Page 30 of The Cruelest Chaos
My heart is slamming in my chest with anger and I cock my fist back again, but someone tugs on my arm, wrenching me away from my father so hard I’m forced to let go of him. He stays standing, but he’s slumped against the wall, his mouth open, blood pouring from his nose, over his lips.
I realize two people are holding me and I see Lucifer, off to the side, staring at me with a smile on his face. As if he thought maybe we weren’t so close after all. As if he thought I’d let my dad disrespect his wife like that.
But it has nothing to do with Sid being his wife.
It has everything to do with her beingmy fucking sister.
I’m breathing hard and I glance back, realize Cain has one arm and Elijah has the other. Both of their fingers are digging into my skin, but it’s not until Elijah shifts his grip to my shoulder that it actually hurts, because he’s squeezing against several of my lacerations.
I tense, but don’t say a word as I lock eyes again with my father.
“That’s enough,” Elijah says. “Although I can’t say that wasn’t deserved, Maddox,” he adds quietly.
My father’s face contorts with rage. “You need to learn your place, Maverick.”
I jerk my arms, trying to get out of Elijah’s and Cain’s grip, but they don’t let go. “You need to watch your goddamn mouth.”
He brings his fingers to his nose, dabs at the blood. Glances at it under the light of the sconces around the room. I see the tips of his fingers, slick with blood, and again my mind goes to Ella.
Don’t think about her.
I jerk again, and again, I can’t get free. Cain and Elijah have me in a fucking vise grip.
“This is your father,” Elijah says under his breath, but we can all hear him. “Let him speak.”
I twist my head around to stare into Elijah’s eyes. “He doesn’t fucking deserve to speak.”
Elijah’s grip tightens painfully, and he claps one hand on my shoulder. I fight back a wince against the pain that lashes down my arm as his big hand presses against the wounds on my back. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say he knows.
“We’ve given you and your brothers a lot of leeway, given the circumstances,” he says calmly, his eyes searching mine. “But this goes too far. You have Noctem in eight weeks. You want to be able to face yourself there, do you not?”
Get fucked.
I don’t say it, though.Let it go.
Let it fucking go.
I relax against his hold, and Cain’s. They release me and I turn back to my father, who’s staring at me with a smile on his bloody face.
“Sit down,” Elijah says sharply, commanding us all back to our seats. “We still have other matters to discuss.”
I don’t want to discuss shit. I want to drive back to that fucking trailer park and fuck Ella again, use her until she begs me to stop. I want to kill my father. I want to get out of this.
But even still, I do as Elijah says, as does everyone else. We’re all fucking cowards. Or maybe we’re just so brainwashed, we have no idea how to make our own choices.
I’m lost in thought, cracking my knuckles as my father tries to stop his nosebleed beside me with the back of his hand when I hear Elijah barking my name.
“Maverick,”he snaps again, clapping his hands as he does.
I jump, sit up straighter. “Yes, Dominus?”
“Where.Is. Ria?”he snarls, as if he’s already asked that question a few times now.
I swallow down my anger, trying to get myself under control.Ria.I need to think about Ria. Something I’ve been doing my bestnotto think about. “I don’t know.”
Elijah arches a thick brow. “You don’t know,” he repeats, but it’s not a question.
“You heard me,” I snap back. Wanting to fuck Ella’s brains out again and blow out my father’s is making me antsy. And angry.What is going on with me?
