Page 100 of Deviant Illusions

“I hate you for existing.” Another punch, landing on his jaw this time. “I wish I really did fucking kill you.”

Kane strokes the sides of my thighs without any acknowledgement to the pain he’s caused.

“No one can love you,” I spit, my punches losing power as my cruelty ramps up. “That’s why you’re a reflection.”

His smile slowly drops—fucking finally—and my breathing is heavy as I weakly punch his chest with the side of my fist.

It all changes as he roughly grabs my wrists and bucks his hips, flipping me on to my back, and pins me in place with my hands against the headboard. He flattens, pressing more of his weight into me as he whispers, “I thought we’d moved past that bastard?”

He’s always been my soft spot. His is Asher. He will always give him importance, over me and over himself. Which he proves as he squeezes my wrists, biting out, “We’re working together, me and you. Not you and fucking him.”

“No.” I lean forward so our noses touch and stare into those pale green eyes I loved. “We’re working together because you are the lesser of all the evil surroundingme. You arenotthe innocent party here. You lost that right when you fucked with my head. You are fucking wicked.”

The moon only illuminates one side of his face, the other hidden in the shadows. Just like his personality, there’s one side that’s in the light and the other that’s disguised. For all I fucking know, he could have planned this. He cut himself to have the same scar as Asher, he changed the way he spoke, walked, everything to adopt his dead brother’s mannerisms. So this could be another game.

But he moves back an inch, demanding, “Hit me.”

It’s said so easily, like he’s asking for something normal instead of pain.

“No. You don’t get to control what I do with my anger.”

“Why?” He moves closer, his face relaxed as he lets go of my wrists. “You were just attacking me. Do it again.”

I shake my head.

“Hit. Me.”

He grabs my hands, forcing them to strike his body. His fingers dig into the back of my hand and I dig my heels into the bed for purchase as I try to pull away from him.

“I took you from your life,” he says, slapping my hand across his face. “And I told you that your sisters had been in an accident.”

“Fuck off,” I grit, tensing my muscles so he can’t use me.

Which he ignores in his attempt to manipulate me.

“I chased you because it made me feel better, watching you be weak and pathetic, running and screaming.”

“Fuck you.” I spit and it lands on his cheek.

There’s no physical repercussion; he doesn’t even wipe it away as he says, “I tried to kill you. I wanted to kill you and I never thought about you after I left you chained up in a burning building. So. Hit. Me.”

I push my hands under my hips, glaring up at him out of choice. But he leans closer, my spit drying on his cheek, and his voice lethal and cruel as he says, “When I was released, I saw Ruby and Scarlet. I told them that you were still in the hospital. I told them that if they tried to speak to you, it would make you worse. I made them abandon you because I was alone. I told them that you’re unstable.”

Another lie.

“When I left you alone in Montana, I saw Ruby and I told her you were my wife.”

Another lie.

My sister wouldn’t leave me alone. She was at the creepy wedding and she hugged me. She told me she was trying to protect me. Kane doesn’t fucking know anything.

“You didn’t choose to be alone,” he muses. “Not like you tell yourself so that you don’t feel the pain of just how forgettable you are. You need people around you, but none of them were there for you. Even Martin didn’t want anything to do with you, but I made him stay there. I paid him to continue going to the diner so that when I dropped you back in your life I’d have someone reporting back to me.”

“Good for you.” I scoff. “You’re not Asher. He knew how to get under people’s skin, but you can’t because you always did come second to him in everything you did. Especially with me.”

His nostrils flare and I smile because I’m finally in control. He can do whatever he wants physically, he can overpowerme, but he can’t stop me pressing my finger in that one spot that hurts. It’s sensitive and raw from the years of suppressing the emotions and I know just how much that pain can alter everything. After all, that’s what Kane was to me. A leash for everyone else to whip me with.

“I told Scar that you hated her,” he rushes out in a panic. “That you didn’t cry like when Ruby left.” His voice gets stronger as he says, “That you didn’t give a fuck where she went and she was dead to you. It was the only way to stop her being stubborn. I made her believe it because I showed her exactly what you thought.”

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