Chapter 23
Chapter Twenty-Three
Amirah
I’m going insane, staring at the white ceiling of this room that’s been my prison for ten days. I need to get out. Fresh air. I’ve been running laps around the room just to burn off energy. The food they’ve been bringing me is boring, bland, but it’s better than starving to death.
Bear came into my room last night. I felt his presence, but I didn’t make a sound or move.
He slipped inside the sheets and pulled me against his body.
His warmth wrapped around me, and I fell back asleep.
I woke to an empty bed and an even more confused heart.
Why do I find comfort in him when he’s the one who took me? What makes him feel so . . . safe?
I haven’t seen Kai or Zion since yesterday. It’s quiet inside Bear’s playhouse. Maybe they’ve left and deserted me for good? Doubt that.
I should be trying to escape, but it’s useless. I’ve looked everywhere inside these four walls, and there’s no getting out of here unless someone lets me out or leaves the door open. Bear may be a lot of things, but he isn’t stupid. I’m his captive, and he won’t let me go without a fight.
The way he looked at me when he grabbed my fingers covered in my own juices and put them in his mouth .
. . fuck. Warmth pulses through my body just thinking about it, and that worries the hell out of me.
He captured me, took me against my will, and I’m his prisoner.
He shouldn’t have this effect on me. I hate him.
Even as I think those words, I hardly believe them anymore.
Being here, being around him, has become familiar.
Now I’m sounding like the crazy one. But Bear doesn’t scare me. I think, deep down, he just wants to be accepted, even loved, and I don’t believe he’s ever felt that way before. He left a new journal on my bed the other night, and it’s been my savior.
The more time I spend with each of them, the more confused I get. I may still be a prisoner, held against my will, but I feel like I’m important when I’m around them. I feel seen.
The door creaks open, and I sit up straighter on my bed. Kai comes in carrying a tray of food, and my stomach rumbles.
He places the tray down on the bed, his biceps bulging. My fingers grip the duvet as I hold back the urge to reach out.
“Have you showered today?” he asks, his voice deep.
I nod, reaching for half of the toasted sandwich. I expect him to leave, but he doesn’t. He sits there silently while I eat. All I can hear is the beat of my heart and the crunch of bread.
In some fucked-up way, being around Kai makes me feel protected.
Safe. He would never hurt me. Like he always protects Freya.
I once thought he really loved her, but I’ve come to see it’s more brotherly love than the romantic kind.
Is there someone else he has feelings for?
He’s not wearing a ring, but does he have a girlfriend? A sidepiece? A whole harem of women?
We’ve spoken a little each day when he’s come to bring me food and take my laundry. But never anything deep—never anything beyond surface level.
“Do you have family here?” I ask, and a muscle in his neck ticks.
He looks around the room before settling his intense brown eyes back on me. There’s a lost look in them, and I think I’ve just hit a nerve.
We sit in silence, both eating. I finish my sandwich, and when I think he won’t answer, he opens his mouth. “I had a sister when I was a kid,” he says quietly, and I rest back on my hands. Did, past tense.
“What happened to her?”
He lets out a heavy exhale, then shifts on the bed to face me, and I can’t look away. “She died.” His voice falls and tears pool in his eyes. Poor guy.
I rest my hand on his, and he doesn’t pull away. “I’m so, so sorry,” I say, biting my lip. “How?” I ask, and part of me isn’t sure I want to know.
“Your precious Brotherhood killed her.” His eyes turn into slits, and he pulls his hand from under mine. It feels like a bucket of cold water has been thrown over me.
“Oh my God,” I say. “They wouldn’t.” My chest rises and falls fast. There’s no way my brother or Lucas or Hazen did this. They’d never hurt a woman. No.
Kai pushes off the bed and stands in front of me. “They did. Right in front of me.” His eyes are watery, and I want to comfort him.
But when I reach out, he steps backward. My heart aches for him, even as anger rolls beneath my skin. I can’t believe this.
“Tell me who,” I say before I can think.
Part of me wants to know—the other doesn’t. I grew up inside The Brotherhood. They are my family. Even though they aren’t good people, they’d never harm a kid. I refuse to believe it. But the look on Kai’s face, the anger radiating from him—it’s not fake, and that kills me.
“We lived in one of those Brotherhood-controlled units. You know the type—not enough space to swing a cat, no air conditioning, but it was a roof, and it kept us safe after my parents died. But then came the eviction notice plastered on our door.” He lowers his gaze to the ground, and I want to reach out to comfort him. To take away the pain.
“We ignored it because we had nowhere else to go. It was either a roof over our head or the streets. We didn’t have a choice.” Kai runs a hand through his mousy-brown hair.
There’s pain still evident in his gaze. He lives with this every day.
I wish we could burn all the rules to the ground.
That there wasn’t a divide between us. Between classes.
Rich versus poor. Being here, inside this amusement park, I’ve only seen a little glimpse of what life is like in Daringhood.
It’s so different from what I’m used to.
At home, I have someone looking after me.
Picking up everything. I literally don’t have to do a thing.
Here, they have to work for what they need.
Without it, there’s no food. No resources.
No clothes. I can’t even imagine what it’s like on the streets.
“Part of me wishes that we had listened to their warnings. That we’d left before it was too late. But I can’t change what happened next, as much as it kills me.” Kai bites his bottom lip, and I inch forward on the bed.
I stay silent, giving him the space to talk. To tell his story.
“They came in the middle of the night. Ripped down our door. I still hear her screams.” He stops, his forehead scrunched together.
“She protected me, pushed me into the closet and shut me inside. She always did everything in her power to hide me from the bad in the world. I didn’t want her to leave me alone.” His voice drops, and my heart breaks for him. For her.
“How old were you?” I ask.
Kai’s throat bobs. “Seven.” Just a kid.
“I peered through the crack in the closet. My sister stood in the bedroom, and then they came in.” Kai’s chest rises and falls.
“Who?” I lick my dry lips, my grip tightening around the duvet.
“Hazen, Lucas, Gage, and Dominic,” he says, and the ground beneath me swallows me whole.
No. I don’t prompt him to continue. I’m not sure I want to hear the rest. It’s too much. This can’t be real, but I need to know the truth. My brother would have only been ten.
“They shot her. He took away my sister,” Kai says, a few tears falling down his cheek.
I stand up and wrap my arms around his waist. He stays completely still for a beat before his arms melt around my back. I rest my ear against his chest, the thump thump of his heart the only thing keeping me from losing my shit.
Pulling back slightly, I look up into his brown gaze. I want to take it all away. No one should have to go through something like this. I understand now why he’s so protective of Freya. Of women. He couldn’t save his sister. She died protecting him.
“Who pulled the trigger?” I ask, and my ears begin to ring. Please don’t be my brother. I can’t bear that truth.
“Dominic did. He said he wanted to make an example of us—that it’s what happens when you don’t pay your dues to The Brotherhood,” he says, and part of me is relieved, but the other part is angry. Why does everything have to end in violence? So many innocent lives are lost because of money.
“And your brother and his friends didn’t save her, either.” He steps back and keeps moving until the door slams shut. His warmth vanishes, and I’m left shivering.
It’s no wonder he can’t stand me or The Brotherhood.
His need for revenge runs deep. They are responsible for the death of his sister, and all for what?
Money. Power. If I ever get out of here, I won’t allow this to go on any longer.
I’m going to fight for change. For peace. And I won’t stop until I have it.