Page 83 of Vengeful Eyes
The boldness of the statement makes me see how deeply she and Quinn are connected. How she must see a side to him that no one else does.
“I’m not after that anymore, Emily.” She nods and raises herself off the bed.
“They’ll have more questions for you.”
“And I them,” I murmur, watching her back away. Again, she nods, this time with a smile. “If they think we’re suddenly going to play happy families, Emily, they’re wrong.”
She leaves me with silence again for a while. I suck in some breaths and try to relax in the atmosphere around me, carefully trying to pull myself up a bit. It’s not easy, especially knowing that both of them are going to walk in soon. I don’t even know what happens now, what I want to happen.
Quinn eventually marches in, not bothering to wait for an invite, and looks at me. Nathan appears at the door, too, a question in his eyes. At least one of them has manners. I nod my head a fraction at him, and he comes in.
I watch Quinn, assessing him, and think back to the first time we met. Of course, I saw the similarities because I knew they would be there, but did he? Was that part of the strange vibe between us or was it all in my head? I’m still not sure, but him looking at me now like I’m a puzzle waiting to be completed makes me think maybe he did know something.
“You have some explaining to do,” he opens, his intentions clear.
“You were there when they forced my confession in front of you. What part of that didn’t you understand?” I reply, just as terse in my tone. I stood in front of a bullet ready to die earlier tonight. Antagonising my new brother doesn’t feel so scary anymore.
I see Nathan snigger and try to mask it. Quinn sends him a death stare, which only seems to amuse him more.
“You don’t have questions for our supposed sister?” Quinn turns his aggression to Nathan.
“Oh, I’ve got plenty. I just don’t see the point in interrogating her. Especially when a few hours ago she nearly died,” he says, moving towards me.
“She betrayed us, tried to bring us down,” Quinn grates out, clearly trying to contain his anger. “No one does that to Cane.”
“You okay?” Nathan asks, ignoring Quinn’s remark.
I nod back at him, but this is what I feared. Benjamin might have been able to forgive me, although there are still questions there, but will these two? I’m not even sure I want their forgiveness. I’m still coming to terms with not hating their guts. My entire world has tilted on its axis over the last few days, and I feel like everything is sliding away from me. What I once thought was so true, so right, now isn’t. It’s dizzying to deal with, especially with them so close to me.
Nathan sighs after a few moments and turns to look at him brooding in the corner of the room. “She saved Emily, Quinn.”
“And?”
“Cut her some slack. I don’t think she’d have done what she did if she wanted us dead.”
“I never wished you dead,” I pipe up, my head looking between the two of them. “It wasn’t about that for me. Never was.”
“What the fuck was it about then?” Quinn crosses his arms over his chest and waits, a tilt to his head. “’Cause, from what I can see, you’ve done everything you can to end us.”
I suppose that’s what they would see without a backstory.
My fingers pull the blanket across me tighter, an offer of security in this room. For whatever reason this is harder than I ever imagined it would be.
“I grew up with nothing, Quinn. Nothing. My mother was barely fit to keep a job and a roof over our heads. Sometimes she’d forget about dinner. Sometimes she’d forget about me altogether and just leave me to try to fend for myself. Do you know how that feels?” I doubt it. How could he with his family amongst the constancy of life? He doesn’t flinch at my words, no show of interest or compassion. “She blamed me for having to leave your father. It was hard to see you as anything but the source of my misery. Don’t you get that?” He snarls at me, probably showing my father’s eyes when he sent my mother away. “It was easy to grow to hate you, and with my hate came the desire to show you what being a Cane meant for me. I wanted to ruin you. That’s all. Show you some of the life I’d had to endure so you’d understand.”
My body sags back into the bed with the effort to get the words out, and I drop my head back, so I don’t have to see Quinn or Nathan’s expressions.
No one speaks for a few moments, and then a soft touch on my hand tells me Nathan at least sees some sense in my logic.
“I’m sorry you had to grow—”
“Shut the fuck up, Nate. We don’t know who the hell she is.” My eyes are drawn to a passing shadow, Benjamin stalking out in the main lounge because of the raised voices.
“She’s our sister. Give her a fucking break.”
“What, like you did to Emily?”
Nathan’s eyes fire at Quinn, an undisclosed something happening between them as he starts walking away. “That was fucking different, Quinn.”
