Twenty-six

Pov

Tessa

"Tess," he starts, but I reach out and push Elijah away from me. Instead of keeping up the charade, he removes his mask and tosses it onto the overturned table.

"You guys are disgusting," I retort, watching as the guy with the gun removes his mask too, revealing himself to be Cooper Graves. His blond hair is wild, and he looks extremely amused.

"Hey, when the Two Bastard Bishops ask you for a favor, you gotta go all the way," Cooper lazily smiles as if he's not a psychotic killer. "Who spilled the beans?"

I move to push past them, but Elijah nudges me back toward Bennett, who wraps an arm around me. It's not a loving gesture, but he knows I'm about to bolt, and he doesn't want to spend the night tracking me through the forest, I'm sure.

"Answer, sweetheart," Bennett growls, clearly angry that his plan didn't work out.

"Your Little Fox told me," I retort, and I see a look of confusion briefly shine on Elijah's face before he realizes, and his eyes lower to his hands.

"Damn it," Mason snarls.

"I guess we've done all we can. She volunteered instead of choosing one of you. Maybe you guys need to learn to share," Cooper says, winking as Elijah starts walking toward him, dragging his bat behind him. "Right, Eli?" He's not wrong. I was prepared to go with them, knowing they could have raped or killed me, just to protect the two idiots who set all this up.

"I'm not the one to advise on sharing," Elijah grumbles, clearly annoyed at the mere idea of sharing his Little Fox with anyone else. "I'd say they'd have to pry her from my cold, dead hands..." he pauses, leaning against the door before finishing, "but let's be honest, if I go, she's coming with me."

"Why the hell is this taking so long?" Gray demands, pushing past Elijah with Remington and Tanner in tow. My stomach churns just looking at the older Rhodes brother. He doesn't say anything, but the way his eyes are boring into my skin makes me sick. Gray doesn't give anyone a chance to respond before pointing at me, his stormy gray eyes narrowed in nothing but pure annoyance. "Did you choose one of these idiots?"

"I'd rather die than let them near me again," I spit, and Bennett tightens his grip on me.
"That can be arranged. I'll take you out and end your misery now," Gray offers, leveling Mason with a look as he shuffles on his feet. "Calm down, Mase."
"Everyone out," Bennett finally demands.
"Nobody's gonna tell us who she chose so we can arrange some strippers for each other or something?" Remington laughs, dragging his boot on the floor.
"She didn't choose. She begged us to take her instead of them," Cooper says, and his tone indicates he doesn't believe it happened.
"Oh, shit," Remington murmurs quietly.
"Yeah, oh shit," Mason echoes and herds everyone, including Gray, out the front door. It's only when the door is locked that Bennett lets go of me and puts some space between us by walking to stand next to his brother.
"Is that it? You had a good laugh!" I yell. They're shoulder to shoulder, looking almost identical, both with faces marked by something that looks like remorse, but I don't believe it. If I didn't already know, tonight's events showed me they're not capable of regretting any of their actions. They're the Ravens. Every head should bow in their presence, and I'm sick of it. "I offered my life to protect you two. I thought they were going to kill you, and I would have done anything..." I choke on the word trying to hold back the tears that are fighting to fill my eyes. I won't humiliate myself further for their pleasure.
"We thought you just..." Mason starts, but Bennett nudges him. He must see how close I am to exploding.
"What, Mason? You thought I would do what?" I feel my chest rise and fall rapidly with the anger that's coursing through me. "You thought I would just stop lying and tell you two who I'm really in love with? Are you that stupid? You think I would let you two torture me if I could choose one of you and end it all?" I'm screaming now, and I hate how shrill and hysterical I sound. I want to be calm, make them understand how truly sick I am of the two of them. They'll never love me, and I'll never be strong enough to stay away from them unless I'm off this mountain.

Bennett takes a step away from his brother and approaches me. I don't know what he thinks will happen, as if I'll just melt into him and let him spin a bunch of excuses to warp my mind, but he sure isn't prepared for what he's about to get. I slap him hard across the face, and despite what he'll probably tell people when he recounts this story, he wasn't quick enough to grab my wrist before I made contact. My palm is stinging, and it's the most gratifying feeling I've had in a long time. I raise my other hand to repeat the motion, but he grabs it in time. With him holding my wrist, I realize how much I'm shaking, and I have no idea if it's because I'm so angry or if it's from the shock of thinking they might be killed right in front of me. I swallow a sob, and Bennett tries to pull me into his chest, but I resist.
My two half brothers: Uncontrollable Desire
Detail
Share
Font Size
40
Bgcolor