Page 103 of Beautiful Fiend

My dad walks in from the kitchen with Aisha behind him. She’s been crying, and I glare at my dad.

“You told her?” I whisper angrily as he gets to me. We both look in her direction again. Lik is holding her tightly, saying it’ll be okay.

“I didn’t have to say anything,” he says low. “A mother knows.”

Lik and I help Aisha sit on the sofa, and I get her a tea, putting it in her trembling hand.

“Malik,” she cries loudly, as she changes her mind and puts the tea on the table. “Take me to the room. I want to pray.” Lik looks around the room and nods to his mom, helping her to her feet again and taking her to the bedroom she shares with my dad.

This woman has already lost a husband; she can’t lose a son too.

I run my hands over my cheeks and feel my throat tightening. “I told you you were starting a war we couldn’t fight,” I say to Emma and my dad. “I fuckingwarned you.”

“Shut up, Billie,” my sister snaps in return. “You don’t get to say anything. Not when you have been fooling around with Caden King for god knows how long. We didn’t start anything. You did by choosing to betray us.”

A knife to my chest would have been less painful.

“I didn’t…I…” I’m not sure what hurts more, the fact that none of them ever noticed he had damaged me beyond sanity—that if I’m broken enough to want him now, it’s because of the things he has done to me—or the fact that they are putting this on me when I have been trying to stop them from going against the Kings.

“Why don’t you call your boyfriend now and ask him where the fuck our stepbrother is,” she twists the knife.

“Dad,” I gasp as I step away from her, seeking comfort by asking him to defend me. My sister and I have a strong bond, but she is a cruel gang leader and I tend to always forget about it.

“You think you’re so much better than us because you’re trying to leave.”

I pull at my roots, going completely insane at her stupidity. “What is so wrong about wanting to leave this shithole? God, you got your head so far up your ass you don’t see there’s a life outside of being in a fucking gang!”

“That’s right, Billie. Everywhere,” she spreads her arms wide to accompany her sarcastic words, “is better than here. You’re in a town that raised you, where you learned to defend yourself and be independent. We’ve protected you from everything like a fucking princess. But no, she wants to leave. The North Shore isn’t good enough for little miss professional fighting. NSC isn’t good enough anymore, so she fucks Kings men behind our backs—”

“Emma, enough,” my dad jumps in.

“What?” she practically shouts. “She admitted it to us. We wanted to get back at them because we thought they hurt her. Turns out she wanted it all along.”

“What the fuck do you know?” I scream back at her. I push her, and she stumbles back.

“Bitch, don’t,” my sister warns me.

“You don’t know if they hurt me. You don’t know shit. Take care of your useless crew and leave me the fuck alone.”

She comes at me, chest to chest. She’s a lot taller than me. She gets her eyes from our dad. The beautiful blue that shows their shared DNA. I get everything from Mom: the wide brown eyes, the brown hair, the petite body, and the small height.

“Don’t push me, Billie,” she seethes.

“Don’t make me beat the shit out of you for being so blind to what happened to me.”

Her eyes widen, staring down into mine and searching for the truth in them. I can see the exact moment she understands. The moment she flashes into the past and remembers that fateful night.

“You said…”

“I know what I said,” I tell her sternly.

“But—”

A loud knock on our door cuts off our stare down. She hurries to the door and opens it quickly. Racer comes in first. He’s one of Xi’s dealers. My stomach tenses, and my dad and I remain completely silent while we wait for someone else to come in.

My sister’s hard eyes cross with mine after she sees what’s on the other side of the door. I can’t decipher any emotion in them.

Logan follows and is holding Xi, a hand wrapped around his waist. There’s blood. So much blood.

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