Page 172 of Under the Bed

But focusing on her is a privilege I don’t have at the moment.

Eddy is about to open the door.

He sees me coming, shrinking into the wall.

“Please.” His fingers search blindly, frantically, for the handle that’s slipped from his grasp. “I told her to stop. She wouldn’t listen.”

Problem is, one of these days, someonewilllisten to him. When he tells them our story.

Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow.

In a year, three, ten? He’ll forget how terrified he is at this moment. The senseless mumbling of the woman in Kaleb’s hold will be a distant memory. My stepbrother’s unleashed wrath won’t be as vivid in Eddy’s mind.

He could write a book about us. Turn us into a spectacle. People will hunt us like animals.

“Please.”

Following Kaleb’s lead, I lock my hand around Eddy’s throat. The adrenaline rush has injected strength into me, and I shove him against the wall, putting my face in his.

Inside his gray eyes, I see myself.

Black Xs are painted over my eyelids. White paint covers most of my face, except for the smudges from Kaleb’s thumb on my cheeks and the area around my mouth.

My lips twist in a snarl.

Eddy starts crying.

Too bad my compassion only extends to one person and one person alone.

My Kaleb.

Feeling feral as all fuck, I turn my head to watch him in his element.

As if he’s been waiting for me, Kaleb looks my way.

His silence is deadly.

Boom.

Thrusting her up against the wall a second time, his black eyes are still fixed on mine.

He cocks his head to the side.Got something to say?

“You’re so hot when you’re like this, brother.”

Let the people here hear me.

None of them are getting out of here alive.

He makes a sound in the back of his throat, pulling the woman off the wall.

He’s fierce, my Kaleb. Big and goddamn mighty. He could end this in a heartbeat, squeeze the life out of her, and be done with it.

Thing is, he was born with sick needs. Sick needs that need tending to.

And one of them is torturing people.

The other is satisfying me. Of course.

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