Page 117 of Heartless Lord
My brows slammed together as I regarded Satan’s spawn. “No. I have no idea where he is. Actually, I was about to ask you the same thing. He joined your little fraternity, and now he’s gone.”
“Micah Preston never joined the ranks of Sigma Delta. He was only a pledge, and he failed in his task.” A frosty edge laced his tone, sending goosebumps spilling down my arms. He inchedcloser, and I instinctively took a step back. “Any idea what his task was?”
“I couldn’t care less about your freaky fraternity shit.” I pinned my arms across my chest.
“Preston was instructed to find a nosy female who’d heard something she shouldn’t have.” His eyes tapered at the edges, and his voice dropped to an ominous whisper. “And I thinkyou’rethat girl.”
His hand snapped out and wrapped around my throat.
I jumped back and hit the tree, trapped against the trunk and his unyielding form. Sebastian shoved me against the old willow, pinning me against the rough bark.
“Was it you, Alexis?” he hissed. “Were you a naughty girl, eavesdropping on a conversation that was none of your business?”
I flailed and struggled against his hold, but his grip was like steel around my throat. Every move only sent me gasping for air. Darkness threatened at the corners of my vision.
I wheezed and slammed my palms into his chest, desperate to break free. “Let… go,” I rasped out.
“Let go of her.” A lethal voice cut through the mad pounding of my heart.
CHAPTER 39
THE REAL ME
Killian
Blood thundered in my ears. The craving to kill my stepbrother reached a new high as he pinned Lexi against a tree, his fingers around her throat. I wanted to rip his head from his body with my bare fucking hands. I probably could with all the rage pummeling my insides.
“Let go of her, or I’ll make you wish you were never born, Sebastian.”
His arrogant laugh echoed through the sparse trees like a hyena’s call. “The knight in shining armor to the rescue.” Sarcasm dripped from his words as a manic edge sliced every syllable. “But you’re no hero, are you, Kill? You’re just as fucked up as me.”
“No one is as twisted as you,” Lexi snarled, trying to shove him off. She put up a good front, but her fear peeked through when Bass’s grip tightened.
“She’s not the girl you’re looking for. You’ve already screwed up enough this semester.” I inched closer with slow, measuredsteps while Lexi’s struggling distracted him. As agitated as he was, he could seriously hurt her. He had absolutely no control when he was like this. “Do you really want to make another mistake? It won’t be me cleaning up your mess this time. It’ll be your father.”
His head snapped in my direction, lips curling back. “Go to hell, Killian. You’d be nothing without my family and?—”
Lexi crushed her foot into his shin and broke his grip, but as she ran to me, he snagged her long auburn strands, pulling her back to him. Her pained shriek, like a sledgehammer to my chest, demolished the prison I constructed every day to keep my darkness at bay.
Unable to contain my rage any longer, I lunged, slamming my fist into his jaw as Lexi fought his relentless hold once more. The sinister look in his scornful blue eyes delivered a bolt of terror through my heart.
He wanted to hurt her whether she was the masked girl or not. He wanted to do it just to punish me.
“I’ve got your girl, Kill.” He chuckled as blood rolled down his chin from the new split in his lip. “The things I’m going to do to her...”
Lexi elbowed his ribs as I punched his other side, and he finally released her hair, shoving her off so hard she fell into the gnarled roots of a willow tree, crying out. Blood pooled across her palm.
A familiar crimson haze converged over my vision as my inner demons rushed to the surface. My nostrils flared, and every muscle grew taut, poised for a fight. As Bass witnessed the change come over me, some of his bravado faltered.
No one screwed with Lexi and got away with it.
Not anymore.
I bent at the waist, crashed into Bass, and tackled him to the ground. The air rushed out of his lungs, and he cursed at my surprising move.
Besides a few punches over the years, including the one from several days ago, I’d never fought my stepbrother for fear of Stan’s disappointment. I didn’t want to risk ruining this fairytale life for my mom. But after discovering my stepfather’s dirty little secret—and there could be more, probably were—his hold over me had suddenly loosened.
The outside world dissolved as I straddled Bass and allowed my fury to consume me. “You’ve never met the real me, Bass. You’ve only seen glimpses of him.” My knuckles burned as I pounded his face and chest, meaty smacks reverberating around the park.
