Page 113 of Malice
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” Kai growled, his voice as threatening as the night he’d been in my home.
Jace gripped Avro’s shoulder and pulled him back before holding his hands up.
“No, Kai, don’t you dare!” I yelled, jumping in front of Jace and holding my arms out in my pathetic attempt to block the shot. “Kai.”
“Get out of my way, Tink,” he snarled, wiping at the blood trickling from his chin, his eyes focused on the men behind me.
I could see Jace in the glass, moving to grab me out of the way.
“Don’t touch me, Jace,” I said and glanced over my shoulder.
He was going to have a black eye. It was already swelling, and blood was flowing from his nose. My heart broke as our eyes locked. At that moment, I knew that Jace was right, Kai would always keep coming unless I locked him back up, and I couldn’t do it.
Even now, I knew I couldn’t put him back in the cage that had turned him into this. I loved Avro, and my feelings for Jace were wild and new and would eventually turn into love, and I couldn’t put them at risk. This needed to end.
When I was sure Jace wouldn’t try to yank me out of the way, I turned my head to look at Kai again.
“Don’t you dare hurt them. They’ve never done anything to you. It’s me you’re after.” I took a small step forward, and Kai’s eyes flicked to mine. “Isn’t that the truth? I’m the one who hurt you. I’m the one you hate. I’m the one you want to kill and end whatever fucked up war you have inside your mind,” I said.
All the bubbling emotion was pushed aside with the urgency of the situation. There was time for fear later.
Kai licked the blood from his lip, but it was the slight tremor in his hand that told me he heard me.
“Look at me, Snake,” I yelled, and he stepped back. I’d never used his fighting name, but I did now. It had divided us then and had the effect I was after now. Kai’s eyes grew large as he stared at me. “You’re not Kai, not right now, not like this. I don’t even recognize you.” I looked him up and down and tried hard not to remember the teen who had made my heart beat as if it would pound out of my ribcage.
“Don’t call me that,” he said, his voice soft and horrified.
“Why not? You want me dead anyway, right? That’s what Snake wants. To destroy the person who made you this angry.” I spoke like he was two different people. That was what it seemed like to me. Kai could be sweet, caring, and romantic, but then there was Snake, who was only out for blood and pain.
“Well, I’m right here. Do it. Take the shot and end this, because I’m not living in fear of you anymore.” A tear slipped from my eye, and he watched it trickle down my cheek. “I know now that it wasn’t you back then, but I’ve lived the last eleven years a shell of who I was because of what was done to me, and I won’t hide in my closet anymore. I won’t triple lock my door and stay up all night with a knife by my bed. I won’t close my eyes and see your face hurting me.” I shook my head. “Not anymore.” I stepped forward as my anger rose higher.
“Raine, stay back,” Avro said, but this was no longer about them.
Kai was here for me because of our past. I was the only one that could stop this.
Kai’s eyes flicked to the ground. But I wasn’t having any of that bullshit. He came here, and he was finishing it one way or another.
“Look at me,” I growled. Marching the last few steps forward, I stopped when the barrel of his gun touched me, and I gripped the end so he couldn’t simply pull away.
“Let go, Tink,” he said. “I don’t have a fucking safety. Let go.” Kai’s voice was panicked as I pushed the barrel, so it was over my heart.
“Do it.”
“No.”
“Do it!” I screamed at him, the tears breaking free and sliding down my face. “I’ve wasted so much of my life being scared. I can’t be that person again. So do it, ‘cause I’m done. My heart was ripped from my chest in that warehouse. You might as well destroy my soul too.” Tears poured in a steady stream down my cheeks. “Do it,” I whispered.
“No, Tink. Just let go. I won’t shoot them,” he said, but I didn’t believe him.
The images of my attack flooded my mind. My hands clawed at the dusty old couch as my clothes were ripped from my body. My screams were never heard, and no one cared. The pain that they caused as they violated me over and over and shoved my face into the cushion so I couldn’t breathe. My hand shook, and my body trembled. I wouldn’t go back to being that girl, but I couldn’t turn him in. I was fucked either way.
“I think everyone needs to take a breath,” a new voice said.
I glanced over to see the man who was at Kai’s house the day I went to speak to him.
He slowly stepped around the room, wisely keeping his distance with his hands in the air. “Neither of you wants to do this.”
“And how would you know what I want?” I asked, never taking my eyes off Kai.
