Page 42 of Stitches

And my father.

I hated that man to the very bottom of my being. I was a mess myself, though, and really, I had no room to judge, but had he not been such a cunt, maybe I wouldn’t have been fighting the war I’d been fighting since I was old enough to hold a knife.

Being so close to anyone besides my brothers, my best friends, was unheard of for me. I glanced at specter to see her pretty eyes downcast.

It made me grind my teeth.

She didn’t need to be sad, and all I really wanted to do was figure out all the things that made her that way and bury them after I gutted them with my knives.

I didn’t mind the chase though, so if that was what I had to do to figure out what was causing her so much turmoil, I’d hunt it all down before I put an end to it.

Although, I was sure Stitches was part of her heartache. Whatever had happened to them in the facility was putting a damper on shit.

And that all cycled back to Sinclair Priest.

I tore my focus from Sirena as we walked through campus, my arm around her waist, and looked for the fucking dirtbag.

I wasn’t surprised to see him walking across campus with Asylum. Sin was moving slower. His strides looked like he was in pain.

A pang went through my chest upon noticing it, my stomach twisting from the feeling of worry that quickly washed over me.

I schooled it fast, hating I felt anything for the prick who tried to ruin our lives. He was one of my best friends. I’d trusted him. He’d ripped our lives apart with his shit.

Seeing him at the lake that day swept through my mind. The cuts and bruises littering his body. The look in his eyes. The sorrow. The shake in his voice.

Had we punished him enough?

And if we had, now what? Did we just fucking open our arms back up for the asshole and invite him back in?

The answer was simple.

No.

We weren’t there yet. I didn’t even know if we ever would be. Sirena was settling in. Stitches was still going through his shit. We just weren’t ready. And what if his feelings for our girl hadn’t changed? It would just be a vicious cycle, and he really would end up dead if he fucked up again.

We were going to walk right into them. Maybe Asylum planned it that way, and maybe I didn’t care enough to detour because I wanted Sin to see what he was missing as Ashes and Stitches flanked me and Sirena.

“Good morning,” Asylum called out when he noticed us, his blue eyes flashing immediately to Sirena when we stopped in front of them.

I tightened my hold on her. I hated the way he always looked at her. Like she was raw meat, and he was a starving animal.

She was quick to cling to me tighter, something I found immensely satisfying. I liked being her protector. It didn’t take a fucking rocket scientist to figure out these guys scared her. If I had to put my finger on it, I’d say Sin more than Asylum, considering his atrocities against her. When I thought back to what it must have been like for her, my fury always exploded to the surface. Although, being locked inside a stone box with Asylum couldn’t have been a pleasure cruise.

Hearing her screams for me would never be silenced in my head.

Sin would have to cut himself deeper in order to make me give a shit about him again.

I said nothing, eyeing him and trying my hardest not to punch him in his already busted-up face.

“Move,” I said, not bothering with the niceties.

“Now wait just a minute,” Asylum said, a smirk on his lips that made me want to punch him in his pretty face. “Every morning will be this way. We all have to live here. We have to walk through the courtyard. We may as well try to get along. I did, after all, deliver what I promised, did I not?”

“You knew Sin did this,” Ashes said. “You let us hunt and search for who hurt her and never told us.”

“Wasn’t my place,Torch.” He winked at Ashes.

Ashes scowled at him.

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