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"Fuck that! She's not adding that prick to our roster, man. I'm not fucking sharing her with anyone else. It's bad enough I have to share her with you fuckers." Carter's eyes narrow on each of us and his nostrils flare.
I get where he's coming from; my preference would be to have Mia for myself. I don't love the idea of having to share her forever with these fuckers, even if they are my best friends. My worry is that if we force her to choose, she'll walk away from all of us. Not to mention I don't know if she even wants to be with any of us. She didn't come here to be our girlfriend; she came to destroy our kingdom.
"Do you think things have changed enough between Mia and us that whatever her original motivation for coming to Casbury is no longer prevalent?" I jam my hands into the front pockets of my jeans to avoid fisting them. My heart is hammering in my chest as I wait for their thoughts.
"I don't know, Finn. She's got secrets, ones she refuses to part with even after everything that's happened." Theo closes his eyes, and a pained expression crosses his features. He, more than anyone, has given up everything for her. If she turns on us, he will be devastated, and I'm not sure we will be able to pull him back from the darkness that already stains his soul.
"What if the reason she came back here was well deserved? What if we did something to her that was unforgivable, and now she lives and breathes revenge?" I bite down hard on my lip to stop any further words from escaping. Have I already said too much? Fuck, I don't know if I should divulge that I now know who she is.Am I betraying her once again?
"You know something, brother?" Carter questions, his eyebrows rising and anticipation reaching his features. He and Theo share a look, one that I know is their way of speaking to each other without words. They have been doing that most of their lives, and sometimes it annoys the fuck out of Mateo and me.
"Answer the question," I demand. I need to know where they stand before I say anything else. I am not willing to hurt Amelia again. This time I will protect her from them.Will you risk losing them over her?My mind questions.
Theo takes several steps back and forth, dragging his hand through his hair. His eyes find mine and whatever he sees in them has him nodding. "If we did something to her that was unforgivable, and she came to destroy us, then we deserved it. If she can't let it go, so be it. I will pay the price of her vengeance over and over until I die.I have only one thing left to lose, and I'm unwilling to give it up." His dark blues speak of all the pain and suffering he has had to endure. He is not willing to go through anymore; the only thing he has left to lose is the same thing we all do.Mia.
I pry my gaze away from Theo's, and my eyes meet Carter's blue-gray ones. He looks pensive and scared. I've never really seen Carter scared other than when he OD'ed and when Theo was in intensive care. He tends to hide his fears just as well as Theo. Of course, he would have had to learn how with a destructive and abusive father like Mack Pemberton.
"I'm not losing her, bro. You might as well take my heart and rip it out of my chest. Whatever she wants me to pay, however, she wants me to suffer, I will endure it as long as I get to keep her in the end. I can't lose her." His hands clench at his side, and his head bobs.Is he trying to convince himself or me?
The war I've been fighting with my heart and head since the day my mother confirmed that Mia Stratford is, in fact, Amelia Hamilton rages inside of me. Can I trust that their feelings are as sincere as mine? Can I trust that no matter what she demands as repayment, they will bend to her will?
I can't lose her again. I can't let anyone hurt her. I should have been there for her back then, I should have stopped them, but I didn't. Now no one will stop me from protecting her, even if I have to protect her from herself. My eyes move once again between my brothers. They are more than my best friends; they are a huge part of my heart and life.
Can I trust them not to hurt her?Do they love her enough to let her seek the revenge that she needs in order to move past what we did to her? Will she ever be able to move past it? I stare from one king to the other. I know in my heart that their feelings for her are as strong as mine. If they are not already in love with her, they are not far from falling over that precipice.
I release the breath that I'm holding and close my eyes tightly, praying that what I reveal next won't come back and finally do what everything else has tried to do. To destroy our whole world around us. My heart pounds painfully in my chest, every beat confirms what I already know.I am a traitor.
"Mia Stratford is Amelia Hamilton."
Chapter 36
Mateo
“Stab the body and it heals, but injure the heart and the wound lasts a lifetime.” Mineko Iwasaki
“Wakeup;wehaveno time. You have to hurry.” A hushed voice whispers in my ear and shakes me hard on the shoulder.
I wake with a start, as the doctor looms in front of where I’m sitting on the dirty floor, my body leaning against the wall. The overhead light glares down into my eyes, and a groan leaves my lips. My body is stiff and sore from sitting on the hard, chilly floor. The doctor managed to get June and me some clothing a day ago to help keep us warm, but it barely staves off the chill in the room.
“Quickly now, wake up. I am going to give you a shot with a high dosage of antibiotics, and another one with epinephrine, to pump your body with adrenaline. You’ll need it if you’re going to escape this wretched place and save that girl.”
He doesn’t wait for me to answer him before he lifts my shirt sleeve and stabs me with a needle. He looks over his shoulders, his eyes frightened and his hands shaking. Before he produces a vial from his pocket, he fills the chamber and then helps me to stand. “Quick, pull down your pants; I need to inject your upper thigh.”
I must be moving too slow for him as he gets impatient and grips the waist of the joggers I’m wearing, pulling them down until my thighs are exposed. He pokes the needle into my thigh, the sting sharp, then steps back. “You need to move quickly; they won’t be out for long.”
“Doc, what the hell did you do?” I question, pulling my pants up and moving away from the wall. My head swims momentarily, and I have to swallow down the desire to vomit. I watch as he moves over to June and gives her the same two injections. Then he’s pulling socks out of his pockets and throwing them at me.
“I couldn’t get you shoes, it would have been too risky, but I brought you both two pairs of socks. It will have to do to help protect your feet until you can get further away from here.”
I grab his forearm as he rolls a sock on June’s bare foot. She’s groaning slightly, but her eyes are still shut. “Doc, what is going on? Who won’t be out for long.”
Doc’s body trembles in front of me, and I watch as sweat drips down his forehead, making its way down the side of his face, and disappears into the collar of his shirt. “This is your only chance to escape. Vincent has been shot and is in no condition to come here. I gave all three men guarding you a sedative instead of an antibiotic shot. They’re passed out right now, but it won’t keep them that way for long. You have to escape with June, now, if you’re going to get out of here. This is your only chance.”
The horror of what he has done hits me. They will know that it was him that helped us escape. He’s as good as dead when they wake up, and so are we. “Why? What about your son?” I wet my chapped lips with my tongue, fear and sorrow filling my blood.
“He’s most likely dead. I wanted to believe he wasn’t. That if I did what they asked, they wouldn’t hurt him, but they haven’t let me see him in a video call in over three weeks. The last time I saw him, he looked beaten and beyond broken.” A large sob forms out of his mouth, and tears trail down his gray-whiskered face. “I think he died from the beatings, and they didn’t tell me because they knew that I would no longer have a reason to help them.”
“I’m so sorry.” The words leave my numb lips, and my heart aches for this man that has helped keep June and me alive. He has been sneaking us protein bars and pumping us full of vitamins and antibiotics for days. When he told me he would get me strong again so I could fight to save June, he wasn’t lying.
