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CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
It was time.
The time I knew would come sooner or later but had never really faced until now. Luce and Ice waited a respectable distance behind me, offering strength and support with their silence.
He stared at me with his one good eye, and I knew he knew. We’d both known this was how it would end.
So much had happened as of late, there was no reason to keep him around anymore. Over the course of the past two weeks I’d come to learn more tha
n I had in a month, thanks to our new addition and the family I’d always had.
I had a bumpy road ahead of me, more pain to bear, but I’d manage. I had up until this point, hadn’t I? Even if I made some screw-ups along the way.
Who knows, maybe I would find something that made all of this worth it in the end. I think no matter how fucked-up we were, there was someone out there perfect for each one of us.
Luce and Star were a prime example.
They’re a paradox of everything dark and light. A combination of tainted purity and sin.
Like I said before, though. There was plenty of time for that. I had to find myself first. No one deserved the baggage I came with right now.
I raised my hand, inserting my gambit cleanly into Butcher’s chest. I didn’t want to drag this out. I’d made peace with this. I had said goodbye to my brother a long time ago. The husk of a person in front of me wasn’t the Braxton I would remember.
I wanted to think of him as the one who always had my back. The gap-toothed kid that never let anyone mess with me and the man who would have never turned on his family. Who we were before we were forced to grow up and the world tore us apart.
I wasn’t ending him out of mercy or regret. I was doing it to forgive him and so that I could move on from this.
I still had a sister to find—two, to be exact. And a mother and father who couldn’t handle losing me too.
Butcher shut his eye and didn’t open it again. His death came quickly, no struggle on either end. Blood welled up around the blade I’d just shoved into his heart, much like it had when he stabbed his in mine. I counted the seconds it took him to draw his last breath.
Luce and Ice appraoched when it was obvious he was gone.
They didn’t say anything, but they didn’t have to. The quiet was enough.
Life had to go on.
Even when it hurt.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The compound had been transformed into something like a brothel. The music was so loud I could feel it vibrating through the floor.
Bella had tried to warn me this would be intense, but I hadn’t expected a crowd this large. There were so many people inside, dancing, openly screwing, or taking up all the damned walking space, I had to fight through a wave of them just to reach the kitchen.
Luce was nowhere to be seen, but I’d spotted Ice on my way down the stairs, talking to some cute blonde.
Bella had made herself scarce for the evening, stressing she wasn’t going to traumatize herself by watching my initiation. I grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with water. I was almost done chugging it when Cam appeared. The crowd parted right away for him.
Assholes.
“As soon as you make it through the night, they’ll all be on their knees for you.”
“Good. While they’re down there they can kiss my ass and beg for forgiveness.”
He threw his head back and laughed. I froze with the glass halfway to my lips. Over the past week he’d seemed to get more carefree.
I was waiting for him to fall apart now that he’d put his brother’s ghost to rest two weeks back, but if anything, he seemed happier. I was proud of him, but were these possible signs of an imminent breakdown?
