Chapter Thirty-Six
COBY
I stared at the photo of Hunter and Ocean on their movie date and saved it to my phone before making it my wallpaper. If a picture said a thousand words, this one only needed to say three.
Hunter was in.
Nervous butterflies fluttered in my stomach at the thought of sharing my soulmate with the man who owned my heart. I was so excited, I found myself slipping out of bed before my alarm could go off.
Waking up early on Christmas morning was my ritual, but I’d never been this restless. I was eager to see if what Hunter had secretly conveyed in her text was real or imagined. I needed to know that I hadn’t read too much into it—that it wasn’t just wishful thinking.
They must have left the penthouse after I fell asleep last night. It seemed like an odd time for a date, but nothing about Ocean was conventional, so I didn’t question it too much.
After connecting my phone to the speakers and opening my Christmas playlist, I sang along to the carols as I started a new group chat.
Coming home soon?
Hunter was the first to respond.
Mine: Otw. Ocean’s driving, so he can’t respond.
K. I’ll get breakfast started. :)
Mine: French toast, pls! And none of that vegan crap.
Lmao - I got u.
The bubbles appeared before I could back out of the thread, so I waited. They disappeared again, only to reappear seconds later. This went on a few more times, so I darkened my screen and went into the kitchen to get started.
Setting my phone on the counter, I gathered the ingredients for vegan French toast. Hunter claimed she could tell the difference, but she never did.
I was whisking the cornstarch and soy milk together when my phone chimed moments later. I glanced at the text on the locked screen, but it wasn’t from Hunter.
It had come from an unknown number.
Unknown: Just thought you should know who you’re marrying…
Wondering if an old girlfriend of Ocean’s had somehow gotten hold of my number, I snatched up my phone and opened the text without hesitation.
The last thing I expected to pop up a second later was a picture of my brother.
The camera had been zoomed in, so only his face was visible, but I knew it was him.
I could see the familiar faint scar near his hairline from when he fell out of a tree when he was six.
His eyes were open and staring back at me, but something was off. They seemed dull. Lifeless.
Roshaun was staring at the camera, but there was no awareness.
Noticing the white target symbol in the upper left-hand corner, I tapped it, and the photo came to life, showing me what had happened two seconds before the picture was taken.
A gloved hand speckled with crimson.
My brother’s braids trapped in its grasp.
Roshaun’s mouth twisted and forever frozen mid-scream.
His neck was nothing more than mangled flesh, blood, and tissue.
In the background, I could see the rest of him wearing the clothes I last saw him in. His body was slumped against the wall in the background.
Headless.
The photo reverted to a close-up of his eyes, forehead, and nose, but it was too late.
I was already screaming.
My wails joined the jaunty Christmas carol blasting through the suite and mocking my pain.
And then my phone chimed again, and another text came through.
Unknown: Merry Christmas.
Dropping the phone, I darted over to the kitchen sink. I heard someone running up behind me, but I was too busy spilling my guts inside to care who.
“Coby?” Kellan called out. “I heard you scream. What happened?”
An image of my brother’s mutilated body flashed in my mind, and my throat jumped. This time, when I heaved, nothing came out.
Roshaun was gone.
My legs gave out, and I collapsed to the ground, another wail tearing from me when my gaze landed on my phone and Roshaun’s lifeless eyes staring back at me just before the screen went dark.
I crawled across the cold tile and picked it up with shaking hands.
This couldn’t be real.
It had to be a trick.
A cruel fucking joke.
“Please, God.”
“Coby, tell me what’s going on, or I’m calling Ocean,” Kellan warned.
Ignoring him, I unlocked my phone and dialed my brother’s number.
It rang and rang and rang, but he didn’t answer. Breathing became impossible as I tried three more times in vain.
“Coby…”
“C-c-can you p-p-please take me to my brother?” I begged Kellan once I accepted the fact that Roshaun wasn’t going to answer. “I th-think he’s in tr-trouble. Please.”
Kellan shook his head, his green eyes filled with pity. “You know I can’t do that. Tell me what happened. Maybe I can help without getting killed. Start from the beginning.”
I couldn’t because it all led back to Ocean.
Ocean had killed my brother.
“Oh, God.” I held my stomach with one hand and my mouth with the other when it felt like I’d throw up again.
“Fuck,” Kellan cursed when he saw a fresh wave of tears spill from my eyes. “Just let me call Ocean.”
“There’s no need to call me,” a deep voice interrupted. “I’m right here.”
Kellan and I turned toward the elevator and saw him standing there with Abel and Hunter. My bestie took one look at me and let Ocean’s hand go to rush over.
“What’s wrong?” Hunter demanded. She touched my arms, and I broke, throwing myself around her and sobbing like a baby. My big brother was dead. “You’re shaking, Coby. Come sit down.”
I let her lead me to the couch while Kellan whispered his report to Ocean. I glared at the latter, but he kept his face carefully blank while listening to Kellan and staring right at me.
The man I loved killed my brother. Where did we go from here?
I leaned forward. Hunter mirrored me, tilting her head to give me her ear. “Can I borrow your gun?”
Hunter reared back, searching my gaze as if she didn’t recognize me. “Coby, talk to me,” she pleaded. “You’re scaring me.”
I was scaring myself.
Ocean killed my brother.
But if I could still love Roshaun this much after he was gone, I could do the same for Ocean.
“Roshaun’s dead. Ocean killed him.”
Hunter visibly tensed. “What? How do you know?”
I handed Hunter my phone. Since she knew my code, she was able to get in. “Check the last text.”
Overhearing, Ocean wandered over, unperturbed by my glare, warning him to stay away.
