through the large bay windows. My hands fly out, pushing him backwards, his body only moving in the slightest.

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