AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My shaking hands reached for the keys that were on my wrist thanks to the wrist strap I had on the keychain. That thing was a lifesaver, especially with two young kids. I did as he said, taking my car key off the chain, then handing it to him. I reached for Reed, but he just spun around, heading to the house while Reed placed his hand on his jaw, babbling away at him.
“What…just happened?” I asked nobody in particular.
“He’s making sure you’re safe,” Bailey said, taking my arm and pulling me toward my house. “People think he’s this bad guy”—she paused, her gaze moving to mine—“and he is sometimes. But there’s a side to him people don’t know about. A protective side.”
“I see him like that with you,” I told her. And I had. I’d never seen anyone be as protective over another person as he was with her.
She was silent for a minute as we followed Romeo to my front door, then she whispered, “He’s letting his mask slip around you. Maybe you’ll let yours slip around us soon too.”
I blinked, my mouth opening and closing, not knowing what to say. I was frozen, my brain trying to reboot, but it didn’t matter what I did, nothing was working, and before I knew it, I was back in my house, the door closed as Romeo and Bailey walked back to their house.
I was alone once again. With nothing but my memories to haunt me.
CHAPTER 8
RAFAEL
I would have rather been anywhere but here: inside my dad’s brick shed with a bloodied and bruised body in front of me.
Pulling in a deep breath, I could smell the metallic scent that was unmistakably blood. After three days being trapped here, I was starting to become noseblind to it, and numb to what was going on around me. This may have been what my father and Romeo liked to do, but not me. Mind games and reading people were what I enjoyed, not this. Maybe that was because I could discipline myself when it came to that, but the physical violence always felt like I was on the edge of losing control.
I didn’t want to get dirty, not unless it was with a woman—one woman in particular.
Fuck. I scraped my palm down my face, trying to wake myself up and not let my mind wander more than it already had. I could feel eyes burning into the side of my head, but I didn’t look, refusing to see my older brother’s face.
He’d demanded that I be here—for what reason, I didn’t know. Now that he was a captain—my captain—I didn’t have a choice. What he said went, and as a dutiful soldier, I had to follow, even if it meant I was putting myself at risk. But what was even worse, he left me alone with our father for hours and hours at a time. Part of me wondered if it was a tactic to get us to mend the feud happening between us. It wasn’t fuckin’ working though. If anything, it was making it worse. I needed space from him, not forced proximity.
I gripped the pliers in my palm, reaching forward as I pulled yet another fingernail off this guy’s hand.
“You’re being too gentle,” a rough voice said from behind me.
Cracking my neck from side to side, I tried to release some of the tension that was building, but it was almost impossible. I hadn’t acknowledged my father since I’d walked in here just over seventy-two hours ago, and now too much time had passed, too many things gone unsaid, from now and from when I was a kid.
I was holding every ounce of animosity toward him like a warrior would his shield in the middle of a gruesome battle. It was protecting me from him, from Romeo, from everyone around me.
“Do it properly,” my father continued, only this time, I heard his footsteps near. “You should know this by now, Rafael.” His disappointment was evident, and as I turned, I spotted him only three feet behind me. I was covered in blood, my clothes saturated thanks to the days of torture—only, I wasn’t sure whether it was the man sitting in the chair who had borne the brunt of it, or me having to be here, in the same building as my father.
My gaze flicked over to Romeo, his features carefully schooled so that he didn’t give anything away, but unlike most people, I knew the tiny movements of my big brother, and the small shuffle to the left and tenseness of his shoulders told me that he knew I was a firework waiting to go off and light up the sky.
“Dad,” Romeo said, taking a step toward us, the atmosphere becoming so thick it was almost hard to take a breath.
“No,” Dad cut him off. “I’ve taught you both all I know. I did it all for you, and now you’re slacking.” He paused, his nostrils flaring. “You’re my legacy, and I’ll be damned if this”—he waved his arm around—“is what I’m leaving behind. Do fuckin’ better.”
I tilted my head to the side, staring at the man who helped bring me into this world, and for the first time in my entire life, I wasn’t scared of him. There was always that tiny bit of fright that reared its ugly head up, no matter how old I got, but now it was gone…
I’d had enough. I didn’t care if Romeo would get pissed that I’d walked out, I just couldn’t spend another minute in the same room as that man. For years I’d looked up to him. I’d desperately wanted his attention, hating that all his focus was always on Romeo. It was me who had been left with our mom, me who had helped her when she had an anxiety attack, me who had held her hand as an unknown car sped by our house, me who had seen the utter devastation and heartbreak in her eyes on the daily.
Smiling, I lifted my arm as I let go of the pliers, relishing in the clang they made against the concrete floor. “I need to do better?” I laughed like I’d just heard the funniest damn joke. “Old man, I think you need to take your own fuckin’ advice.” My tone went from jovial to downright threatening within the space of a few words.
“Raf—”
“No.” I clenched my hands by my sides, trying to keep control of myself when all I wanted was to hurt the man who was supposed to protect us all but hadn’t. “Fuck you, Dad.” I sidestepped, pointing at him. “Fuck you for everything you did to us.”
“Don’t you dare walk out, Rafael,” he warned, pushing his shoulders back.
I shook my head, grinning at him. “You don’t get to tell me what to do ever again.” Rolling my neck, I stared at Romeo, having a silent conversation with him, and with his small clip of his head, giving me permission, I spun around, leaving them both in the shed.
“Where are you going?” my dad’s booming voice asked.
