Page 69 of Not Your Hero

“No. He likes the idea of you. Men like us who were raised the way we were, we can’t love, Emerson. We can’t care. Not afterwhat we’ve done,” he tells me. And maybe he’s right. Maybe Gannix doesn’t care about me at all. Maybe I am unlovable, just like my mom always told me I was.

“Turn around and walk,” he orders, aiming his gun at me. I do as I’m told, turning my back on him and walking out of the maze. Gary follows closely behind me as I glance over my shoulder. He nods for the door, and I reach out, open it, and walk inside.

“Up to his room,” he says behind me. I don’t argue, and I don’t try to run because I don’t know where Gannix is. I trail up the steps and into the bedroom when I see Gannix sitting in the chair, holding his head. What the hell is happening? What’s wrong with him?

“Gannix?” I yell his name before the gun hits me in the back of the head. I stumble and fall to my knees in pain before glancing up at Gannix. When our eyes meet, his are wild and he looks like he can barely keep his eyes open. Is he drugged?

“Stand up,” Gary says, kicking at my foot. I shove myself up and stand even as my head swims and the room spins. Gary moves toward me, shoving me back against the wall before moving toward the chains. My stomach heaves, trying to expel everything inside me.

Gary chains my arms and legs as my eyes blur, but I can’t stop looking at Gannix. He’s not all there. He isn’t even talking. Why isn’t he talking?

“Gan-” I start to say his name when Gary backhands me across the face.

“Don’t speak!”

“Fuck you,” I hiss at him before he laughs.

“I’ve thought about that. Fucking you in front of him,” he says, nodding toward his brother. “I bet you didn’t know this about Gannix. He gets headaches. Doctors never knew why, but they incapacitate him. Could be like this for days,” he explains, nodding toward Gannix. I look over and see him grabbing at his head before his head drops backward. It’s as if he can’t keep his head up, but he tries. He lifts it once more, but his eyes are glossy.

“What do you want? Just leave us alone,” I cry as he laughs.

“Leave you alone. What part of you’re supposed to be dead, didn’t you get? We don’t leave anyone alive.”

“She … didn’t know,” Gannix mumbles. Gary turns to look at him, a confused look on his face.

“If course she did. You fucked her!”

“I drugged her,” he protests as he looks between the two of us.

“No. I would have known,” Gary tells him.

“It’s true. He drugged me every time.”

“You shut the hell up before I put a bullet in your head. I haven’t even had my fun with you yet,” Gary warns me, aiming the gun at me once more.

“Let her go,” Gannix says as Gary laughs. I watch Gannix shove himself up off the chair and stumble slightly toward his brother.

“Listen to yourself, Nix. She’s just like the others. Look at her,” he roars, grabbing his face in his hands and forcing him to look at me. Gannix tries to shake his head, but Gary doesn’t let him. “She’s just like them.”

“Just like them,” he repeats. My mouth falls open as I look at him. This isn’t him talking. It can’t be. He wouldn’t listen to Gary, not after everything else.

“I’m not like them! Gannix, look at me!” I scream, tugging at the restraints. “You don’t have to do this, Gannix. You said so yourself, you want to change.” I’m pleading, nearly begging, and I don’t care. If that’s what I have to do, I’ll do it to make him really look at me.

“She’s a liar, Nix. She is like them. All those bitches who laughed in your face. All those bitches who humiliated you. She’s just like them,” he shouts, keeping Gannix’s face in his hands. I watch his eyes as they roll around, but he nods his head.

“Just like them.”

“Gannix, please. You saved me before, remember? Don’t you remember why?” I cry as he smiles darkly now.

“I’m not your hero,” he grumbles the words he’s said to me before. My heart breaks inside me. It feels as if all the air is being sucked from my lungs. This isn’t him. He wouldn’t do this.

“Gannix, please,” I sob harder. Gannix pulls away from Gary and slips his hand into his pocket, pulling a knife free. Gary smiles brightly, knowing what Gannix is about to do. He stumbles closer to me, pressing the tip of the knife to my cheek hard enough I can feel it prick me, and blood slides down my cheek.

“Run, Em. Run,” he whispers before pulling back and slipping his hand into his pocket once more. He moves as quickly as he can, unhooking the chains from my wrists before dropping to the floor. Gary moves in just as fast, trying to stop him.

“Let her run, brother. We love the hunt, right?” Gannix says although his words are slurring a bit.

“You want to hunt her?”

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