Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 102929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 102929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 515(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 343(@300wpm)
“If that were true”—he chuckled, mocking me—“you wouldn’t be sleeping on the couch every night.”
“Fu—”
“You run from everything and everyone!” he yelled, his chest rising and falling. “Why do you think that is?”
“Kraven, stop it!” Isla ordered, grabbing his arm now.
He tore it away, spitting venom. “I’ll tell you why…”
“Kraven!” She reached for his arm. “Don’t do this!”
Before the last word left her mouth, he deliberately shouted, “Because you’re just like our mother!”
I fell back from the impact of his words. They hurt far more than any punch ever could.
“And I’m just like Joe.” He dug the knife a little deeper when he added, “It’s why we love and hate each other so much.”
“I don’t hate you, Kraven,” I told him, the truth that ate away at me on the daily. “Because you do enough of that for us both.”
From the corner of my eye, I caught tears falling down the sides of Isla’s face. Her expression was one of pure disbelief that Kraven had decided to declare war on me.
Kraven didn’t give a shit. He was too far gone in his hatred for me at that moment. My brother was always reckless. He was a lot like Joe. I couldn’t save our father, so I spent the last six years trying to save him instead.
I was exhausted.
Burned out.
Running on empty.
The wind from my sails was snatched, leaving me on a deserted island by myself.
“Again, with the victim bullshit.” Kraven didn’t let up.
Not that I expected him to. Once he was riled up, there was no calming him down or making him see reason. He was hopeless.
All fire, no water.
“Give me a break.” He scoffed in disgust. “All my life you’ve used everything you’ve done for me against me, and don’t try to pretend that isn’t a fact.”
“Kraven! That’s enough!” she pleaded in a desperate tone that shook my body to the bones.
“Isla and I have a connection you’ll never touch. You see, Julius… you help her with her problems. I make her forget them. That’s the difference between us, dear brother.” He stepped back, arms raised, spitting blood. “Careful, Julius, your halo’s slipping.”
He spun and left, leaving Isla and me alone with the kind of quiet that burned like fire. She stared at me with wide eyes and a terrified expression. The blood had drained from her face while she was frozen in place.
Her hand flew over her heart as if she were trying to hold it together.
But she was still the first to speak. “Julius, I’m so sorry…”
Unable to resist, I bit, “I want you to look me in the eyes and tell me what the hell he’s talking about.”
“I can’t.”
“Why are you protecting him?”
“Because he’s my friend too, and I care about him.”
“Like you care about me?”
“No. It’s different.”
“But you do have feelings for him?”
“Not in the way I do for you.”
“Where did that line get crossed?”
“Nothing’s been crossed.”
Shoulders tight, I reminded, “Tell that to the footage I saw.”
“He’s drunk, Julius,” she simply replied. “And I learned a long time ago to never argue with a drunk because you never win. At least I never did.”
She turned to leave, but I caught her wrist.
“We’re not done here.”
“I know, but can we continue this at home?”
“Home, huh?”
She firmly nodded, grabbing my hand. “Yeah, Julius… home.”
Reluctantly, I let her lead. Marco waited by the entrance, letting me know that Kraven had left with some sketchy characters. I didn’t have the energy to give a shit, feeling utterly defeated.
By the time we arrived through the front door, it was almost three in the morning. As soon as we walked inside, I made my way into the kitchen to grab a bottle of water. I felt like a semi-truck had run over me.
I drank the whole thing before grabbing some ice from the freezer and wrapping it in a rag for my hand. She met me in there with a first-aid kit in her grasp.
“I’m fine,” I stated.
She shot me a stern stare, nodding to the chair beside her.
I did as she wanted, mostly because I wanted to know where this was going. After I sat, she bent down in front of me to sit on the balls of her feet as she took a look at my hand. It didn’t take her long to wrap it up with a bandage.
When she was finished, she looked up at me through her lashes. Her striking green eyes were filled with sadness.
“The day we met,” she expressed out of nowhere, making my stomach drop from what she was about to share.
“I wasn’t just running away from my fosters. I was also running away from a crime scene I caused.”
My blood ran cold, never expecting to hear that.
“They were the Bates, same old story. Except this time, it ended with him chasing me down the basement stairs and falling.”