Page 45 of The Last Time You Break Me

Loyalty and respect. We saved our evil for theworsekind of evil.

Fighting fire with fire and all that.

And right now, I couldn’t wait to light the damn match.

“Are you alright?” Dalton whispered into my ear as he stood at my shoulder while my mind spiraled into the void of an eternal abyss.

“I’m fine,” I lied.

“No, you're not. I know you, sis. I know when the darkness becomes too much.”

“That’s the thing. You see it as darkness, Dal. But this darkness? It’smydesire and I very much adore it.”

His green eyes met mine and while they were eerily similar, the spark that gleamed within them was vastly different. He was not as tainted. He stared at me for a long moment, pensive and still, as I turned to better see him. “I’ll never understand you, Lara, but I fucking love you. Never forget that, okay? I’ll always be here for you and you will never,everbe alone. I’m sorry I let you down the other night.” For a moment, his gaze wavered as it dropped to the ground heavy with regret. “You have never been a coward, you know?”

“Neither have you, Dal,” I responded earnestly as I turned my entire body into him and forced his eyes back to mine. “Neither have you!”

“I have, we all have. Especially when it comes to Dad and following orders. You’ve never done that. You have never fallen in line. You do what’s right and you make no apologies for it. There is no excuse for what happened when we stood by and let Dad play out his sick game. We should have protected you. Things will change from now on, okay?” he implored, eyes alight in declaration. He bumped his shoulder against mine and smiled wider. “I think it’s time I let my psycho flag fly like you, aye, little sister?”

I shook my head and chuckled while I buried my face in my hands. I brushed out my hair, let out a deep sigh and looked up at him. Dallas and Dylan had crowded around us, while they eavesdropped and both smiled at me sheepishly. “I love you allthe way that you are. And if it ever came to my life or yours, know that I would die in a heartbeat,” I warned them with the truest words I’ve ever spoken. “But I do think you should let the psycho flag fly. It would be wicked to be known as the psycho siblings of the Wyelli empire.”

“Think it’s about time that we shared the title and stopped letting you carry all the weight,” Dylan jived with a wiggle of his shoulders and a dance of his hips.

Heavy hands landed on my waist and I was pulled back into a hard and firm chest that I found comfort in. Reggie’s scent enveloped me and I sighed in content. I smirked and it felt strange as it spread across my face so naturally. I couldn’t remember the last time I felt this at peace with myself and my family. It was like all those fractured pieces in my soul had softened at the edges.

This wasn’t a bad love story, so I won’t say that once I got the man, everything broken within me healed.

That wasn’t how reality worked. But the shards had stopped cutting so deeply that they drew blood.

Under it all, I was still the little girl who missed the warmth and love of her mother.

The naive teenager that allowed her heart to be broken and the lonely woman that wanted her place at the table where her entire family had sat for generations before.

I was still human.

I would always bethisand I would always desire the violence.

It was a frenzy, food for the beast, a drum to my beat and the pulse under my skin.

But that was okay because this world had a place for everybody who was different.

“Do you think he’ll show?” Dylan asked.

“Not a chance,” myself, Reggie and Dalton responded at once.

Reggie nuzzled into my neck and kissed me softly. “Missed you,” he whispered gruffly into my ear.

“I missed you too,” I responded as I moaned and nestled deeper into his arms.

“Gag.” Dallas heaved, making a show of being doubled over.

“Vile.” Dylan grimaced nose upturned in distaste.

“I’ll never get used to this shit, but just know this, sis… if he fucks with you, I’ll kill him,” Dalton conceded with a shake of his head and hefty shrug. “It’s so fucking weird,” he added absently.

“Who you kidding, kid? If I hurt her, she’d kill me. Or what was it..? Rip out my heart?” Reggie asked as he pulled back and turned his shoulders to stare down at me with an amused smirk on his thick lips.

“It was indeed,” I confirmed with an assertive nod of my head as my blonde curls fell over my shoulders and framed my face like a veil. Reg tucked a loose strand behind my ear and leaned forward to place a possessive kiss on my swollen lips.

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