Page 98 of Blood Ties
A gunshot deafens me.
I fall to the tile, head spinning, unsure what the fuck just happened. My ears are ringing so loud I can’t even make out what my dad is shouting. I roll onto my side and look up to see that Uncle Frank has staggered back against the counter, his face twisted in shock and pain, one hand against the fresh hole in his gut. He groans in pain, red-tinged froth bubbling out of his lips.
I swing my head to the side, and see Knox standing in the doorway with a gun in his hand. It takes me a second to recognize it — it’s the gun he stole from that girl in the kitchen, one of the ones we killed together. He swings it toward our dad, finger still on the trigger. But the barrel of the gun trembles slightly, and he doesn’t fire again.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Dad shouts, his voice finally clearing through the noise in my head. Frank is howling like an animal in the corner.
“Same thing I always do,” Knox says. He glances at me. “Get up.”
I grab on to the edge of the counter and haul myself up, teeth grit, straining with the effort. But I don’t dare put pressure on my messed-up leg.
“Come to me,” Knox says, keeping the gun trained on Dad.
“Where do you think you’re gonna go?” Dad asks. “You two idiots can’t do shit by yourselves.”
“Kai,” Knox snaps. “Let’s get out of here.”
I slowly lift my head. “Where’s Riley?”
A muscle twitches in his jaw. “That’s what you’re worried about?”
Leaning heavily against the counter, I reach over and slide the biggest knife out of the butcher block as I meet my brother’s eyes. “Where is she?”
“We’re not doing this right now. Come on. I just saved your ass.”
My grip tightens on the knife’s handle. Knox’s eyes widen, slightly, as he sees the look on my face. It feels like it’s just the two of us for a moment, face to face. Dad is just a blip on the periphery of my vision, still gripping the wrench. A tense silence stretches out to its breaking point.
I realize, a second too late, that Frank has stopped wailing, and that neither Knox nor I are looking at him. Knox seems to realize it at the same instant, and we both turn, just in time for him to get on his feet and lurch toward my brother, much faster than a man his size should be able to move.
He slams into Knox like a truck. The gun goes off, sending shards of tile flying. I stumble out of the way, off-balance, just as Dad lunges at me with the wrench.
I can’t dodge. Not with this leg. So I brace myself, turning my shoulder toward him to take the blow, and then grab onto him and bring us both crashing to the floor. Snarling, he draws back the wrench and hits me again, a skull-rattling blow across my jaw. My teeth cut into my cheek, and my mouth fills with blood, but when I turn back to my dad I’m grinning.
He pauses, looks down, and finally registers the knife in my hand, sunk deep into his stomach. I twist the handle and shove it deeper, and he coughs up a mouthful of blood in my face. He tries to lift the wrench again, but I yank out the knife and shove it between his ribs.
He drops the wrench, fumbles with weak fingers at the knife’s handle. I grip it hard, refusing to let go as I watch the color drain from his face.
“You... useless boy...” He gasps out. “Never shoulda... let you live...”
He slumps to the side, taking my knife with him.
For a moment I lay on the tile, breathing. It’s hard to believe he’s really dead. My father, the source of pain and fear for such a long time. The man who killed my mother, beat me, kept me pressed under the heel of his boot for all of my life.
I’m free.
I feel a flicker of triumph, but then it’s smothered by the darkness pressing in on the edges of my vision. I’m still bleeding out fast, and right now it’s hard to bring myself to care. A part of me always knew it would end like this. There was never gonna be a happy ending for someone like me. The best I could hope for was taking my dad down with me.
But one last worry presses through the haze of blood loss.Riley. Was Knox being honest? Did he really...?
Oh, fuck. Knox.
I strain to lift my head from the tile. My whole body feels so fucking heavy, but I manage to drag myself out from beneath my father’s body and drag myself toward the living room, where Knox and Uncle Frank disappeared.
It’s so quiet in there. I know what I’ll find, but I still need to see it. I drag myself through the doorway on my hands and my working leg, and then stop at the sight of Knox’s boots. He’s laid out on the floor facedown, very still, blood pooling around him. I spare a glance to verify that Uncle Frank is slumped against the wall unmoving as well, and crawl toward my brother.
He killed Riley,a voice whispers in the back of my mind.
He saved my life.
