Chapter 37
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
“Not the face!” Axel throws his hands up when he sees me coming for him. “Mom will cry if she knows we’ve been fighting.”
I punch Axel in the stomach. He bows over, coughing. I hit him again in the ribs, rage flowing through me.
He fucked this up. He fucked everything up!
“She’s scared of us.” I knee him. Axel drops to the ground but does nothing to fight back.
“She’s fucking scared of us!” I can’t keep the rage from taking over my body.
I saw that look in Raven’s eye. She thought I was going to hit her.
Even Buddy thought I was going to hit her, which makes my already blurry vision a foggy mess.
Normally, I like to heal things. But now, I want to destroy Axel. I want to rip him limb from limb.
And that’s what makes me stop. I have to hold myself back, shaking.
I will not become our father.
Axel groans from the floor, coughing, getting to his knees. “Damn, bro, you been working out?”
“This isn’t a game,” I hiss.
“I know.” He pulls to his feet.
“No, I don’t think you know.” I want to knock him back down. Beat him till the rage leaves my body, but instead, I just tremble. “You fucking kidnapped her?”
“Dude, she’s being stalked.”
“Yeah, by you!” I pace, needing the rage to go into something. How the fuck am I going to protect him this time? This is a serious offense. Like, this is thirty-years-in-prison serious. And he hurt her? Goddamn it, fucking hell, he’d never get parole.
No, I’m not going to protect him. He did this.
I launch my fist into the wall.
The only problem is, now she’s in my house. Which makes me complicit.
I want to yell. Scream. Punch Axel some more.
He scared Raven off. She’ll never trust us now.
“It’ll be okay,” Axel says. “She’s just scared.”
I don’t even reply. I’m afraid I’ll actually rip his hair out if I do.
“Get the fuck out of my face,” I say quietly.
Axel is silent for a minute.
He took the confidence out of Raven’s voice. He made her scream. He hurt her. Just like Dad and Rich did to Mom. And he did all of that while wearing my face.
Axel must realize how serious I am because he leaves me to figure out how the hell to fix this.