Page 8 of Cruel Knots

I slowly touch my stinging cheek, hardly able to believe my brother hit me. Callum always doted on me. He was intensely protective of me, even bordering on being overbearing when it came to me. How could he hurt me?

Tears slowly gather in my eyes. We’re seeing each other after nearly five years and this is the way he’s treating me.

A remorseful expression comes over him. “I’m sorry, Lucy,” he says, drawing me into a hug. “It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have left you alone these past years. It’s the only reason those hyenas came sniffing at you.”

My anger rises and I push him away. “They’re my friends!”

“They’re nothing, sweetheart. Like it or not, they can never be your friends. Boys like them are only fit to lick the soles of your shoes. Nothing more.”

“I’m going to tell Dad about this,” I threaten.

A manic grin comes over his face. “Dad? Haven’t you heard already? He was in an accident this evening, sweetheart.”

“What?”

“It doesn’t look like he’ll live much longer,” Callum says crassly. “From now on, you’ll be living under my rule, sweet sister. No one’s going to separate us again.”

A chill goes through me.

How can Callum talk this way about our father? How can he change so drastically over the years he spent overseas? It feels like I’m meeting a stranger with my brother’s face on him.

Tears roll down my cheeks. I’m already panicking about Damien, Leon, and Mikhail, but now, all my thoughts drift to my dad. I can’t believe no one informed me about his accident.

“Let’s go home,” Callum says in a suddenly sweet voice. He wraps his arms around my shoulders and drags me alongside him. “We have so much to catch up on.”

“What about Damien and his brothers?” I ask. “Can you tell your men to let them go?”

“You’re still thinking about them?” A cold, cruel expression mars my brother’s handsome face. “Things are more serious than I thought.”

“Please, Callum—”

“You’ll never see them again,” he says in a deceptively calm voice but I catch the underlying threat in his tone.

“Please, Cal. They’re really good guys.”

Callum stays silent but his cruel, calculating expression tells me it’s too late. He’s already made up his mind about them.

Hurt and sadness wash over me. Dad is the only one who can control Callum. All I can do now is hope that he’ll get better soon and make sure Damien, Leon, and Mikhail are okay.

3

Leon

Men in cheap black suits drag me and my brothers away from Lucia. Damien signals for us to cooperate and that’s the only reason they’re able to haul us away from our angel and her brother.

They take us to a remote corner of the school grounds. Even the thuds of hip-hop music from the auditorium can’t be heard here. Looking ahead, I see a fleet of six vans in the distance.

It looks like Callum came prepared tonight. There are more men waiting for his command in those vehicles.

I glance toward my elder brother. He has to understand we’re in danger. Even though Mr. Baldwin has been kind to us all these years, his son may not share his intentions. He’s here to hurt us and separate us from Lucia.

“You’ve made your point,” says Damien to the man who seems to be the leader of Callum’s minions. “Let us go now.”

The man stays silent and instead, signals to his men.

Suddenly, we’re all shoved to the ground. Several men pour out from the stationed vans, each carrying a baseball bat.

“Fuck!” I mutter, steadying myself on my feet. “It looks like we’re going to have to fight our way through this shitstorm.”

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