“Fuck you.”
“Sorry, but I don’t swing that way,fratello.”
A slow, slygrin crosses my face as venom prepares to spew. “Don’t knockit ‘til you try it,brother. Maybe you and Verity should try a little role reversal some time. You both might enjoy her fucking you for a change.” I turn to put the containers back in the fridge. No quicker than I have the fridge door shut, I’m pressed up against it. He’s glaring at me with murderous intent, steam practically pouring from his ears. “You better watch it, Bastian, brother or not, being manhandled like this gets my dick excited. Who knows whose bed I’ll end up in when you let me go.”
Bastian bares his teeth, an attempt to look menacing. I’m sure to anyone in their right mind he would. But I’m not in my right mind, and his display of aggression makes me smile wider. “I can’t figure out if you’re stupid or if you just want to die,” he growls just as a smirk crosses his face and lets go of me. “Actually, that’s not true. I know exactly what you want, but you won’t get it from me. Also, don’t forget that you didn’t know a clit from a g-spot before me.”
“Oh, I knew. That’s why Zoey keeps Jax so satisfied. He’s welcome. You all are.”
“Dammit, Maddox. Can you stop? For one minute,just stop with this bullshit, asshole act. Stop pretending and playing games. I meant what I said, I know you. This isn’t you. You’re not me.”
“Then who am I, Bastian? Who is it that you think I am?”
“You’re a guy that got dealt a shitty hand in life and has suffered, Maddox. Far more than anyone at your age or any age. And you push people away because of it but push all you want. I’m here today, tomorrow, and every day after. I don’t turn my back on family. Even if that family acts like a little shit.”
My gut churns at what he’s trying to say, but I don’t want to hear it. “Yep. That’s me. Poor little rich boy whose momma died, daddy shipped him off, and then he finds out they’re not actually his parents at all,and he’s stuck with a dick for a brother. Sounds tragic, right?”
“I know, Maddox. I know everything you’re trying your fucking damnedest to hide.”
My shoulders heave with a heavy inhale. I swallow, trying to force the knot in my throat back down while pushing the sandwich away, my appetite long gone. “You don’t know shit,” I rasp out.
“O’Dell? Alton? Rossi? I know about them all. You were never supposed to be like me, Maddox, but I guess that runs in the blood too.”
Shaking my head, I walk around him, trying to get away. I don’t want to hear it. My secrets are mine. He’s not supposed to know. And I am not fucking talking about it.
He grabs my arm as I shove past him. “Stop running, Maddox. The more you run, the worse you get.”
I jerk away with a growl. “Back off.”
“Have it your way,” he tells me, letting me go. “By the way, tonight we are going to my dad’s for supper.”
I spin around with a glare. “What did you say?”
“You heard me just fine the first time. No reason to pretend you didn’t.”
“If you think I am going there, you are bat shit. There’s no fucking way.”
“Oh, you’re going if I have to knock your ass out all over again, so be ready.”
He walks away from me without a backward glance, leaving me fuming.
Sweat drips into my eyes as I swing the rope around twice, jump for ten reps, and repeat. Rage Against the Machine blasts loudly in my ears as I push my body to its limits. Every muscle in my body screams as I fight the urge to get high.
In less than two hours, Bastian expects me to be in the same room as Paul Delrie. To Bastian, he may be dad, but to me,he’s the man that raped Jewel. How the fuck am I supposed to reconcile that.
I finally stop with the rope to grab a bottle of water and a towel for my face. The music still blasting in my ears helps me shut off the world—to focus as I try to wrap my head around what Bastian wants.
If Bastian knows so much about me, and as much as I hate to admit he knows anything, I’m not naïve enough to believe otherwise, then how does he not know what his dad did? Was he just too young? Has he never felt a need to check into his father’s past. Didn’t he wonder how I came to be?
What I do know is that going to that house is not a good idea. When I see the man, I am going to want to do what I’ve dreamed of for years. I smile at the thought of snapping the bastard’s neck, watching the light flicker from his eyes. Bastian will probably kill me, but that’s okay. I’m not afraid to die. It will all be worth it if I can take that sick fuck with me.
I am so lost in my thoughts, reveling in hearing Paul taking his last breath, that I don’t think, only react when a hand begins to travel up my back. Reflex takes over, and I spin, gripping them by the throat and forcing their back against the wall. Wide eyes stare up at me as tiny hands grip at my wrist. I loosen my grasp, but I don’t let go as I offer up a warning. “Donot eversneak up on me again,” I grit between bared teeth.
Her eyes dart between mine as her pulse throbs against my hand. I narrow my eyes at her with a smirk because even though I can tell she is nervous, that’s not fear I see in her eyes. “Are you turned on,cher?”
“No,” she whispers as I stroke my thumb over the thrum in her neck, noticing the way her heart skipped a beat.
“Mmm.” I drop my nose to her jaw, tracing it slowly to her ear. Squeezing her neck a little tighter, I grin when her already peaked nipples cut like diamonds through her dress. “You’re lying. I don’t like being lied to,” I whisper. “I can smell it on you.”
