Chapter 22
SPENCER
I wanted to rip his fucking head off. No, it was more than that. I want to rip his head off then sew it back on with a blunt needle just so I could rip it off all over again. He might have been my twin brother, but it didn’t mean I had to like him. Especially not right now.
“Kane,” I growled, not recognising my own voice.
In my arms, Zoe burrowed against me and tried to make herself as small as possible. My stomach clenched and my jaw locked. I didn’t need to look at her to know what was going on. I could feel it. She was terrified. The shaking that had been barely there moments ago, was undeniable. Her pulse was out of control. Her whole body was covered in tiny goose pimples and her breathing was coming out in forced, shallow gasps. Squeezing her even tighter, I heard the soft whimper that escaped her lips, and I knew I was holding on too tight, but I didn’t loosen my grip. I couldn’t.
“Kane. Get. Out,” I spat forcefully.
I could smell the alcohol rolling off him in waves. He stunk. He was wobbling on his feet, covered in dirt and grass, but it was the stale stench of cigarette smoke and hard liquor that overpowered everything. It made me want to gag.
“I live here too, remember?” Kane flashed a sinister smirk.
Taking another long look at the man hovering in the doorway, I was sad to realise that I didn’t know him. I didn’t recognise the man standing before me. From the sinister snarl on his face to the cocky attitude, right down to the way he’d spoken to Zoe earlier. Kane was my brother. My twin brother. My only brother. My business partner. My house mate. My best mate. Right now, I didn’t see any of those people. Tonight he was unrecognisable.
“Not tonight you don’t,” I countered, leaving no room for argument. Well, at least I thought I had.
“Huh,” he huffed, puffing out his chest. I knew what he was trying to do. He was trying to intimidate me. Trying to make me back down. It wouldn’t happen. Not tonight. Not over this. “Just ’cause you brought home some skank doesn’t mean I can’t sleep in my own bed.”
“Careful, Kane. Be very fucking careful.”
Rage was bubbling just below the surface. Out of the two of us, I’d always been the calm one. Ninety-nine percent of the time Kane would throw the first punch. I wasn’t a saint, I’d always swing back. Very rarely would I be the instigator. Tonight though, if he kept pushing, it wouldn’t take much for me to swing first.
“What? Don’t like the truth?” Kane smirked as he folded his arms across his chest.
I looked down at Zoe. She was trembling in my arms. Her face was an unhealthy shade of grey and I could see her recoiling into her shell. Tucking an errant curl behind her ear, I shifted her off my lap and nestled her amongst the pile of pillows. Turning my back on Kane, I pulled the blanket from the bottom of the bed and covered her up. If I was going to argue with Kane, I wasn’t going to make Zoe sit here and watch. Not with front row seats. Definitely not tonight.
I stepped back and looked down at her. She looked so small. So tired. So afraid. What was worse, was she didn’t look like the Zoe I knew and loved. My Zoe had vanished before my very eyes. Right now, I couldn’t blame her. Bending down, I placed a kiss on her forehead.
“I’ll be right back, Princess. It’ll be okay,” I assured her. I didn’t want to make her promises I couldn’t keep, but coming back to her side wasn’t one I’d break. Not for anyone. Not even my drunken idiot of a brother.
Turning away from her proved to be one of the hardest things I’d ever done. I could hear her soft whimpering, and with each strangled sob it cut a little deeper. Forcing my feet to take one step after the other, I covered the distance to the door in three strides.
“You’d let that piece of trash sleep in your bed?”
Kane’s words burnt through me with a white hot rage I’d never experienced before. Through gritted teeth I managed to spit, “Outside. Now.”
He smirked, then stumbled, but started shuffling towards the back door. I knew that this was going to end up bloody. Kane was itching for a fight. I don’t know who’d pushed his buttons, who’d riled him up like this, or what he was really pissed about, right now I didn’t give a flying fuck. I wanted to smack his head in. He deserved it. He more than deserved it.
Grabbing my phone from my pocket, I shot a quick text to Mum and followed him into the backyard. He was waiting. I’d been caught off in my own little world as I stepped through the door and hadn’t been expecting the left hook to the side of my head. Black spots danced in my vision and everything rocked back and forth, but somehow I kept my feet.
“Fuck, Kane!” I swore, spitting the metallic tasting blood from my mouth. If I wasn’t on the receiving end of that punch I’d have been impressed. “Seriously, what the fuck?” If he wanted to beat the shit out of me, well then, so be it. I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to find out what was stuck up his ass first.
“What? Now you want to talk? Pretend to be brothers? Pretend to give a fuck? You know what? Screw you, Spencer,” Kane exploded as he stormed off the deck and into the centre of the yard before turning back on me. “What the fuck makes you so damn special?”
Now I was lost. “What are you talking about? Seriously, Kane, what the fuck?”
If I thought for a minute that my words would diffuse this situation then I was an even bigger idiot than I thought. It was almost like the sound of my voice triggered him and out of nowhere Kane was charging at me as fast as he could. