18 Kit
All the others left, but Kayos remained.
Over my shoulder, I could sense him, and his criticism he wanted to give me for killing the one link to finding Saul.
There were other things in play and protecting my identity was the biggest. I could hunt the bastard down from the clues this idiot had already given, but Kayos didn’t know the evils of his father’s righthand man.
I shook the canister over every surface to make sure we got the job done, dosing everything in gasoline.
There was a certain level of professionalism clean ups required, and that meant burning bodies into ash to remove any evidence that we were here.
Never stopping what I was doing, I kept my back to him.
“You know, if you helped pour gas, we’d be out of here faster. ”
Yeah, I fucked up by opening my mouth. Kayos couldn’t get over my stunt. “Are we going to talk about what just happened back there?”
“I did my job,” I grumbled.
“You killed our only link to who’s behind this!” he shouted in return, showing how rapidly he progressed to being flustered by my choice. In all honesty, I’d been surprised I got Kashmir to go with Raphael, but I think he understood more than Kayos wanted to read into the situation.
Dumping the last bit of gas on the kitchen floor, I threw the canister at his feet.
He wanted to play hardball? Well, I stood as the fucking pitcher of this game, not the catcher.
“I signed up to save your sorry asses! I’m putting my men on the line to help all of you, but there’s things that cost too much, and I won’t pay the price for it.
My identity getting leaked isn’t worth what you’re asking.
You have no idea how that would ruin my empire! ”
Moving to the door, I didn’t care that the bedrooms weren’t coated.
The kitchen would blow enough up to handle it in this size of place.
He knew to get the hell out before I threw the match with him inside, catching the screen door behind me in my haste.
We moved just far enough away to not be pulverized by the blow.
Kayos waited until I threw the flame, walking to the bikes before opening his mouth. He also swung his aggravated body my way to show how mad I made him. “He knew who was behind this! You killed him before we found out!”
“It’s because he already told me who he was!
” I screamed back, pushing off the toe of one boot to show I wouldn’t back down.
Everything inside of me hated it, knowing his Alpha essence I used to cower respectfully to.
My eyes drew away first, more from longing than submission, and my head shook.
My voice quieted for me to rationalize with him.
“I know who we’re up against, so please just trust me that he had to die before anything about me was leaked. ”
“Who?” Kayos yelled from being so angry at me, not seeing the white flag I waved. We made our way into the woods, stepping loudly on the broken twigs. He at least was willing to move to our bikes.
“The same person I’ve been hunting since you abandoned me.”
The house exploded in the background but neither of us were paying any attention to it as I loaded up my supplies on the back of my bike. We were both used to it, so it didn’t bother us anymore. “Abandoned you? How could you ever think that?”
“Because I’m a trailer trash Omega,” I scoffed, knowing I had my own repressed rage from that time in our lives. “I never belonged at your sides. I never had a purpose in this frail existence we call life, so you left and found better.”
“Fuck that!” Just like Ryatt, he gripped me by the neck, cutting off my air supply completely.
He guided my feet by brute force. My back slammed into the trunk of a large oak tree.
It hurt enough to make me wince, but I never let him see my fear.
“We left you for school! We felt guilty about having you when you deserved something better than us!”
Ryatt and Kayos weren’t completely identical.
Kayos’s hair was a shade sunnier than Ryatt’s to have a lighter brown hue.
Under the sun, I noticed some blond highlights in it too.
Their eyes were the same sea of blue, piercing me to the core with their icy gazes.
Right over Kayos’s left eye was a faint scar he got when we were still in high school.
He was too beautiful to look at, and it made my insides ache being so close to him again.
“Horse shit!” My words were broken in sound, but he could read my lips to understand.
Letting my throat go just a smidge, my nostrils flared.
“You left because I wasn’t what your daddy wanted.
I was a trailer trash Omega, and that’s what I became when you went to your fancy private school.
Keep telling yourself you would’ve protected me, but we both know it was my class that clashed with yours. ”
His fury only made him stunning, and I could nearly taste his anger.
“We didn’t know you were a target until we left.
