Page 22 of Not Taken

“Answer me!” Dad shouted, his voice bouncing around the loading bays. He lashed out, the slap of his hand on Eli's face faintly echoing around us as Dad reared over him.

Dad was destroying him, and I couldn’t do anything about it. I was the only one who should be allowed to touch him, to hurt him, to make him cry out in pain. I didn't want anyone near him but me.

“You don’t even recognise me, do you?” Eli spat out through the blood. “You don’t have a single fucking clue who I am. You even said my name but it means nothing to you.”

“So what? You think you're special? People get killed all the time. It's our business.”

“Right,” Dad chuckled. “And I still have business here.”

Eli burned with the fury he used when he fucked me, and Dad straightened, smirking like he'd already won. “Do enlighten me. Because I’m so curious why that business also includes fucking my son.”

There was a second of shock as Dad's works reverberated around the loading bay. And then, as the realization sunk in, the temperature fucking plummeted. Eli choked again and I tried not to react but my jaw fucking dropped. All those times Eli screamed as I thrust my cock into him, no wonder Dad knew.

I’d been on edge about it for so long that part of me had been expecting Dad to do some kind of big reveal in the most dickish way possible. But the eight guys who stood in a wide circle around us were stunned, suddenly looking between the two of us like we were fucking scum. I could literally see it dawning on them as they realised what it meant.

The only son of the family, one of the guys they were meant to be following to death, was fucking another man.

“That was a bonus,” Eli rasped, a cruel grin I'd never seen before stretched his face, making dried blood fall from him like red snow. “What with Wyatt murdering my wife and all. I figured I deserved something in return. And Caleb was very accommodating. He-”

Eli was cut off as Dad slammed his fist into his face, hitting his opposite jaw.

I glared at Eli, holding back the shakes threatening to take me over. I wasn’t showing anyone how much his confession was tearing me up. All the times he begged me to fuck him, memories of how he fell to his knees to suck my cock so eagerly, or how he would literally spread his ass for me. And he’d had a wife?

I barely knew fuck-all about him, but it felt like he’d punched me in the fucking throat. It sunk so deep into me, even worse than finding out he’d murdered Wyatt, Bruno and Carlos.

“Aren't you angry?” Dad asked me as Eli coughed away. He had a glint in his eye that told me he wanted me to lose my shit. Yeah, I wanted to get some punches in too. Eli had a lot of explaining to do, and I was ready to beat the truth out of him, even though Dad seemed to be doing it for me.

My heart was fucking shattered ice. I couldn’t show any emotion. I couldn’t let Dad know Eli was so much more than an empty hole for me to use.

I shrugged. “You told us not to let our emotions get the best of us, so that's what I'm doing.”

Dad gave a sharp nod. “Good,” he said. “Exactly.” Even though the tic of his jaw said he wasn't as calm as he was making out to be.

There was a familiar hollow click from beside me as Dad adjusted the gun.

I watched numbly as he checked the clip, making sure there were bullets left, even though he always kept track. Dad didn’t fuck up those kinds of things.

I was going to throw up. Even as a kid, I'd been taught not to show fear, so no one could see what was really going on inside me. But I could feel myself going pale. I already knew what was coming next.

Dad didn’t have to say anything. He held out the gun and expected me to take it.

“I don’t care what happened between you, or why you started fucking in the first place. I don’t care that you betrayed us for some ass. It’s time for you to prove yourself again as a real member of this family.” He pressed the gun into my hand, and I couldn't refuse. “You really want to be head of this family?” He said. “You gotta learn to clean up your mess.”

He let go of the gun, and I fucking relished the fact it was heavier than usual. If I was going to shoot Eli, I wanted this to hurt as much as possible.

“You're the one who invited him into the house.” I glowered, meeting him with a dead stare. If Dad hadn’t brought Eli to the compound and assigned him as my bodyguard, none of this would be happening. If Eli had stayed in the boxing ring like a good boy, we wouldn’t be in this fucked up situation.

It would make it easier to shoot him if I didn’t have to worry about looking at his face when I squeezed the trigger.

“And you're the one who fucked him,” Dad growled.

He was right. If I wasn't so weak, if Eli didn't make me so fucking weak, I'd never have had to do it.

Everything would be so much easier if Eli was gone. No mixed-up feelings, no desperate need to be inside him, none of those romantic fantasies about him that had me jacking off to him every morning.

He'd be gone, and I wouldn’t have to deal with any of that shit again.

“Fuck,” I said, only realizing I said it out loud when my voice echoed back to me from the stark walls of the loading bays. Dad smirked as he stepped back. His boots thudded on the concrete, along with the heavy weight of the shock from everyone in the loading bay. My secret had been revealed. Why did Dad think I could still be head of the family when they all knew and would never accept me now? Especially when anyone who was found to be even slightly gay was beaten and kicked out from the family.

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