Chapter 7 Everett #2
I take a step back, trying to catch my breath as Sin falls to the floor. His wife drops down beside him. “What the fuck did you do?” she cries out, her tear-filled eyes meeting mine before they go to her husband. With shaking hands, she gently touches his bloody face.
“I’m…fine, Elli.” He spits blood onto the rug, getting to his knees. She tries to help him to his feet, but he ends up helping her, given her large belly.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Elli turns to face me, and he pulls her back when she yells, “Get out!”
I throw my arms out to my sides and take a step back, looking over his busted face.
“I’m leaving.” I look him up and down with disgust, trying to figure out why he would betray me like this.
Why wouldn’t he come to us…or at the very least me?
We could have saved Adam if we’d only had a little more time.
Hell, the full fucking hour would have helped us.
Instead, Adam was dead minutes after Easton entered our office.
“Elli—”
“Get the fuck out of my house,” she screams at me, interrupting Sin.
Spinning around, I exit, slamming the door shut on my way out. I fall into the driver’s seat of my car. Taking a deep breath, I wrap my busted knuckles around the steering wheel, letting out a scream of frustration. I lost a brother and a friend in a matter of twenty-four hours.
My cell beeps, and I close my eyes for a brief second before picking it up and reading over the message.
UNKNOWN: Midnight tonight. Airfield.
Huffing, I toss it onto the passenger seat and head back to Carnage.
After I left Sin’s house, I went back to Carnage and took a shower. The text I received said I had to be at the airfield at midnight. I was surprised to see that Haidyn and Saint both got the same message.
We board the private jet, finding Bill and a detective waiting for us. The fact that they even know one another is setting off alarms. Saint huffs. “Okay. What the fuck are we—”
The back door opens, and we all jump to our feet.
“No fucking way!” I gasp at what I see.
“What the fuck?” Saint demands.
“Brothers.” The man spreads his arms out wide with a smile on his face.
I’m the first to embrace him in a tight hug, slapping his back. “What in the fuck, Adam?” I laugh, shoving him. “How many lives do you have?”
“I’m like a cat,” he jokes.
The fucker knows I hate those things.
Adam’s alive. Dollhouse is an operation for human trafficking. Breeders…Lords selling their children outside of the secret society.
My mind is reeling, but there’s one thing I have to take care of right now. Haidyn and Saint are on their way back to Carnage, but I have somewhere I need to be.
I bring my bike to a stop and set my helmet on the seat. A quick look at my watch tells me it’s almost two a.m. They’re probably asleep. Or fucking. Either way, this can’t wait. I have to do this now.
I ring the doorbell and, for safe measure, bang on the door a couple of times before shoving my hands into the pockets of my jeans.
Sin answers the door, dressed in a pair of black sweatpants, and his heavy eyes look around the front porch and driveway before they meet mine. “You okay?” His voice is rough, and his hair is a disheveled mess. He was definitely asleep.
I rock back on my heels. “May I come in for a second?”
“Of course.” He steps aside, and I enter the silent house, coming to a stop in the grand foyer for the second time tonight.
I turn to him as he shuts the front door and faces me.
He’s got a cut on his left cheek and another across his upper lip, and his right eye is bruised from my fists. “What’s going on, Kash?”
“I—”
“No. Get the fuck out.”
I turn to see Elli standing a few feet from me, wearing what looks like an oversize white T-shirt of Sin’s.
She holds a SIG P220 in her hands, with the barrel pointed right at my face.
It’s Sin’s favorite gun. He carries it with him daily.
He likely keeps it on his nightstand or under his pillow, and she grabbed it when she heard me speak.
I raise my hands. “I’m not here to fight,” I inform her.
“Get the fuck out of my house,” she screams, hands shaking.
“Elli.” Sin moves to stand between us, and she lowers the gun to her side so she doesn’t accidentally shoot her husband. “Give me the gun,” he orders, holding his hand out.
She just stands there, hard eyes on mine.
I understand she hates me. I came into her house earlier and hurt her husband.
I’m an enemy. The woman never liked me anyway.
Not since Sin turned himself over to us.
We strung him up, removed his Lords brand, and gave him a new one.
She came to his rescue with Tyson and her father.
“I say we keep the kid and let her come visit him,” I say, stepping closer to her.
“We’ll let him watch us fuck her. I bet they’d both get off on that.
I know I would.” Another step closer, and I think she stops breathing.
“Starve a man for a few days, he’ll eat anything.
We’ll each take our turns filling your cunt with our cum, then lay you out for him like a feast. He’ll eat every drop of us out of you. ”
Carnage is all about mind games, and I was fucking with hers.
Sin was going to rot in Carnage for her. He was willing to give his life so she could have a better one, and I was going to take all he had left to give until he finally gave up.
He steps into her and takes the gun. Tucking it into the back of his sweatpants, he kisses her forehead. “Go back to bed, Elli. I’ll be in there soon.”
