Chapter 19 Vincent
Vincent
“WE WILL NEVER BE BETTER MEN.”
Citizen Soldier Playlist
“Too Loud”
“Words That Don’t Exist”
“Life Support”
For fuck’s sake, I can’t take another minute of Seth’s ridiculous romcom.
“Seth,” I bellow at him from the leather chair closer to the wood-burning fire.
Rory’s asleep next to him, snoring as usual, wearing nothing but his boxers. And the bandage over his ear. But Seth, in red plaid pajamas, lifts his head, and I’d swear the pathetic moron is glassy-eyed.
I drag my hands through my hair, giving him my best fighter stare because I could really use a punching bag about now. “Seth, you’ve had remote control privileges for a week now. For fuck’s sake, I need to see the game!”
Seth, arms crossed, glares at me from the couch, his pillow tucked under his arm like a shield. “No. It’s my turn.” He pauses the movie. “Besides, Noah’s about to do his ‘I want you’ speech to Allie! Just shut the hell up and sit in your chair like Jude!”
Jude doesn’t even glance up from his thick book. He simply waves a hand in acknowledgment. “I’m Switzerland.”
“Next time, don’t suck so much at Mortal Kombat,” Seth taunts me.
I clench my hands into fists, this close, this close! “If that was real combat, you wouldn’t get a reset button. And I’d get to watch a different game every goddamn night for a month.”
“Breaking my heart, Vincent.” Seth blows me a kiss and presses play.
I get up, needing to pace even if my back growls in pain from the whippings. At least we only have to wait a few more hours before we get Briella out of the pit. Will she be asleep? Or will she have discovered the graveyard of bones, so many, it was like a damn dragon hoarded its collection.
Raphael hasn’t moved from his chair. With a bone-straight posture and wearing the same suit, he monitors the cavern entrance like he’s waiting for her to sweep inside at any moment.
“Sit, Vincent.”
Without even looking at me, he gestures to the side chair next to his black leather wingback. Creepy bastard set it up like he knew I’d end up here.
Begrudgingly, I slump into the chair and lean back, regretting it when the pain hits me. But I swallow it down like I always do.
“Talk,” he says.
“About what?”
He slowly pivots his head toward mine, giving me that deadly, daggered warning in his eyes. Fuck, it used to scare the shit out of me when he first arrived at the group home. Even if he never messed with me. Mutual respect. And survival.
Heaving a sigh, I shove my hands into my pockets. “Girly.”
“Mmm.”
“Is this about the glow sticks? And the heating pads?”
A subtle upturn of the corner of his mouth confirms that he suspected. And I just confirmed his suspicions.
“Fuck.” I drag a hand down my face.
“I have no intention of punishing you.”
Well, that’s something. “I don’t know why she gets under my skin so much.”
“Yes, you do.” He turns back to the entrance and steeples his fingers. “We all saw a piece of her inside us. Broken pieces she used to cut us, even as we bled her.”
“Looks like she’ll be with us from now on.”
“Mmm.”
“She called me Vinny.”
He flicks his eyes to their corners.
I can still hear the cheers of the crowds chanting “Vin-ny! Vin-ny!” like a mob in the arena, waiting for their prized gladiator to take down the weaker opponent in a game of life and death where a ‘thumbs up’ or ‘thumbs down’ was the judge. A puppet of blood and violence.
“Vinny” was the tough, cold, merciless fighter who didn’t care about anyone—only the next fight, the next win, the next payout. The next whore to warm his bed.
But the memory of her voice in the pit obliterates them.
“It’s different when she says it,” I confess to Raphael.
There’s no blood, no ring, no grudge—it’s just her calling me. Like some twisted, fucked up power dynamic. She’s reclaiming it. Briella is peeling back the layers of the man I used to be, but she sees maybe not something worthy. But she sees something in all the worthlessness.
“So, she makes you want to be a better man?”
I screw my brows low and turn to him, finding that subtle smirk, and I roll my eyes. “Ha. Ha, Raph. Your humor still sucks.”
He rests his chin on his steepled fingers. “We are gods and monsters, Vincent. Gods of our own realm. Monsters from what made us. Sick fucks. We will never be better men.”
“Can’t argue.”
But maybe, just maybe—in between the gods and monsters—I could be just a man.
I’m still considering that and considering rearranging Seth’s intestines from more of his damn movie when Raphael rises from his chair. Movement from the dungeon’s entrance has me turning back.
“No fucking way.”
I get out of my chair, unable to fathom how she made it out. Briella staggers into the cavern, her pretty tits bouncing and jiggling, but I’m more concerned with how she’s wrapped her arm around her side, fingers pressing to her back where an open wound trails blood. Her knees buckle.
“Jude!” I yell while charging for her because Raphael isn’t moving.
She falls. I catch her, sweeping her into my arms as she moans in pain.
“Whoa, fuck!” Seth tosses the remote controller and kicks Rory, knocking him off the couch, while I bring her to the bed.
“Arrgh!” Rory shouts, rubbing his rump. “Ow! Jesus, Seth, what the—” Rory shoots his head up the second he sees Briella in my arms. “Bloody hell and devil take me!”
“Promise?” Briella slurs as I slowly and gently roll her onto her stomach. Jude’s next to me with his suture kit and more bandages.
“Be right back,” Seth says, rushing out of the cave, probably solving the mystery of how she got out.
“Oh, God!” she cries out when Jude peels back the bloody bandage and presses an alcohol wipe to it.
Raphael stands beside the bed now, his shadow drowning her. Her watery eyes gaze up at him like she’s fucking worshiping the psycho. But the dark, shadowed look in his eyes confirms he’s doing the same. As much as worship is possible for the devil. More like the devil’s evil twin.
Rory stomps over, rubbing his eyelids with utter disbelief in his eyes. “How in all holy Jesus, Mary, and Joseph did she get out?”
“Ohhh!” Briella screeches when Jude injects a syringe into her flesh, numbing the site.
I give her my hand again so she may use it like a gag.
Fuck! She bites hard, but not enough to break my fingers this time.
Jude has those in a splint, even though I told him not to worry.
I already realigned them. Even after all these years, I’m still used to the occasional broken bone, fracture, bruise, and deep gashes in my flesh.
Perfect timing when Seth bursts back into the dungeon. “You won’t believe it,” he says with wide eyes.
Rory charges for his partner and grips his throat. “Fucking talk already. What happened?”
Seth grins from ear to ear and deadpans with him. “I’m in love!”
“Fuck you,” Briella mutters, then bites down again as Jude starts stitching her back up. “Fuck all of you!”
“She used the bones!” Seth exclaims, and Rory loosens his grip. Even the sociopath is stunned.
“She what?”
“She made herself a goddamn bone ladder!” Seth adds, his wide eyes riveted on her.
“Mmm,” she moans again, flinching as Jude finishes. “And I expect some serious, fucking worship from you boneheads for the next five days. Oh, for fuck’s sake.” She turns to eye the TV. “You guys need better taste in movies.”
She passes out.