Page 241 of Chaos Kills

It doesn’t matter what Cairo wants to believe. A brotherhood isn’t going to save us from what I’ve done. My brain battles with itself every single fucking day. On every piece of decision-making that has led me to this point.

Judah versus Bay.

My loyalty versus the love I had for a girl who used to look at me like I was the world.

She might not ever admit it to me, and I don’t need her to. Not now, not ever. I’ve done enough already to destroy that story—ours—the one where we made changes and got rid of this rivalry once and for all.

And while that still might be the plan, my heart doesn’t know any differently. It still throbs unceremoniously for the girl who stole my soul a long time ago. Someone who—by the opinions and standards of some people here—didn’t put the last shot in my brother.

That Matteo De Leon is the piece of shit who will do everything he can to sever ties between Bay and my brothers.

And it might be the truth.

Let’s say it is.

It still doesn’t mean this isn’t all fucked-up. I’ve already created more chaos in a situation that plummeted the moment I found out. That De Leon and she were there with my brother when he took his last breath.

She may have not killed him, but she was there.

He died.

And I can’t help thinking if she didn’t try to save him. If she led him on and had him ambushed. If De Leon used her to get Judah into those woods.

“I wanted to make sure we’re all on the same page.”

“We’re not,” Reeve carps out, rising from the couch. “You stupid motherfuck—” Cairo shoves him, but Reeve was counting on that, moving aside and slipping past just to elbow him backward.

Then my brother is on me.

I’m halfway to my feet to meet Reeve, but his weight slams me back into the furniture, and I grunt from all the air leaving my lungs.

He delivers—what some people may call a punch and others a fucked-up attempt to slap—to the side of my head before I’m using his coked-up stupor to launch him off me.

The smashing of glass resonates through the air, but Reeve doesn’t stop in his attempt to fuck me up. No, he wraps his hands around my neck and begins to squeeze at the same moment I throw a closed-fisted punch to his ribs.

Crimson begins to form at his bicep underneath his blue tee, still not stopping his attempt to make me pay for almost murdering the love of his life.

The love of mine.

Cairo then latches onto the back of his shirt, heaving him away before I’m caught with five of his clenched knuckles to the cheek.

That’s going to be a stronghell nofor me.

My heel strikes his upper thigh as he stumbles back a bit. My low blow of catching his balls falls short when Cairo tries to get Reeve under control again.

Finally able to get on my feet, Cairo slams his closed fist into my face, causing me to fall back to the couch with a grunt.

Yep.

That’s what I was waiting for.

Not only is it fucking annoying that Cairo thinks he has a say in the matter, but the sophisticated, stay-away-from-her narrative that he’s been preaching at us for months falls short. Especially when he has been nothing but against Bay and me from the start.

I don’t give a fuck what I did. He doesn’t get to waltz in and save her now.

“You don’t pull that shit again,” he chides me like he has any right to while getting on my feet again. “You’re done with that petty-ass—” My forehead slams into his as I launch myself forward and catch him off guard.

I swear to God, it takes everything in Cairo not to knock me the fuck out because he could. I’m not a hundred percent right now because I’m halfway through a bottle of bourbon, but he’s a better fighter than me, that’s for sure.

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