Page 8 of Breaker

“You’re weird,” he says. Viper grins again and hooks an arm around my shoulders. I stumble a little but let him lead me to my other brother’s. We stop in front of a boy that’s not much bigger than me.

I dig out another candy and give it to him.

His brows knit, and he looks from the candy in his hand to me. I see now his eyes are gold. Not shiny like metal things, but hard like the gemstone in Nanny’s necklace. Like he’s not sure if he likes me.

“You have eyes like a lion,” I tell him.

He cocks his head to the side. “And you have eyes like Fallon’s.”

“That’s because I’m just like him,” I tell my new brother, but I don’t like the way he frowns at my words.

Chapter 3

Cora

Betrayal sits bitterly onmy tongue. Like the sour cum of a man who lives off lies, sex, and greed, and the only sweet thing he’s ever consumed was my innocence.

Bitter like Rune.

Time flies by like someone hit fast forward, images flashing before me, but there are no sounds. Just thethump, thump, thumpingpulse of the chopper blades in my head like a heartbeat. The man sitting across from me wears an all-black uniform much like the boys. He’s the one who shoved me into the chopper, then buckled me in as we took off. I scowl at him, keeping my arms crossed. He’s watching my every move, like he’s worried I’m going to start kicking and screaming. Try to open the chopper door and jump.

Fool. I know when to fight, and when to admit defeat.

“Why didn’t you let me say goodbye?” I ask him, but he can’t hear me over the roar. He should have let me say goodbye. That’s all I wanted to do. Wrap my arms around her one last time.

The chopper lands and I’m shoved out the door by the large man. Clyde’s sweet face appears, and I notice how his brows pinch when he sees me, but then his features smooth out, putting his mask in place. I wonder if he realizes everyone sees that he’s not as cold and hard as he portrays, but the thought’s cut off as he grips my arm and tugs me toward Rune’s jet.

I barely have time to register that Rune’s not here before I’m placed in a seat. Guess he can’t be bothered to retrieve his fuck toy. Once I’m buckled in, we take off. Clyde doesn’t speak to me the entire flight. He doesn’t ask if I’m okay or offer me water. He sits staring out the little window while the jet careens toward home, so I do the same.

Not that I feel like talking.

My heart’s too busy breaking.

When we land, he grabs me by the arm again, and we exit the jet. Rune’s here this time and my stomach sinks when I see his stern expression, blue eyes fixed on me with a steely gaze.

A mistrusting glare.

No one says a word as we drive to his mansion. We weave through traffic, streetlights flashing through the car like a strobe light. The driver, Conner, occasionally looks at me in the rearview and I wonder what he’s overheard.

That I’ve been returned.

That Rune’s enemies took me and held me for three weeks. God knows what sort of stories the staff have come up with, whispering late at night amongst themselves. No doubt about how I’ve been violated. Beaten. Broken. It’s no wonder he keeps looking at me in the rearview.

Little does he know Rune did that to me long ago.

Conner’s eyes meet mine again but flash away, back to the road.

If only I could tell them the truth. It’s far juicier than the horrors he could imagine.

Iletthem fuck me. Craved it. And I miss them like I miss a limb and I’ve only been gone a few hours.

Someone’s phone rings loudly and I’m snapped out of my thoughts. The phone rings again, but I block out the sound of Clyde and Rune’s hushed conversations. The constant tapping of fingers hitting screens fills the quiet car, then thepopindicator of incoming messages. Clyde tells Conner something that makes him look at me again. Then the house I grew up in appears, a modern monstrosity on the waterfront. Clyde grips my arm, dragging me from the vehicle, and we move inside.

It all goes by in a blur, and I snap to focus the second Rune says, “Did they touch you?”

I blink, slapped into the present, reality breaking through the haze as I realize this is the first time anyone has spoken to me since I was shoved into the helicopter. It’s just been business, a simple transaction of handing me over, no one caring that my heart is cracking open every time I try to breathe.

That I was forced to leave my best friend behind so I could be here.

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