Page 106 of Underground Prince

“Exactly that.” His hands came up, holding onto my upper arms.

“Tell me, Theo,” I said, lifting up on my toes. “What’s the point of living if we don’t see the bright light of flames?”

“You’re diverting right now,” he said, though he was struggling to stay still. His hands tightened on my arms before releasing. “Because you don’t want to talk about your sister—”

“Don’t mention her anymore.”

“—and I understand that all too well. I’ve experienced feeling pointless, unable to force change, the idea that things just happen—it’s infuriating.”

I pulled away. Inadvertent protection. “Then why think about it?”

“And just do instead? Scarlet…” His gentle fingers stroked down my arm. “I’ve already been there and back. Exploding into situations rather than considering consequences, fighting with fury and not prediction. And where did it get me but on the wrong side of a gun.” He swallowed. “With my father at the other end of it.”

I frowned.

“I didn’t want to be here—in this life,” he continued, his quiet voice raining down on me. “And there’s only one way out of it. Death. So I did what I could to be such a liability that my father would have no choice but to shun me. I took up sex at thirteen, drinking at fourteen, hard drugs at sixteen, street fights and deadly weapons since I could form a fist. I have scars, I had wounds, and sure as fuck I had the stamina for it all. Until…”

I felt the rest of his words in his body, the way the muscles under his skin trembled, the moment his shoulders sloped and his head slumped—toward me, but not to me.

“You met someone,” I clipped out.

“Yes. And it was the worst decision I ever made to be with her.”

I turned away. “Your father used it as leverage.”

“Yes.”

“He knew hurting you wasn’t going to work. He tried it a number of times, didn’t he?” I asked.

“Yes.” His tone was thick, but loose with submission.

At last, I faced him. “Tell me.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose. “This is what my family is. They take your weakness and rip into it with their fangs. She was my flaw. I was nineteen and I’d stopped everything for her. I figured enough time had passed that my father wouldn’t notice. Trace was taking the reins. Ward was coming up the ranks—unlike me, he didn’t rebel. He did as he was told. I was all but forgotten.”

Now I closed my eyes. “Until you weren’t.”

“I never was. He caught me on the way to her apartment.” He rubbed his hand across his lips. “His guys pulled me into one of his basements. There I was, tied up, on my knees, told to wait for my father. I fought. I was bleeding and sported cracked ribs from jackknifing my body to get out of the damned car trunk. But it was no use. I learned, when it comes to Gordon Saxon, not much is ever of use.”

Theo stopped, roughly inhaling and moving a few steps to the side. Farther away.

“He came close to dawn. He threatened and said if I didn’t fall in line like the rest of my brothers, my girl would lose her fingers first. Then her ears. Then her nose. And last, her eyes. Because what’s the point of exacting torture if you can’t make your victim live with it?”

I covered my flinch by pulling my lips in and biting down, but I didn’t think it was fast enough.

“My father, considerate man that he is, said he would always, forever keep her alive so long as I lived. So I could know my acts, my choices, for the rest of my life. And she would suffer for the rest of hers.”

I reached for him. “Theo…”

“You see now, don’t you?” He closed the space between us, holding my face in his hands. His expression was fierce, his butterscotch eyes alight. “Because she doesn’t come close to how I feel about you.”

The floor opened up and crashed beneath my feet. I held onto him, for he was the only one maintaining my ground.

“Stay away from me, Scarlet.”

Cold air misted over my cheeks where his warmth once lay. He was so quick I didn’t have time to utter a word. I lifted a hand, beseeching, as he shut his bedroom door behind him.

Footsteps sounded at the front entrance and Brodie rounded the corner.

---