Page 149 of Broken & Bound

“Well, there you have it, guys. All the answers we need. The only thing that will satisfy the Torturer is killing the only family member Kinsley has left.”

My molars ground together so hard my jaw ached. Part of me hated hearing it spoken aloud. The other part…the darker part…still thought it was the right answer.

“Fuck, putting Kinsley’s feelings aside. You don’t give a shit about how that would affect Isabella. Do you?”

“Death got him in, and death was supposed to be the only way out.” I held his stare, refusing to back down.

“And we voted nay.”

“Exactly. And he is still breathing isn’t he? I respected the vote.”

Ivan and Nik exchanged uneasy glances, both of them visibly uncomfortable with the direction this conversation had taken.

I scoffed, shaking my head. “And contrary to what you think, I’m an equal member of this family. Or at least I fucking thought I was. So if that’s not the case, speak now, brother.”

My gaze swept across each of them before settling back on Alek. For a heartbeat, I thought he would. Instead, he slowly shook his head and turned back toward the ocean.

“Don’t turn your back on me,” I hissed.

“Why the fuck not?” he shot back without looking over his shoulder. “Your only solution is to run off. You’ve already left us mentally on every level. Might as well do it physically, too.”

Exhaustion settled over the anger that had carried me this far. I dragged both hands through my hair, exhaled hard, then gave a single nod to no one in particular.

If that was the role they’d written for me, I wasn’t about to stand here begging them to change the ending. Without another word, I pivoted toward the open sliding glass door.

“No one is going anywhere.”

Marcel’s voice cracked across the porch with enough authority to stop me mid-stride.

“You will sit your ass back down,” he barked, pointing directly at me.

I closed my eyes for half a second, every muscle in my body screaming to keep walking. His gaze swept over every one of us before settling back on me.

“And we work this shit out. Today. If that means we vote in the end, then so be it.”

Looked like I was right. Fuck my life. My jaw clenched hard.

“That won’t work. You have to have the whole family to vote on shit like this,” Alek said.

He finally turned back around and narrowed his eyes. “I gave you what you wanted once before with the house vote. Don’t force my hand, brother,” Alek seethed, glaring.

“So you’d choose him over me? Is that what you’re saying?” I countered as my anger erupted into rage.

“I’m saying you’re being fucking unreasonable.”

The calm tone of his voice made this entire thing that much more serious.

“We wouldn’t be standing here if you had trusted your sister to choose the man she wanted. At least with Pasha, he was all in. But you have no idea how deep it was for them because you’re too fucking blind.”

I swallowed hard. His eyes never left mine.

“He’s her soulmate and I dare you to prove different.”

I swallowed, feeling uncomfortable as four sets of eyes burned into me.

I hadn’t been there five seconds before raised voices spilled through the open sliding glass door, shattering the peace the ocean typically provided. Vincent and I exchanged a look. Whatever had been brewing these past few days had finally boiled over. My stomach dropped.

Bella was inside. The last thing she needed was to hear this shit.