Chapter 39 Lexi
Lexi
Iwalk into the bedroom as my heart races. I sit on the bed and hand Axel the bottle of water.
“Here.”
He sits up and grabs it. “Thanks.”
I hand him the bag of chips. “All they have.”
He lays back down and stares at the ceiling.
I don’t know what’s running through his head, but I hear the voices trailing from the living room, and like a siren, I leave the bedroom.
I quietly close the door behind my back and my eyes immediate slam into Koa’s.
I blink a few times, trying to find my breath.
For a moment, we just stare at each other.
My blood boils hotter with every second that passes.
I feel my hoodie for the string, keeping my eyes on his.
I pull one side until the string fully removes itself.
I gather it in my hand as I walk down the hall with easy determination.
This motherfucker has no idea what’s about to happen.
When I walk in the living room, Atticus and Revan watch me closely.
“What the hell is he doing here anyways?” I gesture at Koa sharply, my voice rising. “Isn’t this a Reaper safe house?”
The question hangs in the air, accusatory and sharp. Revan and Atticus exchange a glance but say nothing. Koa just stares at me, his jaw tight, his eyes dark with something that looks like anger mixed with exhaustion.
But I don’t care how tired he is. I don’t care what he’s been through.
He fucking lied to me, drugged me, used my brother against me, betrayed me.
I shoot him a glare that could cut steel, and I find him already looking at me with that same intensity, like he’s pissed off that I’m pissed off. The audacity of it makes my hands shake.
I walk to the back of the couch he’s sitting on.
I lean down and whisper, “I said, what the fuck are you doing at a Reaper safe house, Koa?”
He goes to speak, but I put my finger over his mouth.
“Never mind. I don’t want to hear it.”
I extend the string in my hands, wrap it around his neck and pull as hard as I possibly can. He starts kicking, making wild grunts, but I couldn’t care less. He set me up, used me before he handed me over.
This asshole deserves to die.
Revan stands, but Atticus puts his hand up.
“You think you can play me?” The words rip out of me, loud enough that they echo off the walls. “Die, bitch!”
Axel emerges from the bedroom then, looking pale and unsteady but upright. His eyes dart at what I’m doing, assessing Koa in a second, and then his eyes find mine again. Worry etches across his face.
“Lexi, if you don’t stop,” Axel pleads. “You’re going to kill him. Do you really want that?”
Looking at my brother makes my grip loosen. Koa hauls forward, ripping himself out of my hold. He falls onto the ground and coughs nonstop.
Revan and Atticus have gone quiet, watching like this is some kind of show they paid admission for.
Something in me snaps. I stand up, needing Koa to feel even a fraction of what I’m feeling. “Is this what you do?” I spit at him. “Listen to your psycho stepfather and then play the hero when it’s convenient? Is that your thing?”
Koa’s eyes flash as he glares at me—something dangerous igniting there. Before I can process what’s happening, he vaults over the couch with terrifying speed and pins me against the wall. Violent and firm. He cages me in, a crazy look in his eye. His body blocks out everything else.
“You think I wanted this?” His voice is low, shaking with barely controlled rage. “You think I wanted to watch him drug you? Watch them tie you up like you were nothing?”
I try to push him, but he doesn’t budge. “You fucking brought me there!” I shout back.
“I brought you there to keep you alive!” His face is inches from mine, and I can see every bruise, every cut, every mark of what he’s been through.
“Vincent would have sent someone else—someone who wouldn’t have given a shit if you made it out breathing.
At least this way I could control it, at least this way I could make sure—”
“Make sure what? That I’d thank you for it?” I’m trembling now, fury and fear mixing into something toxic. “You’re insane!”
“I did everything I could to keep you safe!” He’s shouting now too, and there’s something raw in his voice, something broken.
“Do you understand that? Everything. Even years ago when you were in high school and Vincent first started asking questions about the Kane family, I kept your name out of his mouth. I took beatings to keep him from digging into your life!”
I freeze. “What? You’ve been stalking me?”
His eyes bore into mine, desperate for me to understand. “You were my main mission and delivering you meant I could get out. That was the deal he made with me.”
