Page 103 of Killer Kiss

I opened the door and stepped out, legs protesting my weight after sitting for so long.

Inside, Sim and Roman sat on a wide, brown leather couch, both of them ending their conversation when Eddie and I entered.

“Sit.” Eddie indicated to the armchair to Sim’s left.

I ground my teeth, every part of me wanting to tell him I wasn’t a dog and he wasn’t my master.

Except we both knew that’s exactly what we were.

I sat.

Eddie’s gaze swiveled to Sim and Roman. “You want to tell my brother here what you told me?”

Sim, weasel that he was, had no problem tattling like he was in kindergarten. “We ran into your bitch’s sister at Psychos. She’s been sniffing around town, asking questions about Fawn. Zane had a conversation with her. One we couldn’t hear…”

My fingers flexed into fists. I hadn’t been under any illusions that Sim and Roman were my friends. They weren’t. I’d only been with them at that club because Eddie had demanded it. Even he didn’t trust the weasel twins alone. They were loyal to him right now, but he was smart enough to know they’d turn if someone else dangled a sweeter carrot in front of their ugly faces.

It was why he always sent us out in groups. Nobody was ever solo. There was always someone ready to stab you in the fucking back.

Eddie glared at me. “What did you tell her?”

“Nothing.”

Eddie laughed, wandering closer to clap me on the shoulder. “You’re so full of shit. You never could lie. Remember that time when we were kids, and I killed that neighborhood stray? Mom straightaway asked you if I did it. You threw me under the bus so fast it was like it was doing two hundred miles an hour. You always were such an unbrotherly cunt.” He bent down, resting his hands on his thighs so we were eye height. “So how about you do me a solid for the first time in your life, golden boy, and tell me exactly what you told Fawn’s sister?”

I stubbornly refused to say a word.

“He told her we took the bitch! I’m sure of it!”

My fingers itched to punch the weasel asshole right in his fucking nose, but reacting was exactly what Eddie was looking for. A tell. A weakness. Any little thing he could use against me.

Jumping up to throttle the piece of shit next to me was all of those things combined.

So I sat, reining in my anger, staring at the monster I shared DNA with.

Eddie pursed his lips and let out a slow, barely tuneless whistle. “Time is ticking, Zaney boy. Tick. Tick. Tick.”

But what was he going to do out here in the middle of nowhere? Mom was hours away back at home. Eddie was all about instant gratification. If he took this out on anyone, it was going to be me.

Good.

I was so fucking sick of being his punching bag.

I already knew the second I swung a fist at him, Roman and Sim would come to his defense, and it would be three against one.

I was past the point of caring. It would be a kindness at this point to just end me.

I was sure Eddie had killed Fawn Hanover. He’d taken her and her friend then spent days with them tied up in our basement before finally letting the friend go when the heat got too much.

But Fawn’s cries for me to help her still rang in my damn ears every fucking night.

I’d tried.

But that was my entire life’s story. I tried and tried, but it was never fucking good enough.

He always won.

Anger boiled over, spilling from my veins, bubbling up my throat and out my mouth. I shoved to my feet, angrily going eye to eye with the brother who’d made my life a living hell. “So what if I did? So what if I told her you were the one who killed her sister? What is she going to do, Eddie? Go to the cops? You know I already tried that, and you have them all on your fucking payroll so shit just slides right off you like you’re made of goddamn Teflon.”

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