Page 80 of End It All

I was scared.

"Quincy."

"Shut up!" My grip tightened on the wheel, the cuts over my knuckles and fingers sprouting fresh blood. "You don'tunderstand shit. You think because you're playing fucking family with your newfound ‘brothers’, all of a sudden you know how this life works?" Bile burned the back of my throat.

No, no, no.

I needed to take it back. I needed to explain to him what the fuck was going on in my head. "You don't know shit."

The silence that followed was deafening. A part of me wanted him to lash out, to shout back at me. To curse me out like usual. Fuck, I'd settle for a few punches; something was better than nothing. Somehow, the silence was ten times worse than any bruise or bullet wound. I peeked over at Blake. His body was ramrod straight as if he was holding himself back. A muscle in his jaw ticked as he ground his teeth.

Say something.

My stomach twisted in knots. I opened my mouth to say any of the thoughts swirling through my head, but instead, I shut my mouth. I forced my gaze forward as we pulled up to a red light. The moment the car came to a full stop, Blake moved. I expected him to get out of the car, instead, his fist crashed into my face. Pain blossomed over my cheek.

"Fuck you. Go die for all I give a fuck." Blake opened the door.

I should let him go. He was in more danger around me, but my chest throbbed in an ache that overshadowed any of the bruises and cuts on my body. It felt internal, like no amount of medicine or bandages could fix it.

And yet my instincts screamed at me not to let him walk away. I grabbed the back of his collar and yanked him inside. His back hit the stick shift. He twisted around and swung at me again. There was no room in the car to dodge. I took the brunt of the hit.

"Let me go," Blake growled.

The throb in my chest intensified at the thought. There was something wrong with me. Maybe I was stabbed or my old wound was acting up. It happened from time to time.

Blake thrashed against my hold, slipping free for all of five seconds. His foot hit my chest as he scrambled for the door again. I grabbed his ankle and snatched him toward me. His fists slammed into me and I ignored every single one of them until I had him on my lap, pressed against the horn. The blaring noise wasn't strong enough to penetrate the sound of my blood rushing.

I collected both of his wrists in my hand and slammed my head forward. His shout of pain echoed through me.

"Let me go." Blood lined the cracks in Blake's mouth, there was a split on his lower lip that was slowly dripping blood.

"No."

Blaring horns sounded off around us and a few curses were aimed our way as people went around the car. I still focused on Blake. He wouldn't even look at me. His eyes were glossy and he continued to try and break free of my hold.

"Baby girl?—"

A glob of spit and blood hit my cheek as Blake glared down at me. At least he was looking at me again. "Fuck you, don't call me that. You don't want me here anyway."

That wasn't true. I shook my head. "That's not what I meant."

He grinned at me. It was cruel, and I wasn't sure I'd ever seen him look at anyone like that. "Fuck you. I thought you gave a damn about my stuff. I told you what it meant to be close to them in confidence and you throw it back in my face? I dont give a fuck what you meant. Let me go. Now.”

Vibrations started on my lap, and I glanced down. I switched Blake's wrists to one hand, not willing to let him go. Benito's name was on the screen of his phone.

"Shit." Now wasn't the time for this, we couldn't stay sitting in one spot. "We're going to talk about this later."

Blake laughed. It was void of the airiness that it usually held. "We aren't doing shit together."

I had to fight the recoil at his words. At some point, Blake had become a constant around me; there wasn't much we didn't do together. It was strange to think I'd go back to what I knew.

"Don't try and leave," I warned as I let him climb off my lap.

He wouldn't be Blake Vitale if he didn't try and escape. His hand wrapped around the handle as I started to drive again. I didn't put it past him to jump out of a moving car. I intertwined our fingers and held onto him like my life depended on it. Blake tried to pull free, and when that didn't work, he dug his nails into the cuts on my knuckles. I welcomed the pain. I probably deserved that and more, but I wasn't letting him go.

Blake pulled out his phone the further we got into the city.

"Answer it," I said. We couldn’t avoid his brothers. They’d get to the end of whatever went wrong down there. I needed to contact Daiki and see what the hell that was. My stomach dropped, I needed to get Blake somewhere secure before then.

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