She sniffs. “But Easton—”
“I’ll be right there,” he promises, and she throws me one last go-to-hell look before she turns and retreats to their room. The sound of her slamming the door further illustrates how pissed she is.
Sin grabs the gun from his sweatpants and pulls back the slide.
Chuckling, he removes the chambered bullet.
“It was loaded and the safety was off. She was for sure going to blow your head off.” Placing the gun on the coffee table, he sits down on the couch and gestures for me to do the same in the chair across from him.
“What’s up? Need something? Is everything okay?
” He places his tatted arms along the back cushions, getting comfortable.
Even though I was here earlier tonight, beating the shit out of him, he still wants to be my friend. I run a hand over my hair nervously. “I just wanted to come and apologize in person,” I say.
“It’s fine.” He waves it off. “Think you’re the first man to hit me?” His laughter follows.
I get to my feet and let out a sigh. “I know, Sin.”
His body stiffens, and his face grows tight.
Silence covers the large room as he gets up and walks over to a rolling cart next to the fireplace that has a decanter and glasses.
He pours himself a drink and takes a sip.
Then he turns to face me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. ” His voice has gone cold. Detached.
“I’m not doing this.” I shake my head. “Lying to each other—”
He turns, throwing his glass of bourbon against the wall. The crystal shatters, and the rest of the liquor runs down the wall to puddle on the floor. “Get out,” he growls.
“Sin—”
“Get the fuck out of my house.” He repeats his wife’s words, turning to face me.
I frown, stepping closer to him. “You’d rather I think you killed my brother than tell me the truth?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He runs his hand through his already messy hair. His body tenses as he tries to catch his breath. “Adam is dead.”
“Sin, I just saw him,” I argue.
“Goddammit, Kash!” he snaps.
Elli rushes out into the living room once again with her hand on her pregnant belly. “Sin—”
“Go back to fucking bed, Elli,” he shouts at her. She looks from me to him, her face tight and pissed off. He turns to face her and lets out a long breath, softening his voice. “Elli—”
She storms out of the room once again and slams the door. I’m sure this time she locked him out.
“Why?” I ask, needing to know. This isn’t how I saw this conversation going. “Why did you let me hit you? You knew he was still alive.”
“And Sin?” I ask, sitting on the plane with Adam, Bill, and the detective. “What about his assignment?”
Adam nods. “That’s another reason we have to keep quiet about my existence. Sin knows I’m not dead…”
“Now I feel bad for beating the shit out of him,” I mumble. “FUCK!”
“It was for show.” Saint gives a humorless laugh. “You guys set us up.”
“We had very little time and very limited options.” Adam doesn’t agree or disagree.
Or elaborate on how he managed to get a body that would make us believe it.
“I’m trying to do the right thing. The one thing I couldn’t do for Ash…
” Adam trails off. “I just…wanted you guys to know that I’m still here. ”
“It’s better than the alternative,” Sin whispers, answering my question.
“I’m not going to turn you in.” He was given an assignment that, technically, he failed. The Lords can punish him for that. They can send him to Carnage if they find out. They can have him killed right here in his house in front of his pregnant wife. He’s betrayed them.
Sin gives a rough laugh. “You think I give a fuck about me?” Shaking his head, he walks over to the cart once more, giving me his back, and pours another glass. It’s the most I’ve ever seen him drink.
“Then what’s it about?”
After downing it, he turns to face me. “The Lords made me put Elli through hell. Her entire life has been fucking hell. I bought her this house so she has a place to feel safe. To know that no matter what her days are like, she can come home, and I’ll protect her.
If the Lords find out what I didn’t do, they will kill me and regift her to another Lord who will most likely put her through more fucking hell.
And the babies…” He shakes his head. “I’d rather you think I killed your entire family than put my wife through that. ”
I swallow nervously. “I’ll never tell anyone.” He’s become one of my best friends. Hell, I consider him a brother. Sin and I didn’t have a good start, but we’ve grown close over a very short amount of time. I’d do anything for him or Elli.
“But you know,” he growls. “And that’s enough.” Walking past me, he goes over to the front door. When he opens it, I take the hint and walk toward him.
Stepping outside, I turn to face him, my chest tightening as I look over his busted face, and I clench my cracked knuckles. “Sin—”
“Goodbye, Kashton.” He shuts the door in my face, and I feel like I’ve lost another brother. A soul-crushing loneliness that whispers You’re not enough.
Being a Spade brother who lives at Carnage limits my interaction with the world. Most don’t even know we exist. So to lose another friend is a hard pill to swallow. Especially when I only have myself to blame.
It takes everything in me not to knock on the door again. To beg him to forgive me. To apologize for what I did.
Why do I lose everyone I love? Nothing in this life is guaranteed, but at some point, you have to understand that you’re the problem. I just wish I knew how to fix myself.