Page 24 of Deadly Little Hearts

Her eyes swim with darkness, holding all the power, screaming at me to do it.To slice the glass bottle across her throat.And fuck, I want to.I want to make her bleed, just like she made my mother bleed.A line of deep red blood runs down her neck.My stomach twists.God, no!

As much as I want to do this, I can’t.Not to her.I release the bottle, and it falls to the ground, shattering into a million pieces.

My gaze doesn’t leave hers as I run my thumb over the blood, collecting every drop.I bring it to my lips and run my tongue over the warm liquid.The metallic taste floods my mouth in a bitter, acrid wave.My hands shake with rage as I smear her blood over her plump lips.Her tongue glides gently against my thumb as she opens her mouth.The pressure of my cock against my slacks is impossible to ignore.

“You taste that?”I ask, and she nods.

“Good.I hope you fucking choke on your own blood for taking everything away from me,” I seethe, before stepping away.

Her eyes glaze over, her warmth disappears, and I’m left cold.It feels as though she took that bottle and drove it straight into my heart.

I turn and walk away, leaving my heart with her.

Chapter 13

Gage

Afterslidingtheweightonto the machine, I sit on the bench and check my phone for the millionth time, but there’s still no reply from Freya.This is the very reason I never wanted to let anyone into my heart, apart from my brothers.Because I end up becoming an obsessed weasel, waiting for her to reply, wanting to know where she is and what she’s doing every second of every day.It’s fucked up.She’s a grown-ass independent-as-fuck woman who doesn’t need me breathing down her neck.

I drop my phone onto the ground next to me and lie back.Gripping the metal bar, I bring it, along with the weights, to my chest and back up.Sweat drips down my head, running over my cheeks the harder I push.My muscles shake before I place it on the rack and sit back up.

The door to our gym opens, and Lucas struts in, his eyes bloodshot and his white T-shirt covered in blood.

“What the fuck happened to you?”I ask as Lucas grips the bottom of his T-shirt and lifts it over his head before tossing it to the ground.

“Nothing you need to worry about,” he snaps, moving toward the weight stand.

“When one of my brothers needs me, I’m there.But you need to let me in,” I say as he stares into the mirror as though he’s looking right through the reflection.

That faraway look in his eye is one I haven’t seen before.I’m worried about him, but there’s nothing I can say that will change his attitude.He’s a stubborn fucker like me.He won’t snap out of this until he chooses to.I just hope to fuck that’s soon.

“You’re balls deep in the problem I have.Are you going to get rid of her for me?”He looks at me through the mirror, raising both eyebrows.

“Freya’s not going anywhere, and you may hate her now, but she’s not the enemy.You either fix it with her or not—it doesn’t change anything with us.”

Lucas’s eyes turn to slits before he picks up some heavy weights and starts lifting them over his head.“Fuck off,” he grumbles under his breath, and I ignore him, falling back onto the seat and wrapping my fingers around the metal bar.

He doesn’t mean half the shit he’s saying.His heart’s been torn in half, and I get it, I really do, but he needs to stop using substances to block everything out.The sooner he deals with the pain or shoves it into the depths of his soul, the sooner he can move on and step into his role within The Brotherhood.

The heavy-metal guitars from Bring Me the Horizon start blasting from the speakers in the gym, and I finish my workout without another word to Lucas.I grab a cold towel from the fridge and a bottle of water.

I turn around, and Lucas is running on one of the treadmills against the back wall.

“Meeting in twenty in my office.Be there, or don’t.I really don’t give a fuck,” I say, before walking through the door and into the hallway.Samson and Zeke have requested an audience—and with Dominic lurking around, I’m inclined to give it to them.

Lucas needs to be there, and in the past I’d have said he will, but the way he’s been acting this last week, who knows?Over the years, we’ve learned to not feel anything, been molded into soldiers and to live and breathe The Brotherhood.That comes before all else; we signed away our hearts to it the moment we were born.

I’ve never been in love or ever felt love before her.My mother never even recognized we were there.She fled the moment our father died, and I haven’t seen her since.When my father was alive, he didn’t show any affection toward me or Amirah, just treated us like everyone else in The Brotherhood.He respected us when we earned it and punished us when we were weak.

I remember when Amirah fell off her bike as a kid and asked for a hug from our father.He laughed, his hand hitting her face.I gave her a popsicle after he left and hugged her.He saw and punished me, leaving me in a dark room for a week.

That day was a cruel reminder to never open your heart to anyone, even your little sister, but Freya has broken down every wall and reached in, grabbed my heart, and taken it.I fought so hard against the restraints, but in the end, she won.

I get now why my father taught us the way he did, because Freya is a distraction.She’s all I can think about, and I want to protect her at all costs.My brothers will always come first, but she’s next.She won’t ever have my whole heart, but fuck, she’s got half of it—and that’s all I have to offer her.

Shutting my bedroom door behind me, I head toward the bathroom, where I drop my clothes on the tiled floor.I shower quickly before dressing in black cargo pants and a plain maroon T-shirt.I hope to fuck that Lucas shows up because I’m done with his shit.I don’t have time to drag his ass there.

We need to work out how to deal with Dominic, and also how we can tell the people in Daringhood that we’re going to change the way things are done.We should also probably put it to an official vote—but how can we do that with some of the councilmen still clearly siding with Dominic?

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