Page 214 of Making Choices

Apologies are useless.

I need actions.

I can’t break.

“How do they already know he’s dead?” Toker murmurs to Slash. My cousin shoots me a worried look. “We needa position brothers on every inch of your perimeter. I’ll get Cub to send up a drone so we can monitor them. Might even get him to shut down the phone towers so they can’t go live.”

“Who’s dead?” I ask. A shard of hope breaks through my numbness as it hits me that my father might’ve finally paid for what he’s done. My voice cracks as I say, “D-ad.”

“You haven’t told her?” Horror etches in Toker’s expression. It chisels through his hard features like permanent carvings. I bring my fingers to the wound beneath my collarbone and press hard. The sting reminds me that I have another way to deal if my shield of detachment fails me. “Why the fuck not?”

I can’t break.

Even if my fingers are now burning with the need to take a razor to my skin.

I can’t break.

“Venom’s dead?” The two words my youngest brother shouts as he runs into the bedroom are hard to decipher in the midst of his blatant anguish. “How?”

Venom’s dead...

My broken brain slowly turns the words over so I can examine them properly.

Then, it hits me.

Zeke.

Dead.

My numbness crumbles.

A stabbing pain invades my chest.

I gasp.

Oxygen fills my straining lungs.

I can’t break.

I can’t break.

I can’t break.

I break.

“No! No! No! No!” The keening sound that fills the room hurts my ears. I claw at them, drawing blood with my nails. My neck dampens as the warm liquid drips down it. Denial fills my belly as it vocally erupts from my mouth. “No! No! No!”

Slash tries to hug me.

I slap him away.

Nadia tries as well.

She is no match for my grief.

Toker and Nate watch helplessly as I push past them.

My legs are jelly as I stomp out of the bedroom with the four of them on my heels. Past the room where my twin recuperates. Down the stairs I go, into the garage, and through Slash’s state-of-the-art gym. The secret room I’m looking for is already unlocked. Shamrocks crowd it as they arm themselves with the weapons from Slash’s personal armoury. They move to the side as I force my way through them.

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