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“You fucking leave now and this is done,” Tobias warned carefully.
Caleb held my stare for a heartbeat, as confusion mingled with desperate pain. Then he took a step backwards before he strode toward the trees.
“That’s it!”Tobias roared. “Fucking walk away, like you do all the time. That way you never have to face the consequences, right? Just likefucking Dad!”
Caleb froze with his back to us. I thought he was going to turn around and bite at Tobias’s cutting words, but he didn’t, he just took another slow step forward and left.
“That was cruel,” I whispered, turning back to the brother I loved with all my heart but hated in this moment. “And uncalled for.”
“Yeah?” He swung that savage glare my way. “You hurt for him,little mouse?”
The way he spoke hurt me, like he wanted to watch me bleed just to prove a goddamn point. “I love you,” I whispered. “But I don’t like you at this moment.”
“Looks like we’ve come full circle then, doesn’t it?Minus the love.”
He turned and walked away, striding after Caleb. But I had to stop him. I had tosave him.
He didn’t get it. He didn’t see. When one of us bled,we all fucking bled, until there was no stopping the flow.
Sticks snapped as Tobias followed Caleb. He didn’t limp as bad now, fueled by cold, hard rage. “Come back here, C!”
I hurried after them, cutting through the trees to head back toward the cabin. But the closer we came, the colder Tobias became. “Come back here!”
He moved faster, lunging over a fallen tree to land on his good leg and hop until he was steady once more. “You fucking walk away!You don’t get to DO THAT!”
I raced to catch up to them as the sound of a four-wheel drive headed our way. Sunlight glinted off chrome, and there was a blur of black skidding across the loose gravel to pull up beside the silver sedan. Tobias was limping hard now, pressing the gun in his grip against his thigh.
He was in pain, and it bled out in his words. “Leave, Caleb! Keep on fucking walking. We don’t want you here, you hear me? I WANT YOU FUCKING GONE!”
“Tobias!” I skidded down the driveway after him as the four-wheel drive narrowly missed them, skidding sideways.“No!”
But Caleb stopped walking, spinning around to face his brother. That cold, brutal look settled in his stare as he lunged forward, grabbed Tobias by the arm and pulled him closer. “You want me to leave?Is that it? Leave so you and Nick can have Ryth for yourselves?”
“Yeah,” Tobias answered coldly. “I do.”
“Well, guess what, T?” Caleb stepped even closer until he towered over him. “Even if I left, she’d still follow. She needs me, brother. I give her something you can’t. I fuck herjust how she needs it.So, maybeyoubetter get used to that.”
Oh shit.
Oh shit…
Car doors opened. “What the fuck is going on?” Lucas barked as he stepped out.
But Nick was there, striding around the rear of the vehicle to move in front of him. “You don’t want to stop this, Doc.”
I glanced at Kit, who stood there with her mouth agape, watching this all unfold. I hated that this was happening in front of them, but their emotions were too high. Wounded or not, Tobias unleashed a roar and lunged, swinging his fist to catch Caleb on the jaw. Thecrackwas sickening, freezing me to the spot. I couldn’t move, ripped open and torn down the middle watching the two men I loved go head to head.
“You fuck her right, huh?”Tobias drove his fist into his brother again.
Panic filled me as Caleb stumbled backwards and hit the ground. But Tobias wasn’t stopping. That savagery inside him only seemed to grow until he was almost unrecognizable, falling on top of Caleb.
“You wanted her there!” He grabbed Caleb’s shirt, cocked his fist, and lashed out once more.“You wanted her there for yourself!”
Crack!
“STOP!”I screamed until I tasted blood.“Stop this, NOW!”
I sucked in hard breaths, my mind splintering as that darkness waited, beckoning me toward insanity. “He didnotbreak me.” I slowly lifted my gaze to where Tobias had Caleb’s blood-splattered shirt in his fist. A slow trickle of blood spilled from Caleb’s nose, catching the sun, and I was mesmerized by the sight, unable to look away as I slowly delved into that place. “He saved me.”
