Page 214 of Malice and Surrender
“I’m pretty fucking sure I’m not the one that stormed into my home and tore it up and waved a gun around threatening to kill you, or have you forgotten that you almost shot us all?” Jace yelled, and I hated the reminder of how close the gun had come to going off and taking Raine forever.
“Now, get your fucking hands off of me,” Jace growled but continued to hold his hands up and didn’t touch me.
“What’s this bullshit? Fight me, you asshole,” I said. Jace stood his ground but didn’t touch me, and my heart raced faster.
Raine shoved her arms between us, and I snarled at her, my anger shifting and dividing as it rose like an inferno and then tumbled in on itself, only to reform again.
“You agreed to marry him? How could you do that?” My world was narrowing in as I stared down at her. So many years of love and pain were welling up inside of me, and I couldn’t think straight looking into her big blue eyes. “After everything we’ve shared, how could you just decide to say fuck it and turn your back on me? How could you leave and never come back?”
“Whoa! What are you talking about? I’m not turning my back on you. Kai, I’m right here. I came back,” Raine said, her eyes searching my face.
“Yeah Kai, we are standing here in front of you on time, exactly when we said we’d be back,” Jace said, and the sound of his voice was grating on my nerves.
“Stay out of this. This is all your fault.” It was a good thing that Avro said I had to leave all weapons outside because if I had my gun, there was a good chance I would’ve shot Jace. The image of him bleeding out was so vivid in my mind that my fists tightened until they cracked, and still, he didn’t look away or move. “You think you’re so fucking smart, don’t you?”
“Kai, let Jace go. You don’t know what’s going on. Let him explain what happened.”
“Why, so you can pack a bag and fuck off to wherever you want? So you can have me tossed in prison again. That’s what you want, right? You want me out of your life for good. You want to pack a bag and run off to your sister’s.”
Raine shook her head. “Kai…I don’t have a sister. What is happening right now?”
I pushed away from Jace to give Raine my full attention. I pointed my thumb at Jace. “It’s pretty obvious who you’ve decided to choose. I knew this would happen. I knew he’d get to you with his fancy plane and concerts around the world. That you’d be swayed by the five-star restaurants and decide you’d rather not stay at the clubhouse and with me.”
“No, of course not. I don’t care about money or fancy things. You know that about me. Do you really think I’m that shallow? And what club are we talking about?”
“I knew it, I knew you’d decide to leave me alone for however long without checking on me, and now you come back and expect me to forgive you.” I snorted in disgust. “Now you have the cost of everything I own on your finger.”
I stomped away from them, needing to put space between us before I did something I’d regret or that landed me in jail. My head was pounding, and a sharp pain was throbbing behind my eye. I couldn’t show weakness. You never showed weakness to your enemies. I whipped around to glare at the three sets of eyes trying to stare me down. They were trying to corner me. They’d been waiting for this moment to attack me.
Raine took a step toward me. “Kai…are you okay? I’m not sure what’s happening, but you’re not making sense,” she said. She kept walking in my direction, and I backed away like her hands were poison.
“So, you’re saying we’re done?”
“What? No. Of course not. What is going on with you? Kai, you’re really worrying me right now.” Reaching out, Raine laid her hand on my chest, and her brow pulled together. “I love you. I don’t want to leave you. Do you hear me?”
“Don’t look at me like that.” I stepped away from her until her hand fell away. “Your eyes are all full of concern like you fucking care about me. Lies on your tongue that you spill so easily.”
“Kai, seriously, what the fuck is going on,” Jace asked, his worried voice just as grating as his cocky one. Really him speaking or breathing at all. As I looked at him, my head started to spin.
“I warned you not to divide us. I promised you that I didn’t care who crashed and burned. Now she’s dead.”
“Who’s dead? Kai, are you okay,” Avro asked and stepped up to my side. “You’re really not making much sense. Come sit down. You’re all sweaty like you’re going to pass out.”
“Don’t touch me,” I jerked away from Avro, my mind for just a moment seeing Red’s hand on my bicep. I shook my head to erase the image. What was happening? My head was light, yet my limbs were so heavy it was an effort to point at them.
“Why are all of you looking at me like that? I’m fine. It’s all of you that are the problem. I knew this was all a mistake. You can’t go into that area without getting hurt, and now the three of us are here together. I had to kill him. It could never work” I stumbled sideways away from them, planning to leave out the back door and never return.
“Kai, stop this.” Raine was walking toward me, holding out her hands, but when she touched me, it felt like I’d been burnt, and I jerked away. My mind was clouded with overlapping images, and I ran my hand through my hair, trying to decipher what was real and what wasn’t as they merged.
“I said, don’t touch me,” I grabbed at the door jam to the kitchen, but when I took a step, I tripped on something and landed heavily against the wall. Of course, they took advantage of my weakened position, and all three of them descended on me.
“Don’t touch me, no, don’t touch me…I’ll kill you,” I said, or at least I think I said it, but I didn’t feel my mouth moving. The pounding in my head worsened as I slid down the cool surface to the floor.
“I said…stop touching me. Stop hurting me, please. No, I don’t want to go,” I said, and it all went dark.
Raine
I was waiting outside the backdoor for Roach to arrive. Something was going on with Kai, but I didn’t know if he could go to a hospital. The worry was eating me alive.
