Page 44 of Seizing Control: Part One

“I don’t give a fuck if I go to jail.”

“Venom,” Uncle Cass cautions when Zeke doubles down on his bravado. “Think about it… even if you’re locked up, Cherub’ll be forced to marry the St. James boy. Like usual, Brutus has the loose ends tied up. We’re caught in his trap, and there’s no way out. The best thing you can do is keep yourself on his good side. Stay outta jail. Work to fix this. Find a way to get her out of the marriage.”

As I offer my dad what’s left of my pride in a silent beseech for him to change his mind, Zeke’s temper flares to life. He stalks forward, and snarls, “I’ll kill you.”

“We already tried that.”

From the corner of my eye, I see Uncle Cass touch Zeke’s ear. I’m not sure what it signals, but it makes Zeke back down seconds before Venom makes an appearance. The most surprising thing is the way my father recoils at my uncle’s confession. His face turns ashen, the colour draining from him in an instant as he glares at his brother with unconcealed hatred.

“What happened?” I ask, swiping at my damp cheeks. The tears won’t stop—not while the hits keep coming. From pillar to post, Dad continues to drag me deeper into despair. When Uncle Cass peers at me in confusion, I add. “When you tried to kill Dad… what happened?’

“It cost Angelis his oldest boy.”

“Topher was hit by a car,” Zeke objects. “I was there... I’m the one who had to drag Slash off his body and run back home for help.”

“I know what you saw, but it wasn’t an accident.”

Zeke’s eyes turn black, and his posture becomes rigid. Armageddon descends as he leans down to quickly release the knife he keeps strapped to his calf. The mechanical quality to his voice as he says, “you’re fuckin’ dead,” makes the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. Caught on my knees between my crazy dad and my furious ex-fiancé, I have a bird’s eye view of Zeke pressing the sharp edge of the blade to Dad’s throat.

“Do it.” With a shrug, my father remarks placidly, “It won’t stop a thing. Haven’t you realised that I’m always three steps ahead of you?”

He pushes his seat back, seemingly uncaring when Zeke’s knife nicks his throat, then he seizes my wrist and pulls me to my feet. I struggle to remains standing as I’m dragged toward to the exit by my dad. Zeke follows us, but Uncle Cass gets in his way.

Unperturbed by the air of menace being directed his way, Dad stops behind Sander. He claps his free hand down on my brother’s shoulder and squeezes viciously. His knuckles are white as he shatters my twin’s dreams, one vile word at a time. “In time, you’ll see that I did you a favour. Although I pushed you to pursue basketball, I now see that was the wrong move. Your legacy is here… with the Shamrocks, not on the court. Once you have your patch, you’ll see that I’m right.”

The devastation in Sander’s battered face angers me to the point of recklessness.

At the top of my lungs, I shout, “You’re a monster.”

There is nothing but violence in Dad’s face as he takes hold of my shirt and uses it to violently swing me around. With a squeal, I stumble forward when he shoves me in the back. Landing on my knees outside the chapel doors, I cry out as the carpet burns my palms when I skid along it, as the doors are slammed shut behind me.

Wildly, I bounce back to my feet and try to get back inside the chapel. The handle twists and turns, but the lock stops me from entering. Enraged past the point of rationality, I pound both fists on the heavy wood while I scream, “Dad! Please. I’ll do whatever you ask. Just leave everyone else alone. Please. I’m begging you.”

People surge into the hallway. Sobbing hard as my mind whirls with dark possibilities, the walls close in on me. Dad could do anything in there, and I wouldn’t be able to stop him. He’s unhinged. Devoid of empathy. Absent basic humanity. He’s prepared for today, that much is clear. I don’t know how many weapons are in the chapel. I can’t be certain that all three men locked in there with him will emerge unscathed.

Being excluded is the worst kind of purgatory.

In Zeke, I could lose half of my heart.

With Sander trapped, half of my soul is also at risk.

And, then there’s Uncle Cass... he’s an integral part of my life too.

My pulse picks up pace when I glimpse Slash forcing his way through the crowd. Before he reaches me, the doors are yanked open. I stumble back into the chapel. My father is in my way, so I determinedly shove my way past him.

Zeke is the first person I see.

I run at him, and he opens his arms to embrace me.

Clutching his cut in my hands, I peer over his shoulder.

Sander is slumped at the table, but he’s still alive.

Despite being physically unharmed, Uncle Cass is a broken man. Sorrow clouds his eyes as he tells us, “I’m sorry, but he’s the fuckin’ devil. Always has been. The best thing to do is to put your head down and get through this in one piece.”

While I’m inhaling Zeke’s familiar scent in an attempt to calm myself, a cacophony of shouting and wood splintering erupts from the direction of the main bar. My first love extricates himself from my clutches and hands me his knife. With a jerk of his chin in Sander’s direction, he orders, “Stay with him.”

I nod, taking up a defensive position in front of my brother as Zeke rushes out of the chapel. He pulls the doors shut to add an additional protective barrier between us and the threat he’s running headlong into. As the ruckus grows louder, my uncle approaches me with the same caution someone uses around a wild animal.

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