Page 59 of Twins for the Enemy

“It is. You’re blinded by your ideals about loyalty to someone who doesn’t have any loyalty to you.”

I let out a slow breath through my nose. “Kieran, you can’t go after him.”

“I’d rather cut out my own tongue than let him walk free,” Kieran says, his lip curling up in distaste. “If he was inside the store, then he knew people were inside. I’m also going to be fully aware of what I do to him.”

He turns away, heading out of the den. I lurch over to him, grabbing his arm.

“You can’t go after him. You have to forgive him,” Iplead.

He stares at me. “That’s the thing you don’t understand, Farah. I don’t have to do anything. But I’m going to. I’m going to burn him until I’m satisfied that he knows what it feels like.”

“You won’t even leave him alone for me?” I ask.

Our eyes lock, the flickering, foliage green against the unrelenting timber brown.

“No,” he says. “I won’t.”

He tries to get past me, but I pull myself in front of him, quickly heading toward the doors. As soon as I’m outside, I take off running.

I need to get to Neal before Kieran reaches him. Again and again, I do the same thing to Neal. I let him take the punches from our father because I was too afraid of pain. I let him take the emotional burden of being fired from my job because I was too weak to carry it myself.

I’ve led violence right to his door again. I thought I’d been falling in love with a man when he was always awolf, one who only wanted to sharpen his teeth before going in for the kill.

As the cab rushes to my brother’s apartment, all the ways this could end spiral in my mind, and they’re all terrifying.

Kieran and Neal are on a collision course, one that can only end with scraping metal and broken bones. One or both of them will go to prison. Kieran already sees me as an enemy, and Neal will soon feel the same way.

I’ve burned my bridges while I’m still standing in the center of them.

I grip tightly onto my arms, staring out through the windshield like I’ll be able to see into the future and come up with the perfect scheme to avoid disaster.

The only strategies that appear are turning myself in to the police or running for theborder.

The driver looks back at me, an uncertain expression tensing his face. I must look like I’m about to do something dangerous—because I am, when I’m planning to throw myself in between two men who would rather die than give up an inch.

I shove my hands into my pockets, trying to relax my shoulders and look like I’m only headed back home, but it feels like the exact opposite. In my right pocket, I feel Kieran’s credit card, my thumb brushing against the diamond in the corner of it.

Diamonds represent so many things: wealth, resilience, commitment, invaluable worth. All qualities I’ve never had.

I thought, at the very least, I could say I was loyal. I thought I was committed to Neal and resilient against the struggles that seemed to swallow us whole.

But a stranger broke down my walls so easily and got me to confess to Neal’s sin that loyalty may as well be an imaginary concept like time travel or getting my life together.

After the driver stops, I hesitate to pay with Kieran’s credit card. I use it, but I vow to pay him back for it. I’m not going to owe him anything. I’ll cut all ties between us like he’s a frayed part of my jeans.

Running up the stairs to Neal’s apartment, I make a checklist of things we’ll need to do to prepare to be on the run.

We’ll grab his clothes and shove them in a bag.

If he has any money in the bank, we’ll get it out.

We’ll get some hair dye and some fake glasses. Kieran could have called his connections to the police already, so we’ll need to be more invisible than I was the first time I fled Chicago.

We’ll need to separate to lessen our chance of being recognized. I won’t tell Neal right away. I didn’t take him with me the first time because I knew he couldn’t handle the changes, but we don’t have a choice this time. I’ll give him time to adjust, then tell him I need to leave.

Maybe that’s not the right choice. I know better than anyone that getting comfortable with someone and losing them is worse than never knowing them. I know Kieran will haunt me for the next decade. I can only hope he’ll fade after that.

I knock on the door, but it sounds so fumbled, I wouldn’t blame Neal for thinking it’s someone drunkenly stumbling against the door.