Page 97 of Blood Ties
“F...” I struggle to get out. “Fuck... You...” My mouth won’t cooperate, just like the rest of my body. My head hurts real bad, every small movement sending fresh pain smashing through my skull. Even moving my eyes hurts.
“Good.” Dad looks somewhere above me, nods. “Hold him, Frank.”
Uncle Frank’s grip on me tightens — one arm across my neck, the other around my torso. He’s grunting and whimpering, his breath labored. But even with poison making a mess of his insides, he’s still plenty strong enough to hold me. I can barely move, and my body is quickly giving out on me after that fight with my dad and the blow to the head.
My dad limps out of sight and then returns, hefting something. A wrench.
“Knew this day would come eventually,” he says, slapping the heavy metal tool against his calloused palm. “Just like I challenged my own Pops when I knew the time was right.” He moves closer to me, presses the metal under my chin to force my head up. “But before I did it, my brother Judd tried it, y’know. Had to go runnin’ off with his tail between his legs after, and start all over on his own.”
He smiles, a vicious baring of all his crooked teeth. There’s a bloody gap where I knocked one out.
“I ain’t givin’ you that chance,” he says. “You’ve been doing such a good job with the grunt work since your momma died.” Even though he’s still smiling, his eyes are cold, calculating. “But we can’t have you gettin’ ideas like this into your head.”
I glare at him, gritting my teeth as I breathe hard through my nose. Whatever he does, I’m not going to scream and cry. I know how much he likes fear and pain. I’m not gonna give him the satisfaction.
“That’s what I mean,” he says. “Still too much fight for my liking.” He looks me up and down in icy assessment. “I went too far with your momma. She was useless after the amputation, even before the infection killed her. But...” He tightens his grip on the wrench, lifts it over his shoulder. “You don’t need two legs.”
The wrench whistles through the air and directly into my kneecap.
A scream tears out of my throat, a raw, painful noise I hardly recognize as my own.
When he hits me again, I don’t even remember why I was trying not to scream. The pain blasts every thought from my brain, leaving nothing behind but shrieking agony. I wail and sob, struggling against my uncle’s ironlike grip. My left boot squeaks against the tile. My right leg is nothing but red-hot pain. When I try to look down at it, all I see is blood soaking through my jeans, my leg bent at an angle that doesn’t make sense, and a white glint of bone breaking through.
“What the fuck is going on?”
Knox. His voice registers through the red haze of pain, and I reach for him like I would when I was a helpless child. Frank yanks me back, his forearm pressing harder on my neck, choking me. He lets out a wet cough, and more blood splatters across the floor, but his hold on me doesn’t falter.
“Your brother tried to stage an escape,” Dad says. His voice is even and conversational, like this is all normal. “Needed a reminder of who’s in charge around here.”
Knox stares at the ruin of my leg, the blood on the floor. So much blood.
He’s going to kill me,I want to say,Help me, Knox, he’s killing me.But the words won’t come. When I try to speak, all I manage is a pained little wheeze.
“Go find that girl,” Dad tells him.
“Handled her already.” Knox’s eyes stay on me even as he talks to Dad.
I stare at him, heart sinking, trying to determine if he’s telling the truth. But his face is stonelike, unreadable.
“Then go handle the body,” Dad snaps, impatient.
Knox’s chin juts out, stubborn as always. “That’s Kai’s job.”
Dad sneers. “Your brother’s indisposed. Get out of here, Knox, and make yourself useful, ‘less you want to catch a beating yourself.”
Knox looks at him, looks at Frank, looks at me. I try to speak again, but Frank’s meaty arm crushes against my neck, stopping me.Help me, I try to beg with my eyes.
“You need a reminder of who’s in charge too?” Dad asks, lifting the wrench already dripping with my blood.
Knox shakes his head, scowling in disgust, and turns to go.
“Knox,” I manage to wheeze out, before Frank chokes me again.
He pauses in the doorway. Sighs and rakes a hand through his hair. “You really made a mess this time, Kai,” he says, and leaves me here.
Dad grins at the look on my face. He bends down, uses the bloodied wrench to push my chin up again. “Did you think he was going to help you?” He huffs a laugh. “Your brother has always understood the way things work around here, Kai. That’s the difference between the two of you.” He removes the wrench, and my head slumps toward my chest. I don’t have any fight left in me.I’m sorry, Riley,I think.I’m sorry, Momma.In the end, I was too weak to save anyone. Stupid of me to think otherwise.
Dad lifts the wrench again, rolls his shoulder back. “You’ve always been too dumb to understand—”
