Page 71 of Pray for Scars
“Because you know Ria is going to die, too, don’t you, man?” I can hear him breathing, and I’m surprised it’s so steady. He must be taking lessons from Cain on controlling his temper. He’s shit at it, though. This won’t last long. He needs to snap, before I do. Before I throw Jeremiah Rain from the twentieth floor of this apartment complex like I should have done in that hotel two weeks ago.
I don’t care.
I don’t care.
I think it over and over and over again in my head.
The same thing I used to do when Pammie’s hands were all over me. When I came all over her hand and wanted to die every fucking time.
I don’t care.
“Ria is going to die eventually, and one of our parents are going to kill her. Or maybe make you do it, to teach you a lesson.” I step closer, wrap my hand around the back of his neck, pull him into me so I’m whispering in his ear. He doesn’t fight me back. Not yet.
“Ria is no better off than Sid Rain, Mav. They’re both going to end up in ashes, their pretty little faces turned to nothing but dust. Their bodies nothing but charred bits of bone. And you’re not going to stop it, are you? Because you don’t love her.” My fingers dig into his skin. “You don’t love her, and you can’t make yourself do it. You just loved how she felt around your dick, and you didn’t want to stop.”
I laugh against his skin and I swear he shivers.
“It’s so hard to stop, isn’t it? When they’re that pretty and that smart? But she’s signed the NDA. She knew the truth before we did, and she went to you for help. But you put her in Maddox’s path, and just like with Brooklin, your father made sure, after that night, she kept her fucking mouth shut. Because she knew Sid had it coming. Knew Sid Rain wasn’t supposed to exist. And yet you still can’t keep your fucking mouth off of her, can you? Trying to hurt her bad enough that she’ll want to die, is that what you’re doing, Mav? Or do you just like to torture your prey before you go in for the kill?”
And then he snaps.
It’s a roar that escapes his lips, his hands going to my chest, shoving me backward so hard I slam into the wall by the door, my head thudding against it. He charges toward me, his hands going to my throat. He slams my head again and again against the wall, and I start seeing stars. But I don’t try to fight him back. I’ve taken worse hits.
I laugh instead, and that pisses him off even more, just like I thought it might.
He didn’t bring Ria to the party three weeks ago, before we fucked up the Rain mansion. He tried to cut her off, tried to bury his pain into Sid.
My girl.
The laughter dies from my lips as he makes to slam my head against the wall again, and my hands go to his upper arms, shoving them up and off of me.
He’s breathing hard and we stand like that, in a fighting stance, inches from each other, hatred in each of our eyes.
But it’s not to one another.
No. I fuckingloveMaverick. It’s why, if Sid had to fuck someone else to get it out of her system, I’d pick him over and over again.
The hatred is never for him.
It’s to what they made us.
What the 6, with their money and their power and their fucking lack of basic human dignity, made us do. What they created, when we were only boys. What they did to Maverick’s sister, Brooklin. Tossing her out, into the streets to be ate up by someone as twisted as Jeremiah Rain. The girls never learn anything in our families. None but the wives, because their lives are on the line. But the girls, well, the 6 keep their secrets from them because then when they have to do something like shove them out of the house for dishonor, they can’t take many secrets with them.
That hatred in our eyes is to my father, who knows I’ve fucked up, trying to interfere in his business. His plans for Sid. But he’s letting me play the game, so it’ll hurt worse when they get her. I don’t know why he wants her. I don’t know who she is to him, but me and Mav both know something about these girls of ours.
They’re both going to die, no matter what we do.
Sacrifices.
Punishment.
For us, daring to feel something more than lust or cold calculation. Daring to fall for girls we might not wanna marry or bind to us.
At least in Maverick’s case.
But me…
I’d marry the shit out of Sid. Even if she hated me, even if she never wanted to fuck me again. Even if she fucked everyone else in this whole goddamn state, I’d marry the shit out of her to stop what’s coming.
