Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
Julius
“Get the fuck out of my face, Kraven.”
“Or what?” he argued with his arms at his sides. “You’re going to hit me again? Then just do it! Hit me! Hit me as many times as you want, but that won’t change the truth!”
I snarled, “The truth of what?”
He shoved me, and since I expected it, I didn’t waver. It further incited the fury coursing through his veins because he didn't get the reaction he sought from me.
I was finished playing his games.
“I thought you were my brother!” I pushed him back.
“Kraven, please,” Isla intervened, and I hated the way his name rolled off her tongue.
“Kitty, stay out of it! This is between my brother and me!”
“Actually, this totally involves me!”
“Don’t call her that,” I warned, downright lethal and on edge. “This is how I find out about you two? Through a fucking surveillance camera!”
“That’s bullshit, and you know it! Don’t play the victim, Julius. It’s not your look.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “That’s your role.”
“This is ridiculous,” Isla exclaimed, her voice breaking. “You both need to calm the hell down! Nothing is going to get worked out this way. Choosing violence never does!”
“You would know,” Kraven bit, eyeing her.
“Don’t talk to her like that.”
“Don’t worry, big brother,” he vindictively snapped. “She likes it rough. Not that I expect you to know.”
I swung and he ducked, ramming me into the brick wall behind me.
“You’re only pissed because I know her in ways you never will!”
“You pie—”
“No,” he gritted out, locking his arm under my chin, holding me in place. “I’m going to talk, and you’re going to listen.”
“She’s mine…”
“If she were yours, Julius,” he spat, “she wouldn’t have screamed my name first.”
“You know why I did, Kraven…”
I shoved him off, blurting, “What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Yeah?” he baited, only looking at her. “What about every time since?”
“If someone doesn’t tell me what the hell is go—”
“Ask her, you pussy, and stop taking it out on me! She tells me because I ask. I don’t run like you do.”
In one breath, I sneered, “I’m not running.”
“If that were true”—he chuckled, mocking me—“you wouldn’t be sleeping on the couch every night.”
“Fu—”
“You run from everything and everyone!” he yelled, his chest rising and falling. “Why do you think that is?”
“Kraven, stop it!” Isla ordered, grabbing his arm now.
He tore it away, spitting venom. “I’ll tell you why…”
“Kraven!” She reached for his arm. “Don’t do this!”
Before the last word left her mouth, he deliberately shouted, “Because you’re just like our mother!”
I fell back from the impact of his words. They hurt far more than any punch ever could.
“And I’m just like Joe.” He dug the knife a little deeper when he added, “It’s why we love and hate each other so much.”
“I don’t hate you, Kraven,” I told him, the truth that ate away at me on the daily. “Because you do enough of that for us both.”
From the corner of my eye, I caught tears falling down the sides of Isla’s face. Her expression was one of pure disbelief that Kraven had decided to declare war on me.
Kraven didn’t give a shit. He was too far gone in his hatred for me at that moment. My brother was always reckless. He was a lot like Joe. I couldn’t save our father, so I spent the last six years trying to save him instead.
I was exhausted.
Burned out.
Running on empty.
The wind from my sails was snatched, leaving me on a deserted island by myself.
“Again, with the victim bullshit.” Kraven didn’t let up.
Not that I expected him to. Once he was riled up, there was no calming him down or making him see reason. He was hopeless.
All fire, no water.
“Give me a break.” He scoffed in disgust. “All my life you’ve used everything you’ve done for me against me, and don’t try to pretend that isn’t a fact.”
“Kraven! That’s enough!” she pleaded in a desperate tone that shook my body to the bones.
“Isla and I have a connection you’ll never touch. You see, Julius… you help her with her problems. I make her forget them. That’s the difference between us, dear brother.” He stepped back, arms raised, spitting blood. “Careful, Julius, your halo’s slipping.”
He spun and left, leaving Isla and me alone with the kind of quiet that burned like fire. She stared at me with wide eyes and a terrified expression. The blood had drained from her face while she was frozen in place.
Her hand flew over her heart as if she were trying to hold it together.
But she was still the first to speak. “Julius, I’m so sorry…”
Unable to resist, I bit, “I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me what the hell he’s talking about.”
“I can’t.”
“Why are you protecting him?”
“Because he’s my friend too, and I care about him.”
“Like you care about me?”
“No. It’s different.”
“But you do have feelings for him?”
“Not in the way I do for you.”
“Where did that line get crossed?”
“Nothing’s been crossed.”
Shoulders tight, I reminded, “Tell that to the footage I saw.”
“He’s drunk, Julius,” she simply replied. “And I learned a long time ago to never argue with a drunk because you never win. At least I never did.”
She turned to leave, but I caught her wrist.
“We’re not done here.”
“I know, but can we continue this at home?”
“Home, huh?”
She firmly nodded, grabbing my hand. “Yeah, Julius… home.”
Reluctantly, I let her lead. Marco waited by the entrance, letting me know that Kraven had left with some sketchy characters. I didn’t have the energy to give a shit, feeling utterly defeated.
By the time we arrived through the front door, it was almost three in the morning. As soon as we walked inside, I made my way into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. I felt like a semi-truck had run over me.
I drank the whole thing before grabbing some ice from the freezer and wrapping it in a rag for my hand. She met me in there with a first-aid kit in her grasp.
“I’m fine,” I stated.
She shot me a stern stare, nodding to the chair beside her.
I did as she wanted, mostly because I wanted to know where this was going. After I sat, she bent down in front of me to sit on the balls of her feet as she took a look at my hand. It didn’t take her long to wrap it up with a bandage.
When she was finished, she looked up at me through her lashes. Her striking green eyes were filled with sadness.
“The day we met,” she expressed out of nowhere, making my stomach drop from what she was about to share.
“I wasn’t just running away from my fosters. I was also running away from a crime scene I caused.”
My blood ran cold, never expecting to hear that.
“They were the Bates, same old story. Except this time, it ended with him chasing me down the basement stairs and falling.”
“Why was he chasing you?”
“Because it was Tuesday.”
I grimaced, hating that for her. Yet I immediately understood what she meant by that.
With uncertainty in her stare and tears in her eyes, she admitted, “Nobody knows, but I think I killed him.”
Her words knocked the air out of me, though I remained calm, years of practice working in my favor. Instead, I drew her into my arms, and she settled on my lap.
Her heartbeat was in sync with mine. Cradling her face in my hands, I wiped her tears with my thumbs.
“I’m here, Isla. Nothing you tell me changes the way I see or feel you, the way I care about you…”
Relief quickly washed over her face. “You promise?”
“I swear it.”
“Do you think the cops are—”
“No.”
She sighed deeply, leaning her forehead on mine.
“Do me a favor?”
“Anything.”
I spoke with conviction…
“Now that you’re with me, you let me worry about everything.”