This fucking asshole! I push him as hard as I can. He stays in one spot, so I start punching him. “You selfish motherfucker! Get the fuck away from me!”
“Koa,” Axel says, but Koa ignores him.
“Tiger, you can hate me all you want, but I made you mine long before you realized it. I’d burn this whole fucking world to keep you. If you don’t like it? I’ll always find you, even if you run, even if you hide.”
A shadow looms over us. When I glance up, Atticus is there. He’s the tallest boy I’ve ever seen, also the most beautiful. When he looks at me, I remember that I’m not only in Koa’s orbit.
“We’re a little busy here,” Koa says, turning his head.
“Actually,” I say, stepping out from his cage, ducking under his arm. “Fuck every single one of you!”
“All of us?” Revan scoffs.
“The fight!” I accuse wildly. “That fight in the parking lot—it was staged, wasn’t it? You were all working together!”
“It wasn’t staged,” Atticus says from across the room, his accent cutting through the chaos. “We were legitimately trying to kill each other.”
“We were on opposite sides,” Revan adds, his voice measured.
I scoff.
He continues, “Until you came into the picture. You changed everything.”
“Bullshit!” But even as I say it, I remember the violence of that fight, the blood, the genuine rage in their eyes.
Axel moves forward when Koa steps to me.
Koa points at Axel with that drug-dealer-defense look in his eyes. “Stay back.”
That’s it. That’s the line. He wants to threaten my brother?
I slap Koa. Hard across the face. The crack echoes through the room and his head snaps to the side.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” My voice breaks on the words.
Koa’s jaw tightens, and when he looks back at me, there’s something feral in his eyes. Then he ushers me back to the wall and kisses me. His mouth crashes against mine, angry and desperate and claiming.
I freeze, shocked into stillness. My hands are caught between us, pressed against his chest, and I can feel his heart hammering.
The house goes completely silent.
When he pulls back, we’re both breathing hard. His forehead rests against mine and his voice comes out as a whisper. “I’m sorry. For all of it. But I’m not sorry for keeping you and your brother alive and safe.”
I want to hit him again. Want to scream at him. Want to make him hurt the way I’m hurting.
But I can’t move. Can’t think past the feeling of his lips still burning against mine.
I whisper, “So, that was the plan the whole time? Get me there to drag the rat out and then get me out?”
He nods.
I shove him away finally, needing space, needing air. My chest is heaving, and I feel like I’m drowning.
I turn to Atticus, who’s watching everything with those calculating green eyes. “Take me out of this place.”
“Lexi—” Koa starts.
“Now.” I don’t look at him. Can’t look at him.
Atticus pushes off the wall, ready to move. I turn to Axel, my heart squeezing at how fragile he looks, how young despite being older than me.
“Are you coming with me?”
Axel glances at Koa, then at the floor. “I want to go home and sleep.”
“Axel—”
“I can take him,” Koa says quietly.
“Is that safe?” I look between them, distrust coloring every word.
Axel’s expression softens, and for a second he looks like the brother I remember from before everything went wrong. “I can go back to rehab if that’ll make you happy.”
The words hit me in the chest. Something warm and painful blooms there as I look at my big brother. Despite everything, despite the drugs and the mistakes and the years of disappointment, he’s still trying. Still here.
“I’ll leave that up to you,” I say, and I mean it. “I just want a normal life and a real relationship with you.”
He nods, and I see his throat work as he swallows. “Yeah. Me too.”
I hold his gaze for a long moment, trying to communicate everything I can’t say with words. Then I turn away before the tears that are burning behind my eyes can fall.
“Let’s go,” I say to Atticus.
I don’t look back as I walk out the door. Don’t look at Koa standing there with my anger and his kiss still written on his face. Don’t look at Revan or the cabin or any of it.
Atticus follows me to a car—not the Mercedes from before, something else, something that blends in better. He opens the passenger door for me, and I slide in, numb and exhausted and furious all at once.
As he starts the engine, I stare out the window at the trees blurring past and try to figure out when my life became a war zone.
Try to figure out how I’m supposed to navigate a world where the people who hurt you are the same ones who claim they’re saving you.
Try to figure out if I can ever trust any of them again.