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“No.” He cackled like a hyena, and in that moment I realized that the younger brother I loved so much, trying to protect from all the horrors our father bestowed upon Kieran and me, was not here anymore. This man in front of me was nothing more than a corpse of the person he used to be.
But I couldn’t fucking hurt him, even though I wanted to. I couldn’t destroy him the same way he was trying to destroy me.
I still wanted to help him, no matter what, but I had a feeling that this little game we were playing could only end in one way—death.
The sounds of the girl wheezing behind us pulled me back from my reverie, and the momentary lapse in judgment and the weakness I'd allowed myself, was enough for Tristan to push me off of him, and jump up.
“Fuck,” I groaned as my back hit the ground, but I was too slow to lift myself up and run after him. Rain pattered over me, my eyes struggling to stay open as I followed his disappearing silhouet as he ran down the street.
“Cillian!” The roar thundered louder than the storm brewing around us, and as I started pulling myself up, Christian’s large body dropped down on the ground right next to me, his hands dragging over my body, trying to find the wound, the reason why I fell. “Are you hurt? Did he hurt you?” he asked frantically, opening my jacket, pulling my shirt up, his eyelashes holding the raindrops slowly trickling down every time he blinked. “There’s no blood. There’s—”
“Hey.,” I grabbed his hand, stopping his search and made him look at me. “He only pushed me off. He didn’t hurt me. I’m okay. There are no stab wounds.”
He shuddered, swallowing slowly as his eyes dragged over my face. Something I'd never felt before passed between the two of us, but just before he was about to lean down, a sharp female cry tore the two of us apart. As I jumped up, closing my jacket again, I saw the girl from before, hunched down, her back pressed against the wall as her entire body shook.
My instincts took over as I approached her, keeping my hands up, trying to show her I wouldn’t hurt her. “Hey there,” I said softly, hoping she could hear me over the panic she was clearly in. Her wide eyes were plastered to the ground, her hair wet, pressed against her cheeks, and her hands wrapped around her throat, gasping for air. “He’s gone,” I said, crouching down in front of her, keeping my distance until she calmed down. “See, he’s not here anymore. He can’t hurt you.”
“I-I don’t,” she gasped, shaking as tears cascaded down her cheeks, mixing with the rain. “H-He was ni-ice inside. H-He… Oh, God,” she wailed, trying to appear smaller somehow. Invisible, and I knew exactly how she was feeling.
“Hey, hey,” I murmured, coming closer to her, trying to appear as small as possible, hoping I wouldn’t scare her even more. “I can help you. I will help you, but we need to get you out of this rain, darling. I don’t want you to get sick.”
“He hurt me,” she mumbled, frozen in place. Her wide eyes lifted, connecting with mine. “Why? I didn’t do anything to him.”
“Kill,” Christian mumbled from behind me. “We need to move her from here. The guys went after Tristan, but we need to move.”
“I know,” I grunted. “Just give me a second.”
“Please don’t hurt me,” she said, reminding me so much of Evelyn from the other night, my chest squeezed at the mere thought of ever being able to hurt an innocent person. I had no idea what was happening with Tristan, but it was obvious that he wasn’t in the right frame of mind, and it went above the need for revenge.
He was unhinged, completely and utterly lost to his own anger, that he couldn’t see reason anymore.
“Come on, darling,” I said, barely above a whisper as I came closer to her until our knees touched. She allowed me to place my hand on her shoulder. “We will keep you safe. You don’t have to worry anymore.”
She threw herself into my arms, sobbing, her entire body shaking from the force of her fear. I wrapped my arms around her, pulling us both up, keeping her upright as we walked toward Christian who was now joined by Damien, one of my enforcers. He was a scary motherfucker, but he was one of the good ones.
His eyes narrowed at the tiny woman in my arms, and with a simple nod from me, he approached slowly, looking at her.
“Damien is a good friend of mine,” I said, keeping my arm wrapped around her shoulders. “He will take you somewhere safe and will make sure that you’re okay.”
“No,” she shook out, clinging to me with a force I didn’t think she knew she possessed. “I want to go with you.”
“I know, darling,” I answered, rubbing her back in small circles. “But he’s the best, trust me. And he can protect you.”
“I can,” Damien added, not once looking at me. “I have a sister maybe a couple of years older than you. I wouldn’t hurt you.”
She glared at him, calculating, until she slowly detached herself from me, going over to Damien. He wrapped his arm around her possessively, frowning at how frail she was. I could feel her bones underneath my fingers, and I had a feeling that Tristan wasn’t the only monster she'd had to deal with.
Christian and I stood there, looking at their retreating backs as they walked toward Damien’s car. As they started driving away, moving from us, I finally felt like I could breathe. But the relief was short lived when I realized that I'd once again lost the chance to capture my brother.
“Fuck!” I bellowed, turning toward the dark alley, needing to get away for a little while. I couldn’t go back home like this, this wound up. I didn’t want Evelyn to see me like this. I didn’t want to scare her.
But I needed something to take the edge off. Something to make me forget the way my own brother had looked at me.
So much hatred.
So much animosity, and I had no idea when he'd turned himself into the kind of monster I once vowed I would protect him from.
“Kill,” Christian called out after me, but I waved him off, needing to be alone. I couldn’t trust myself around him, I couldn’t trust that I wouldn’t do something I would regret tomorrow.
