Page 32 of The Last Time You Break Me

“I’ll never leave her, Dom. I can’t. I don’t know how. I understand that you’re mad, but you need to understand that I love her and I won’t give up. Not this time. No matter what anybody says. Even you, brother.”

“If you love her, don’t make her watch me kill you. Leave. This is the only chance you will get, Reggie. Because I will protect my daughter at all costs,evenfrom you.”

“Funny, I was just about to say the exact same thing to you. Pull her back Dom, don’t put her in the line of fire. Especially if we think this has anything to do with the Black’s.”

Chapter Twelve

Reggie

Control - Zoe Wees

I’d already put her through enough, I wouldn’t allow her to see me and her father getting physical because it was likely in that event, one of us wouldn’t relent until it became a fight to the death. No matter the loyalty, the love, when the bloodlust struck, it consumed.

“I never betrayed you, Dom. I just fell in love. I have beaten myself up about this for four years. I have tortured myself with this emotion that churned so deeply inside of me that I never thought I’d come out of the other side of the darkness I had to bury myself in. When she was eighteen, she came to me. She told me she felt it too and that I was what she wanted. I was cruel, I turned her away because I thought it was the right thing to do. Because I was disgusted with myself for wanting her that way in the first place. But all that did was hurt us both. I hurt her and I never intended to. Not to this extent. I’m done being a coward. I never betrayed you, Dom, and you know it. If I recall, if anyonein this family should understand how I feel, it’s you. After all, wasn’t your one true love also forbidden?”

He stepped forward, hand around my throat as he pushed me into the wall. I stood tall, allowing him to get his fill. I glared down at him as I implored him to see the truth within my turbulent eyes. “Shut your mouth! Don’t you dare talk about Mia.”

“Hurts doesn’t it? Thinking about the one you love and will never see again. You savored every moment with her. I won’t wait until I’m on my deathbed to pity myself of the love I had and lost. I’m alive, dammit. I’m fucking here and it’s about time I get to feel even a sliver of the happiness I have always wanted for you, brother. Want the same for me, bless this. Give us your approval because I have a hell of a lot of work to do before she’ll even look at me again.”

He seemed to contemplate something as his face turned to stone. He stepped back as his hand fell from my neck and he turned his back, walking away from me and giving me the devastating answer I never wanted to hear, “Leave,” he stated once again, his tone void of any emotion. Even the hate he wielded so perfectly.

I had fought for love and I had lost it all. My family. My brother. The boys I had treated as my own.

My roots were being stolen from me. The only life I had ever known.

It hurt in ways words could not explain. But I buried it under the scars I had gained fighting at this man’s side over the years. The scars I would gain still, protecting this family, even if they didn’t want me to be a part of it. Even if it was from the shadows.

I gulped while I sniffed away my emotions and broadened my shoulders not allowing the pain to show on my face despite the fact I felt like I had truly been gutted and left for dead.

He’d only think me weak if I allowed such a thing.

If I had to give up the treasure for the girl though, I fucking would. So the pain in my heart right now, caused by being forced to walk away from the only life I have ever known can go fuck itself with the spikes of a porcupine.

Because the pirates got it all wrong.

It wasn’t the gold or the jewels that were priceless.

It was the love of a woman as demented as the demons in your chest and looks good in the blood that they craved, that was worth sacrificing it all for. Even my life.

“If you go near her again, Reg. I’ll kill you.”

“Then I advise you not to miss, brother. Because nothing will keep me away from her. Not even death.”

He remained silent then, faced into a corner that held his darkest thoughts captive as he gave nothing away. I wanted him to turn, to change his mind. But our fates were set. I guess the path chosen for me was the one of destruction. It’s true that I destroy everything good and pure that I touch, so it’s a good thing my little Hellcat held a hell of a lot of sin of her own.

“I’m not going anywhere, Dom. You need to get used to it because it will break her if you don’t. You know she needs me. You know she is spiraling. Don’t fight it over pride. It will be the death of you.”

Then I stalked from the room and prowled toward Lara’s bedroom. We were not going to leave things like that, I refused to allow it when I had just given her my everything. She could damn well give me something back in return. Even if it was only an admittance that she still felt something for me.

The boys stood at the bottom of the grand staircase that spiraled upwards and split off into two separate runs, overlooking balconies that veered off to the left and the right of the second floor. My eyes flew skywards in the hope I would see her standing on top of them.

Heard and answered—there she stood. Tall and sorrow filled. I could see it, even from here. How the life of heartache and turbulent grief was so evident, so stark in those twinkling emeralds and yet not one person around her noticed it.

She stood in those leather leggings, a laced bralette and a leather jacket. Dressed in a way that the world forever underestimated. But I saw her. I understood her!

Through the drugs and the liquor, through her no fucks given, risqué outfits, and relaxed, the world can’t hurt me demeanor, I sawher.

And I saw her still.

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