Page 95 of Breaker

“That’s not you.” Viper’s face contorts, his brows knitting. “He made you that way. Monsters aren’t born, they’re created.”

My fingers tighten at his throat, anger bubbling over. “Stop lying to yourself. Iamthat way. A monster through and through. I always have been. And you know it.”

“Fallon brainwashed you,” he gasps out, struggling to speak as my hand squeezes. “You’re just a boy.”

I growl, pushing against his throat, harder. “Do I look like a boy to you?”

He winces, but still refuses to fight me. Irritation rattles through my bones like an angry beast wanting free of its cage.

“I earned my name. I wanted to fucking do it. I wanted to hurt that man,” I spit out. “Fallon didn’t force me to do anything.”

“Fallon coerced you. You were just a kid.”

Images flash in my mind, and I close my eyes, trying to sort through it all. The past and present bleed together, creating one grotesque nightmare in my head.

“I did what I had to do today to complete our mission,” I say through clenched teeth. “I got the information we were paid to get. Job done. You would have done the same thing.”

“I’m different,” Viper says, his voice dropping. Somehow, we’re closer together, and our voices have lowered, almost whispering. “I’m not good like you.”

His words only fuel my anger further. Viper sees me as this kid. This unstained lamb he’s always had to protect. He took punishments meant for me, kept me alive when I thought death was inevitable. He’s constantly protecting me, covering for me. But he doesn’t see the darkness that consumes me, the blood on my hands that will never wash away.

My grip tightens again, and I move in even closer, using my height to crowd him, so he’s forced to look up at me. His breath hisses out of him. “It’s not your fucking job to keep me from bad things.”

“Of course, I’m going to protect you,” Viper says, trying to shove me away. “You’re my brother.”

“You’re hardly mybrother,“ I spit, releasing him from my grip.

He’s such an asshole. Refusing to admit what lives inside us both. This isn’t a one-sided thing. It’s not just me. Viper feels this forbidden pull, always drawing us together. He’s just too stubborn to admit it. I’ve felt the heat of his gaze, seen the agony written all over his face when I’ve caught him looking. The problem isn’t even Father. I think he suspects, though he’s said nothing. The problem is my age. It always has been.

Stepping further back, I grip my shirt and rip it over my head, tossing it to the floor as I head for the small bathroom, anger making each step rigid and hurried.

The stupid thing is, I’m only four years younger than him. That’s it. When we were younger, I could understand his hesitation, but I’m older now. Bigger than him, yet he treats me like I’m this small boy he has to coddle. He doesn’t realize that I’m not innocent. Far from it. My innocence was stripped away. My body may be untouched, but my soul was torn open and ruined a long time ago.

“Breaker.” His voice is still lowered. A whisper.

I pause, hearing the pain creaking out with my name. When I face him, I find that same, almost feral look in his eyes that matches how I feel whenever we’re alone and there are no distractions. When the lights are out, and no one can see that I want to touch him. In ways I’ve never touched anyone, simply because I listened to him all those years ago. No one should touch me unless they have my heart.

But then he averts his gaze.

Like looking at me with such heat is shameful. LikeI’mshameful.

That look scrapes over me, making my blood spark with fury. Fuck him.

Before I’m processing what I’m doing, I’m stalking forward, one hand gripping his throat, the other at my belt. He finds me horrifying? I’ll show him how repulsive I am, and then he’ll have an excuse to look away.

Viper’s back slams into the wall. A breath huffs out as his head hits the surface hard, but I don’t let up on my grip. My beltclinksas I pull the buckle free. His eyes drop to my hand as I tug the leather loose.

“Can’t look at me?” My voice is made of sharp blades. I rip my belt from the loops. “Do you find me grotesque,brother?”

His eyes flash with rage, but he doesn’t fight to remove my hand from his throat. Just fists his hands at his sides, letting me roughly handle him.

Releasing him, I step back, then grip the belt at each end, hooking it over his head, and looping it around his neck. I grip the leather tightly closed at his throat, causing the veins in his forehead to bulge. His eyes flash again, with shock and something else. Something that resembles heat and pain and desire as I use my entire body to pin him to the wall.

“I’m not a fuckingboy,“ I snarl. I feel feral, unhinged, that monster in me breaking free. “Boys don’t slice off skin and body parts.”

“Stop,” he whispers with a gasp, and faintly I’m aware he’s still not fighting me. He has one hand on the belt at his neck now, the other on my shoulder, but he’s not pushing me away.

Viper squeezes his eyes shut, and I feel it. The thick, hard press of his dick against my thigh. Shock makes my grip loosen. A curling heat traveling from the base of my spine to my cock makes my fingers tighten all over again.

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