“What the fuck?” Hunter spat.
“Let me see,” Ocean demanded.
Hunter stood and handed over my phone before I could tell him what a murderous bastard he was. I watched Ocean admire his handiwork, but his brows dipped like he was confused.
When he looked up to study me, I could smell the lies coming a mile away.
A moment later, his expression became unreadable as he called to his bodyguard. “Abel.”
Abel took one look at the photo, swore, removed his own cell phone, and stormed from the room.
Ocean’s attention returned to me, and one look decimated the wall he’d put up. Kneeling before me, he took my face in his hands when I bent my head to hide the fresh wave of tears.
“Coby, look at me, please. I didn’t do this,” he swore when I obeyed.
Before Ocean could tell more lies, Hunter jumped in. “Now let’s get one thing straight. I won’t stand here and listen to you lie to her. I told you she wouldn’t understand why Roshaun had to die.”
An invisible hand punched inside my chest and ripped my still-beating heart free.
Hunter knew.
She was probably there when it happened. I knew she hated him, but I never imagined it could be that much.
“Which is why I didn’t kill him,” Ocean denied.
He was speaking to Hunter but looking at me.
“I told you I would follow your lead, Vengeance. Last night, when you walked away for Coby’s sake, I did too.
I swear to you, Abel dropped Roshaun off outside the city, warned him never to return, and left him there.
This wasn’t us.” His pleading gaze turned to me. “This wasn’t me, Coby. I swear to God.”
“But you were going to kill him,” I said. “You both were, and now he’s dead. It doesn’t matter who dealt the blow. He’s dead because of both of you! How could you?”
I made the mistake of directing the question at Hunter. Her betrayal hurt worse.
Roshaun had taken her in. He’d given her shelter when no one else would and never asked for anything. I didn’t know what happened to make them hate each other, but I knew my brother. He wasn’t perfect, but he didn’t deserve to die like that.
Ocean’s tone was full of ice when he echoed, “How could she? No, mo aingeal. How could she not was the real question. Your brother is dead, and I’m sorry that you’re hurting, but Roshaun still got off way too easily. You were sheltered from who he was for way too long, and it ends now.”
“What are you talking about?”
Hunter was clutching her neck and staring out the window like she was considering throwing herself through it.
“I didn’t force Roshaun to give you up,” Ocean confessed. “I hadn’t even mentioned your name.”
My mouth fell open. I already knew Roshaun had sold me out, but what Ocean was implying… My gaze narrowed. “What are you talking about? You…you broke his ribs.”
“And I had three million reasons to do so,” Ocean confirmed, “but I only needed one.” His gaze softened. “I only needed you.”
“You’re saying it was his idea to use me?”
“Roshaun promised to repay every penny and offered you as collateral. I warned him that I had no intention of ever returning you if I accepted. I described exactly how I’d use you—how much I’d enjoy breaking you until I got bored and passed you along to be used some more.
I had to get my money’s worth after all.
Do you know what your brother did? He laughed, Coby.
He actually fucking laughed and told me to consider you interest. That’s when I broke his ribs. ”
Shame that I could be reduced to so little by my brother washed over me.
Hunter had been trying to tell me since we were sixteen that Roshaun hated me, and I hadn’t listened. It made me wonder if there was more she wasn’t telling me.
“Hunter?”
She seemed to know what I was asking, the tension in her shoulders deflating as she crumped before my eyes. Her gaze slowly drifted over to meet mine. In my peripheral vision, Kellan discreetly left the room to give us privacy.
Even though Hunter’s voice was robotic when she spoke, I could finally see the other half of her pain—the hurt she’d been hiding from me because the person who’d caused it was someone I loved.
“Your brother forced me to have sex with him while we lived together.”
“What?” I slowly stood from the couch because I didn’t trust my legs, but Hunter seemed like she needed the space to get this out, so I forced myself to stay put.
“He started small,” Hunter explained. “Looks and grazes that I could brush off as harmless and accidental. I didn’t realize he was testing the water until it escalated into outright assault.”
Tears ran down my cheeks, but I no longer grieved Roshaun.
I only mourned that I ever let him near Hunter at all. I’d offered her shelter in my parents’ home, thinking she would be safe with me. Little did I know, my protection had led her into the maw of another monster.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I cried.
Hunter shrugged, but it was weak. She was hurting, and it was my fault.
I was blind to it because I didn’t want to see it.
“Roshaun promised that if I said anything, he wouldn’t just kick me out, which I could handle.
I was still underage and technically a runaway.
All he had to do was make a phone call, and I’d never see you again, so I did what he wanted because losing you was worse. ”
I took a chance and grabbed Hunter’s hand.
She was cold as ice.
“I would have run with you,” I promised too late.
The damage my brother wrought had already been done, and I’d unknowingly furthered Hunter’s pain by mourning him. If I could kill him twice, I would without hesitation.
“I know,” Hunter whispered.
Glancing at Ocean, who had taken my spot on the couch, I could tell he was once again regretting showing my brother mercy.
Needing her close to touch and comfort her just as I needed to—Ocean pawed at Hunter’s hip and pulled her into his lap. Even more miraculous was that she let him. Hunter curled into his lap and closed her eyes, resting her head on his shoulder.
I collapsed onto the couch next to them, and Hunter blindly reached out for me, taking my hand. The epiphany came as soon as I rested my head on Ocean’s other shoulder.
The only way for the three of us to survive this and anything else thrown at us was together.
“You should have killed him,” I said to no one in particular.
Hunter nodded but still didn’t open her eyes or speak.
It was Ocean who answered, his voice gruff over the missed opportunity to avenge her honor. “You’re right. I should have.”