Page 14 of The Last Time You Break Me

Dallas ripped the covers from the bed and left me chilled in my shorts and cami. I cracked open an eye, one that bespoke of a coming demise and he stepped back, hands high in the air in retreat with a silly smirk on his face.

“Jeez, you’re not a morning person.”

“Well, better get used to it if you want that seat. You’ll need a lesson or two,” Dalton added as he stared me down with a frown.

“Lesson?”

“First one being, stop being so damn fucking reckless. You will end up starting a war or getting yourself killed. Second, well the second is the first, because you know, that is really important, stop being psycho.” I rolled my eyes at him before I reached under my bed for the bong I had stashed there. Bob Marley pops up and I greet him with a frown. “And the third? Well the third is more defense training with Reg, so up you get.”

I choked on the toke I had just inhaled as I stared back at him with a look that was anything but friendly. “What?” I groused.

“Dad’s orders. He thinks you're ready, Reg doesn’t. So he ordered him togetyou ready,” Dallas added as I inhaled another deep breath, filling my lungs with something that would give me another feeling that I craved.

One of complete nothingness.

Getting high took me beyond the veil of life. I could sense things around me while at the same time feeling utterly alone in this world. Tight and tingly as gravity was sucked from me and everything floated, leaving me in a world of my own making without anything to burden me. Dallas reached over, took the bong from my hands and took a toke of his own. I fell flat back against the headboard and let out a heavy sigh. I hadn’t seen Reg in two days. Not since the show I put on in my bedroom, the one that the bastard had thought he’d won.

But I just got him right where I wanted him.

Weak and without restraint.

Four years ago, he made me feel like he had all of the control, all of the power.

He was wrong. If he thought now that I was rising, taking my seat at the table, that he could show me some affection andmake me walk away, the sexy fox is more deluded than I thought possible.

He hurt me once, and as much as I liked to play, I couldn’t ever let him hurt me again.

“Get your shit together, Lara. Get the psycho shit under control,” Dalton chastised which got my back right up.

I sat forward, looking into those familiar green eyes, and asked, “How many times has that psycho shit saved your ass in the past?”

“Come on, don’t start this shit, this fucking early. Dal, man, lay off.”

Dalton was the eldest, the first in line to rule, and a square if I had ever seen one. He needed everything to be precise, and within his control. Anything unknown to him, unsettled him and he just couldn’t have that. Dallas, however, is just as much as a no fucks given kinda person, just like his little sister.

I could be mature, I could rule an empire, and I could win in a war.

But I would not compromise actually living just to appease the brother that was born too soon, robbed of all his fun.

I’ll always be this. Whateverthisis.

“She earned her place, just like the rest of us,” Dallas added, hand falling heavy on Dalton’s shoulder breaking his intense glare at me.

“You’re right, she did. It does not mean I have to like it. Other than the fact she’s a girl, she is also my baby sister. I don’t want this for her.” Then he looks back at me. “ I love you, Lara. I just wanted a different life for you.”

“This was the only life for me, Dal. You know that,” I offered as I took his hand in mine and offered him a reassuring squeeze.

“I’d feel better if you weren’t running off and getting yourself kidnapped,” he mumbled, absently.

“But where is the fun in that?” I chuckled.

“Such a damn psycho,” he and Dallas stated at the same time, with wide and seemingly frightful eyes which just made me laugh harder.

“Want to watch me break an asshole’s nose?” I smirked, waiting for the light in their eyes to shine.

“Fuck yes.”

“Then let’s go.” I got up from the bed and headed to my wardrobe, picking out my workout clothes before getting dressed, then we all made our way out back to the summer house we train in.

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