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The thought of losing them...either of them...fuck, it would kill me. Life was worth living because I had my family, because we had each other. Losing any of them would shatter my world into pieces.
The roaring in my ears finally stopped. My knuckles ached. I was breathing heavily. Nate’s head lolled against the pavement, only the whites of his eyes visible. Rising to my feet, I spat on his face before I took a look at my hand. My knuckles had split, possibly from striking his teeth.
“Fucking bastard,” I said and kicked him in the side. I hoped I’d broken his fucking ribs.
When I turned, Alex appeared stunned. His eyes were wide as he watched Nate twitching on the ground. It had happened so fast; a matter of seconds. Alex looked like he might be sick.
“Where ya’ going, buddy?” Jason said, blocking the door when Alex turned as if to go back inside. As if we’d let him run away from this.
“Out of my fucking way —” Alex shut up abruptly when Jason brought out the gun. We had all trained with it; when Vincent decided we needed a firearm, we hadn’t taken that decision lightly. Bringing it with us tonight wasn’t a decision I’d taken lightly either.
But it was necessary.
“Get the fuck up, Nate!” Alex snapped. His friend groaned, likely unable to get his eyes to focus long enough to move.
“You’re not going anywhere, Alex,” I said, testing the edge of my blade with the pad of my thumb. It needed to be sharpened again soon, but it would have to do. “You’re going to take your beating, and you’re going to stay the fuck away from us. No parties, no races, nothing.”
“You’ve lost your damn minds,” he said. He was trying to back away, but he had nowhere to go. Lucas blocked his path out of the alley; Jason blocked the door back inside. Alex’s eyes were darting around like a trapped animal.
“When someone I love gets hurt, it does make me a little crazy,” I said, flipping the knife in my fingers. Alex didn’t know what to fear more: me with the knife, Jason with the gun, or Lucas cracking his knuckles behind him.
“You won’t fucking get away with this,” he said. “All this just to defend your little whore? She’s just a used up, worthless piece of flesh that y’all pass around!”
Alex didn’t understand when he needed to quit.
He stumbled when I rushed him, fear of the knife making him clumsy. Pinned to the wall with my blade pressed dangerously hard against his throat, he actuallywhimpered.
Fucking pathetic.
All it would take was one little movement — a slice, a jab. His throat would be sliced open and there would be no saving him. He knew it too; he was breathing fast, swearing under his breath.
“What’s wrong, man?” I said. “Are you scared of me?”
From the way his eyes widened, I must have looked unhinged. He squirmed and the blade nicked him, a trickle of blood running down his neck.
“Come on, Reed,” he whined, his tone of voice so damn annoying I rolled my eyes. “It wasn’t...that serious...”
“Is that supposed to make me fucking feel better?” I hissed. “You hurt our girl, McAllister. You put your hands on her.” I swiped up the blood that had trickled down his neck with the pad of my thumb and smeared it over his mouth as he sputtered in horror. “If you fuck with one of us, you fuck with all of us. So here the rest of us are. Not so brave now, huh?”
“Such a fucking coward,” Jason said with a sigh, as if it disappointed him.
“I really don’t like hurting people, Alex,” I said. Moving the knife aside, I pulled him away from the wall and shoved him to the ground. He stumbled, falling to his knees and catching himself on his hands. He scrambled to face me, but his eyes kept darting to the others, uncertain of where the first strike would come from.
As I flipped the knife open and closed, the subtle sound of scraping metal made him flinch. I repeated, “I don’t like hurting people. But he does.”
I nodded toward Lucas as he smiled, slowly cracking his knuckles. He didn’t need to say a word.
“Shit, look, I won’t fuck with her anymore,” Alex babbled, putting up his hands as if that would placate us.
Nate dragged himself to his feet just then, and for a moment, Alex dared to look hopeful. But Nate stumbled right past him, past Jason and Lucas. His face was smeared with blood, he was swaying on his feet as he mumbled to himself. None of us bothered to stop him, although Lucas turned to watch him go.
Alex seemed to finally realize he was fucked, his voice taking on a higher, panicked pitch.
“I won’t fuck with any of you again,” he said. He was still on his knees as we closed in around him. “It’s...Come on, man. We were just messing around —”
Jason pistol-whipped him, knocking him to the ground so hard that his skull bounced when it hit the pavement. He curled up into a ball as Jason kicked him, yelling when a hard kick caught him in the ribs. He wrapped his arms around his head, but Lucas grabbed his wrists and forcibly splayed him out on the ground.
“It really shouldn’t have come to this, Alex,” I said. His grunts of pain and desperate, gasping breaths were music to my ears. “But you just couldn’t leave us alone. That’s all we wanted: to be left the fuck alone.”
