Harsh, guttural breaths issue from the open doorway, and another booming crash has me halting my slow approach, Carter hopefully stumbling into another trap. Perhaps the rigged wrench dangling from the fan on the ceiling. Or maybe he slipped on the vegetable oil coated floor and knocked the wind out of his lungs. I’m praying that’s the case, and that Kage takes the opportunity to beat his face into an unrecognizable pulp like he did to the other guy.
But my hopes are dashed when I hear the triumphant glee in Carter’s sickening, breathless voice.
“You think…think you stand a chance against me? I’ll feed you piece by piece to my dogs after you watch me carve that pretty bitch up. Think she’ll scream with my knife in her?—”
He’s cut off just as my eyes peer around the door frame, and my heart seizes in terror; Carter is atop Kage, hands around his throat. Orange flames creep along the floor, throwing bouncing shadows across the walls, and I have a sinking feeling Carter started it.
Kage bucks his hips and unseats his brother long enough to reach for the handle of the wooden bat just a few inches from his finger tips. Carter—face bruised and nose bleeding like a waterfall—isn’t quite fast enough to stop him, and Kage wields the bat like a sword, clubbing Carter on the back of the head to his insane laughter.
Kage rolls away quickly as Carter stumbles to the floor, but both are on their feet faster than I can blink, circling one another like panthers aiming for the kill. Both wield a weapon; Carter, a short, deadly knife, and Kage, the bat.
They look nothing alike. Where Kage is tall and built, Carter is slim and lithe, his nose hooked at the end, his hair flat and nearly black. He would be attractive to some, but when side by side with his younger brother, the choice is obvious.
I’m ripped from my dazed, lust-fueled thoughts as Kage swings the bat. Carter ducks with a laugh as they continue to circle one another. The flames lick up the lace curtains that hang over the window by the front door, and the once-white smoke now begins to coil like black serpents on the ceiling.
Carter straightens as he rounds Kage, his beady eyes finding mine through the haze. A deranged smile splits his cheeks, and Kage whips his face in my direction, shoulders sinking in something like defeat, eyes flooding in fear as they land on mine.
“I’ll give you one victory,brother,” Carter spits. “She is stunning. It was cute, watching you fuck her when she was passed out. Was it your first time? Seemed like it.”
My entire body is awash in flames, and for a moment I assume I’ve caught fire, but tears of embarrassment and shame pool in my eyes; Carterwatched, and I don’t know why that feels like such a violation, but it does. There’s a distinct line carved in my soul separating what Kage did to me while I was unaware, and what his brother did while we werebothunaware.
There’s a strange, implicit trust I share with Kage, a bond that goes too deep for me to fathom right now. I trust him to cherish me in my most vulnerable moments.
I would never have found that trust with Carter, should he have been the one to kidnap me instead.
Kage subtly shakes his head at me, disappointment and anger etched into the tight lines around his eyes. I swallow the lump in my throat, but instead of backing down like I would have four months ago, I square my shoulders and focus all of my attention on the psycho before me.
A plank of wood in the floor snaps and cracks as the fire rages and devours everything in its path, and my lungs burn more with every breath, tears streaming down my face.
“You sound jealous,” I hiss, loud enough for them to hear the ire in my voice over the rush of the flames. “I would be too if I was a limp-dicked, beady-eyed, beak-nosed fuck, and my brother looked like a greek god with a massive?—”
Kage quirks his eyebrow, shock, awe, and delight replacing his fury and defeat from seconds ago.
I press my lips together to coyly hide my smile, holding his gaze as I finish.
“Cock.”
It seems my little performance has thrown everyone off, because Carter stares in confusion for a second too long, letting my words sink into his flesh like arrows, his wounds egregious and festering already. The second Carter takes a breath to retaliate, Kage flings the bat around in a backhand-motion, connecting with his jaw as a sickeningcrunchsounds above the roaring fire.
My breath stalls as Carter’s head whips to the side, blood spurting from his mouth and dousing Kage’s face, the rest sizzling as it evaporates against the flames. When he brings his eyes back around, the metaphorical mask has slipped, and the insanity within spills to the ground, threatening to drown us.
He lunges for Kage, discarding his knife in his rage, tackling him to the fiery floor. A scream tears through my burning throat, the heat and clustering smoke choking me as I carelessly stumble forward to save Kage. The soft soles of my feet blister and burn, the frayed ends of my hair singeing while the two brothers pummel one another with their fists amidst the inferno.
I can’t fucking breathe, can barely see, and a moment too late, I remember all of the traps we laid.
Specifically, the fireworks in the kitchen.
Just as I think the word, they begin to explode, spewing more flames, bright flashes of light blinding me before the deafening booms rattle my eardrums. Yet somehow through the cacophony and confusion, I grit my teeth and rip a knife from its makeshift sheath on my hip.
The smoke parts for less than a second, but the vision through the blackness is all I need to witness to cement the decision in my brain; I was prepared to die tonight, and so admitting I’ve fallen for the man who stole me didn’t matter.
And now here I am, about to kill for him.
For when I see Kage on his knees with Carter’s arms around his throat, there’s no other thought in my skull. If I don’t do something, we’re all going to die, and now that I have a taste of what life with Kage could be like, I’ll be damned if I let it slip through my fingers.
Carter’s eyes are wide, searching the smoke for me while struggling to maintain his hold on Kage, and while I still have the element of surprise on my side, I lunge blindly?—
And miss my intended target, landing behind the pair. As Carter twists, though, his hold on Kage loosens, and the freak is torn between which adversary to take out first. The half a second is all I need; I jump on his back, press the tip of my knife under his chin, grit my teeth, sink the blade deeply into his flesh, and use every last ounce of strength I have to rip it across his throat.
