Page 14 of Killer Kiss

The beast she’d created.

Like she knew exactly what I was thinking, she nudged the bag in my direction.

Vincent’s hold on his dark side was slipping. His voice lowered until it was little more than a barely held-together snarl. “We’ll go to the strip club and find out what they know about Fawn. But that.” He pointed to the offending bag. “I’m not having anything to do with that.”

He was on the verge of breaking down and drawing a weapon. I could practically see the murder in his eyes when he glared at the woman who’d birthed us.

He strode out of the room, not waiting for me. I couldn’t blame him. She brought out the worst in both of us.

Mom just waited. Watching me silently.

The battle inside me roared. The desire to tell her to go to hell versus the gaping need inside me that demanded blood.

Despite knowing better, the draw of that damn bag was too strong to ignore.

I picked it up and followed my brother.

4

OPHELIA

In the neon-pink glow of a strip club sign, my brother’s alter egos switched places. It was a silent change, one that came without warning, though when Scythe slung his arm around my shoulders and drew me in to kiss the top of my head in a way Vincent never would have, I wasn’t all that surprised.

Our mother was Vincent’s biggest trigger. A constant battle waged inside him when she was around, with one part of him twisted up in family loyalty, the other desperate to wring her wrinkled neck.

Scythe and I stared at the front door to the strip club with its ‘Closed’ sign hanging from the handle. But music and dancing and laughter came from behind, a private party taking place inside.

We both headed for the back of the building without a word to each other. He shortened his strides just a touch to match mine, and we fell into an old, familiar rhythm that was oddly comforting.

“I don’t know why we even bothered going to her,” I admitted to him. “It was stupid to suddenly think she would be all sweet and caring when the woman hasn’t ever given a shit about any of us.”

“Vincent writes lists sometimes. Of ways he could kill her.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Sounds like your bad influence.”

He grinned easily. “Hey, I’m Mom’s favorite. I wouldn’t dream of taking her to a zoo, spraying her in meat juice, pushing her into the lion enclosure, locking the door, and holding back anyone who tried to help her.” His smile widened at the very thought.

It didn’t matter how much time passed; I still knew my brother like the back of my hand. “You’re thinking about her screams for help, aren’t you?”

“They sound like angels singing.”

I laughed quietly in the darkness but sobered, thinking about our sister held captive somewhere for weeks now, and all because our mother didn’t even care enough to let us know.

My anger was maybe a little misplaced.

It might have been myself I was angry with more than anyone. I should have been keeping a better eye on Fawn. Watching her from a distance, even though she didn’t want to see us.

Scythe nudged me, uncharacteristically quiet. “You don’t have to do this, you know. If you want to go back to Spain, I’ll handle it. You did me a favor, coming back here when I needed you. This one doesn’t have to be on your shoulders.”

But it wasn’t that simple. “She’s my sister. I can’t just leave now I know what’s happening.” I kicked at a rock, and it went skittering across the dingy parking lot. “I just hate that it’s her, you know? You and I? We deserve whatever happens to us. But we tried so hard to keep Fawn safe.”

“If it’s Eddie who has her, that isn’t really Mom’s fault. Fawn picked him herself.”

“But our business was the reason she was around men like Eddie in the first place.” Guilt flooded my system. “I should have never gone overseas. Everything was fine when I was here.”

For Mom to use as her punching bag, I added silently in my head. Mom had left Fawn alone when I was here to torment instead. I’d never been able to fully protect Vincent and Scythe, from our mother or from outsiders who wanted to hurt them, but I’d done a damn sight better than Mom had. It was on her watch that he’d been arrested and locked up. It had been her who’d driven Vincent to want out of the business altogether. And it was because of her he’d been captured and tortured.

Her stupid fucking pride had prevented her from calling me even then. It had been my best friend who’d had to let me know about that one.

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