We came right back once Saul told us! We never would’ve gone had we known someone would target you, and you best believe we were fucking broken when we couldn’t find you.
You have no idea what it did to us when Saul said you were gone, and we didn’t get back in time to save you.
” Pausing, he let his eyes fall to my bite.
“I’d rather see this mark on your neck by someone else than lose you completely, but don’t think for one second I’m not filled with rage because it should be mine!
YOU should’ve been mine.” His thumb stroked over the risen skin where I burned myself.
Snorting, I rolled my eyes to disengage my hope, knowing my heartbeat would give me away.
“Seriously? That’s what you choose to say to me?
Fuck you, Kayos! That’s the dumbest, stupidest thing to ever leave your mouth!
Where does it make sense in that brain of yours to abandon me in the worst part of town for school but come back for a threat that probably never existed?
Then to get off by saying I should’ve been yours, but you didn’t mark me! ”
“Saul had the proof, and we came!” he argued. Gripping my neck tighter, my hands took hold of his forearm to get him to stop. “I saw it, Kit! I saw them watching you through the videos Saul showed us, so we rushed back! How do you think I’ve been living all these years knowing I was too late?”
I snapped. He kept saying the one name that triggered this whole thing, spiraling my life into complete darkness. Everything that transpired was become of that man, and he kept talking about him like he did a good thing instead of stab them in the back.
“You stupid fuck! Saul was the one who sold me!” There, the truth was officially out between us. Kayos widened his eyes at my outburst, but I wasn’t done. “You keep talking like he was some kind of hero? He planted all that shit and paid my mom to take me off her hands for his own buyers!”
My eyes were wild and untamed, showing the level of crazy I had reached after being completely broken.
Kayos got closer, judging me with his Alpha dominance to see the honesty in my stare.
Letting my gaze fall, his power demanded it, and I knew I was about to cry.
I couldn’t come back after confessing what not many knew.
Only Anika and Raphael did because they were who found me after that hell.
“You left me… you let them hurt me. You went to that fucking school, but you didn’t take me with you.
YOU didn’t mark me to protect me!” His grip loosened on my neck, releasing me to lift my chin.
The hand that nearly killed me was now supporting me.
Shaking my head, I didn’t want the trauma to be real.
The phantom touches of the savage men were ghosting my body as I fought off the nightmares my memories stirred.
My chest heaved as the anxiety attacked it, constricting how much air I could inhale.
“Kit?” Kayos worried. His hands kept touching my face, so I tried to anchor myself to it.
His stance changed from interrogation to crutch.
He now had me pinned against the tree because I couldn’t stand on my own two feet anymore.
His hands kept gripping my trembling body as my mind collapsed. “I need you to tell me what happened.”
“No,” I pleaded in tears, shaking my head.
My eyes couldn’t open because my mind was trying to trick me that I never left that dingy room, my ankles shackled to the wall.
“Don’t make me remember. Don’t make me relive it.
” I couldn’t breathe, shadows creeping in along my vision.
My mantra tried to find me, but the PTSD hit me too fast. “I’m strong… I’m-”
I wasn’t. The past found me in my present, and my terror only spiraled. Kayos caged me into his chest, cradling me to him. “What do you need? What can I do?”
I shook my head, detecting how the silhouettes lurked inside my room. They were the very reason I feared the dark. Nothing could prevent the trauma from surfacing once it snapped open, so I descended deeper into my damage.
“I try to forget, but I can’t. I made myself stronger, but I’m still too weak to face it.
Kay, it’s crippling me.” I rubbed my snotty nose into his chest. Inhaling his scent, I let it take over, remembering the spicy musk I’d wake to each morning when I felt like they still loved me before it.
“Tell me something to make me forget. Please, say something to stop it. Anything,” I begged.
His words were quick like he wanted a reason to blurt them out. “I never stopped loving you,” he murmured.
That was enough to break my mind during the collapse. My eyes widened, staring up into his to see he was on the brink of crying himself. I knew my eyes were red and puffy, but he only looked at me like he found his lost treasure. Shaking my head, I wasn’t sure if I heard him correctly. “W-what?”