Page 35 of Penance

“It means you cannot follow a simple instruction; you were told no working.”

My mouth opens to interrupt, to tell him thatSidneywas not ajob.That Sidney was all about personal gain for me. Hacking up one of my rapists felt like the most enrapturing experience I could have ever hoped for. I don’t know why I waited so long to do it. Sidney stalked me in the shadows at a coffee shop, made everyone think I summoned him from the deepest recesses of my mind. Made me start to think I’d imagined his presence. I didn’t, he was there, watching me, I didn’t ask him why. I didn’t care why at the time. I definitely should have gotten that out of him first, still, where there is one rat there is always another. It wasn’t a wasted experience. I feellightthis morning. Despite the throbbing pain in my hand.

Plus, the event that followed afterwards was nothing short of legendary. I will never forget that for as long as I live. Couldn’t if I wanted to.

I’m branded.

Not just my skin with fresh scars, my soul is singed too. Steeped in blood, carnage and wicked declarations of the darkest kind of love.

But Jacob holds a single finger in the air between us, hushing my rebuttal before it even begins.

“You were told,” he begins, his bright emerald eyes locking onto mine as he starts to count out points on his hand.

His eyes are slightly different to his brothers’, they’ve all got emerald green, pure and thick and solid in colour. Whereas Jacob’s have a heavenly hint of glacial blue in them, a ring right at the very centre, circling his pupil. Albeit beautiful, it makes him feelcoldsometimes.

“No jobs, no stakeouts, no enforcing, no plotting, no kidnapping.” His eyes narrow on me at that one.

His strong jaw clenching as he holds his hand up in the air, his comments currently tallying five on his thick fingers and thumb.

“And certainly, nokilling,” he hisses the word like it burns him to force it through his teeth, like he’s so far beyond that.

Never one to get his hands dirty, is he, our Jacob.

“And so, you will be punished for not following orders. You know how these things work, Kyla-Rose, you should have followed instructions. But then, we both know that’s why you find yourself in these situations so often.”

He pauses, tutting as he drops his gaze back down to his paper, essentially dismissing me. I half turn away, my back mostly to him, ready to storm out of the kitchen to cool down. I don’t want to always argue with him, despite what he thinks, when he mutters beneath his breath.

“Like mother, like daughter.”

I spin around sharply, gaping at him for a long second, my mind completely reeling, is this some sort ofjoke. What the fuck is happening here? Who evenisthis man?

“Um, excuse you, arsehole, firstly,punished?What the fuck is this shit?!” I shout, slamming my good hand down on the counter between us. My fingers splayed wide as I stare him down.

“‘Like mother, like daughter’, huh?” I mock.

Steam practically billowing out of my ears, my temperature skyrocketing as he frowns up at me.

“Who the fuck do you think you are? You don’t even work for Dee! Now you’re here, sitting inmyfucking house, eatingmyfucking food, likeyouown the goddamn place! I don’t know what sort of fucking authority you suddenly think you have over me, but you havenone, Jacob.Fucking none. No one fucking controls me, not anymore. So don’t you dare come in here, readingmethe rules, tellingme, what I can and cannot do. That’s not your fucking job!” I scream, my rage flaring so hot, I see red.

“Why are you losing your temper over something so trivial, just take your punishment, whatever that may be, learn your lesson, do better next time. It’s really not that hard,is it?Stop being so sensitive,” he tilts his head, looking at me like I’m some sort of idiot. “As for the mother-daughter comment, where the hell did that come from?” he scoffs dismissively, once again returning his attention to his fucking paper.

I turn in temper back to the fridge, pushing down the intense need to wrap my fingers around his throat. I grasp the door handle instead, pulling it open and slamming the door closed, over and over and over. The suction on the door makes me rip it open harder and harder with every tug. My breath panting through my lungs, I finally fling it shut and turn back to him. My finger pointing in his face as Nox and Kacey appear in the open space behind Jacob, but we both ignore them, this is between us.

“You fuckingwhat?Sensitive?” I hiss. “You throwing mydeadmother in my face is me beingsensitive?‘Like mother, like daughter’you said! I fucking heard you.”

I blink at him, suddenly at a complete loss for words as he stares at me with confusion. My vision blurs as I heave in short, shallow breaths.

“I think this is a slight overreaction,” Jacob sighs, likeI’mthe one testinghispatience. “Do you need something to calm you down, Kyla-Rose? I’m sure you must be in a lot of pain with that injury.”

A blonde brow slowly tracking up his forehead, ignoring my comments on his hushed bullshit. He folds his hands together, elbows resting on the counter, chin sitting on his knuckles.

“I can prescribe you some pain killers. Have you been smoking weed? You’ll knock yourself out with too much of a mixture,” he offers, like his words hold any weight, as if they meanany-fucking-thingto me at all.

I stand back, shaking my head, my fingers raking through my long hair.

“Who even are you?” I ask, my face pulled into a mask of confusion. “You cannot just pretend like I didn’t hear you! MY MOTHER, JACOB!” I scream, pulling on my hair so hard, strands snap and curl around my sweat slicked fingers. “You sit here, so high and mighty, like a fuckingking. You won’t get your hands dirty, but you’ll comment on my fuckingmother?”

“Kyla-Rose, I didn’t say anything about your mother,” he says quietly, calmly, squinting at me slightly, a different expression, a different face.

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