CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
KAGE
Her eyes open as I take a seat beside her, but she doesn’t say anything.
“Raina, I’m sorry. I don’t say that very often, but I’m saying it to you because I mean it. I’m so fucking sorry that I ended your mom’s life. If I could take it back, I would. Hell, if I could take back ever pressing that fucking gun to your head, I would.”
“And Casey?” She asks.
I shake my head.
“I’m sorry you’re upset, but I’m not sorry that you won’t be hanging around a man that you looked at like he was a goddamn hero. Something I could never compete with.”
“He was my friend, and only my friend. My life was mostly miserable. I had two people that made it bearable, and, intentional or not, you took them both from me.”
I try to change the subject, since we are going to keep going round and round, and getting nowhere. I’m not sure she’ll ever forgive me. If she does, that time is certainly not now.
“How are you feeling?”
She rolls her eyes and says, “Like I got shot in the fucking chest.”
“Do you need more pain medication?”
“How’s your brother?” She asks, instead of answering my question.
“He’s okay. Your injuries are worse.”
Her eyes close, and I know that’s the end of our conversation for now, so I sit and do the only thing that provides me comfort. I stare at her. Any solace I feel washing over me is short-lived, as thoughts of how I’ve hurt her circle around my brain. I’m a bad guy and I do bad things. I don’t know any other way to be, but I don’t like the way she sees me now. Even when I had the collar on her, threatening to shock her, she didn’t look at me how she does now. When Raina opens her eyes again, I know the first thing she’ll think, once again, is how I’ve taken everything from her. I’m not sure how to change that, but I do know I’m sure as hell going to try.
Rising from my chair, I lean down and kiss her on the forehead, and head back to my brother’s room. I walk in and find both of my other brothers sitting in chairs on their phones, while Athena and Bella sit on the sides of Reaper’s bed, talking to him.
“I need to talk to Athena.”
Reaper narrows his gaze at me.
“Aren’t you going to ask me why I did it?”
I chuckle as I step closer to the bed.
“I thought you were auditioning for the new Superman movie.”
Pulling a chair closer to his bed, I take a seat, and look at him with a serious expression.
“Alright. Why?”
He pulls Bella against his side while he talks, and for the first time, watching them together has me feeling jealous, which is an unknown feeling for me. I’ve never been bothered watching either him or Bones with their women.
“You’re in love with her.”
I arch a brow as I sit back in the chair, trying to make sense of his words.
“So you took a bullet for her?”
My brother is a fucking serial killer. Lives ending is not a hardship for him, in fact, it’s a thrill, so for him to put himself in harm’s way for her still isn’t adding up in my brain.
He shakes his head as he chuckles.
“I did not intend to take a bullet for her. My plan in that second, before the bullet was racing toward my chest, was to step in front of her.”
He glares at the shooter. “And that it would stop Bones from killing her. Never in a million years did I anticipate he’d fucking shoot me. I saw the way you looked at her. It’s the way Bones looks at Athena, and probably the way I look at Bella. If she had been the one to kill our son, I’d have let her die, but she didn’t. She didn’t hurt Bella, and she didn’t hurt our son. Her only crime was being born. But I didn’t do it for her, I did it for you.”
I glance over at Bones and ask, “Care to explain why you shot our brother?”
He groans like he’s annoyed by the question, since I’m sure he’s been over this with the others already.
“I already had my finger on the trigger when Reaper moved in front of Raina. My brain didn’t have the chance to realize Reaper was in front of the gun until I had already fired.”
Sighing audibly, I say, “None of it even matters, because she hates me.”
Psycho rises from his chair in annoyance.
“I’ll be back. All this fucking love bullshit is making me crave blood. Besides, I think my victim misses me.”
Athena giggles, as she walks back into the room carrying two trays of coffee. She hands Psycho his first, with an affectionate smile.
“I literally cannot wait for you to fall in love.”
He takes the coffee, but looks at her like she’s more insane than the rest of us.
“Never gonna fucking happen. I will stab myself if it does.”
He looks over at me.
“Somewhere fucking vital.”
Bones pipes up, with a questioning expression.
“Who’s the victim?”
Psycho takes a sip of his coffee, as Athena passes each of us our own.
“Name is Diana, but apparently her friends call her Didi. Pretty girl, but she fucked up.”
Bones nods knowingly, like he knows what he’s talking about, as soon as he says the girl’s name, but I don’t, so I ask about it.
“What did she do?”
Psycho grins, like he can see her blood dripping from where he stands in this hospital room.
“Snooping around where she didn’t fucking belong.”
Bella appears to be practically salivating, and there’s no doubt she’s my brother’s perfect match.
“Gonna kill her today?”
He shakes his head in response.
“Not a fucking chance. She’s got weeks to go.”
Psycho walks to the door and I stop him.
“Hey man, make sure all the torture doesn’t make you forget what I asked you to do.”
He nods. “I’m on it.”
With a grin, he looks at me before he leaves.
“Stab ya later, brother.”
Athena climbs onto my brother’s lap, and he wraps his arms around her while he murmurs, “Butterfly,” into her ear.
He looks over at me and nods.
“Talk.”
She glances at me while she sits in his arms. “What’s up, Kage?”
“Is there a way to make a woman not hate you? If you’ve done bad things?”
“How bad?” she asks, and Bones chuckles while filling her in on recent events. She stares at me in shock.
“That’s bad, Kage.”
I don’t respond, because what can I possibly say? I know it’s fucking bad.
Athena glances at Bella, then back to me with a soft smile on her face.
“All hope is not lost, Kage. I think I can speak for both Bella and I, when I say we’ve had our share of bad behavior to deal with. But!”
She holds up her finger and points at me.
“You need to curb that behavior now. Treat her like a person. Do things girls like, and maybe stop killing people she cares about.”
Everyone laughs when I ask, “What do they like?”
Reaper says, “You’re a lost cause.”
Athena grins, like she knew I had no idea what women want, and she’s not wrong.
“Flowers, date nights.”
Bella interrupts her, “And orgasms. We really like those.”