Chapter 43 #3
I say nothing as my world comes crumbling down around me.
I feel like I did back then—terrified and broken.
I’d been with my uncle for a little while.
It was where I met Taylor for the first time and hoped I could have a normal life.
Taylor asked what happened when I disappeared for years and came back, but I never told her the whole truth.
I couldn’t bear to see her lose the innocence in her eyes.
“Good,” Kane spits and grins at me.
“I hope she made it hurt,” Taylor adds, and my shoulders relax slightly.
They don’t think I’m a monster. They still want me.
It’s obviously not the reaction Butcher wants.
“And who am I, pet?” he demands. “You know, don’t you? I thought you figured it out. Is that why you tried to kill me?”
“No, I—” He smacks me, and I tumble to the floor. I feel Lauren’s hand slip into mine, and I look at her for a moment before raising my eyes to his.
“Say it! Say who I really am!” he roars.
“My half-brother.” The words make me sick. I didn’t know for a very long time.
“That’s right.” He crouches before me, tipping my chin up.
“My dear little sister . . . Did you know that’s why I came that night?
I was going to kill them myself for what they did to me, sending me away, hiding me in the dark, only giving me some small piece of the drug business to run to keep me happy.
I wanted more, and then I saw you . . . but then our uncle took you away.
You! No one ever protected me like that.
I was nothing to them, a mistake our father made.
When I saw you and you didn’t even know me, something in me snapped.
” He strokes my face. “My perfect little sister was pampered and given a better life, one I could never have.” He squeezes my throat before relaxing.
“But now it will be okay. We will reclaim what our family lost. You have already started on those streets of yours, and we will run it together.” He kisses me softly, and I fight my gag.
No, no, no.
“But you can only have one family,” he says to me as he looks at Taylor and Lauren. “There isn’t room for anyone else. They are collateral, a weakness—” Standing, he pulls me with him. “Kill them both and hang them outside for everyone to see.”
“No!” I yank myself from his arms, grab his gun, and aim at him, panic gripping my chest. “They are not collateral damage in your war, nor my weakness!” I scream as I step forward.
For a moment, I’m back to being a kid on that quiet night, my hand shaking under the weight of my father’s gun as I looked at him and said no more, but then I hear Taylor, Lauren, Kane, Neo, and Zayn all struggling to get to me, and I know I’m not alone.
I’m not her anymore. I’m not Rebecca or even pet .
. . . I’m Karma. “She is not collateral damage. She is my sister. She is my best friend. She is not a footnote in your rise to the top. She’s the best part of my story, and you tried to take her from me. ”
“I am your family!” he roars.
“No, you’re my nightmare, and do you know what they say about nightmares?” I ask slowly. “You have to slay them.” I pull the trigger, but the gun clicks, and terror grips me.
Chuckling, he grabs it and tosses it away. “I knew you’d do that.” Stepping around me, he pulls out a blade. I hear the Sais struggling now, but they are fighting a losing war.
Besides, this is my battle, not theirs.
Butcher knows he isn’t making it out of here alive, but he’s determined to take me and those I love with him. I can’t let that happen. This is all my fault. If I killed him back then, no one would be hurt. It’s my job to keep them safe and fix my mistakes.
He’s my family, my responsibility.
I step into his way as he swings the knife toward Taylor, who is bent over, protecting Lauren.
The blade finds its home in my side, and his eyes widen for a moment.
His shock gives me the time I need to yank the blade free and slam it into his chest. “You’re right.
” I feel blood pouring down my stomach. “We are tied together. I might die tonight, Butcher, but so will you, and the last thing you will see is me, knowing you lost.”
I hear gunshots and Kane’s, Neo’s, and Zayn’s voices, but I don’t look away from Butcher.
“I killed our father. It makes sense that I kill his evil spawn as well,” I sneer as I press the knife deeper before he rips away, my blood loss allowing him to stumble back.
He presses his hand over the gaping wound.
For a moment, fear fills his eyes and he glances around.
I follow his gaze to Kane, Neo, and Zayn, who lead the charge with Dodge to kill the mercs. He’s losing, and he knows it.
He looks back to me, then I see the second he makes his decision. He’s going to run and hide and lick his wounds.
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me . . . but fool me three times? Well, it isn’t going to happen. I’m going to eradicate our bloodline tonight.
He stumbles toward the door. Someone wraps something around my waist, and I hear frantic voices, but I’m watching Butcher hurry out of the open front door to a car haphazardly parked outside. He throws one of his own from the vehicle and stumbles inside.
Not again.
He’s not getting away again.
“Keep them safe!” I yell, trusting the Sai brothers as I dive outside after him. My bike is to the right, where I was doing donuts this morning on the grass. I sprint toward it and climb on, quickly firing it up, shoving my helmet down, and shooting out onto the street.
I hear my name screamed, but I don’t look back.
This ends tonight.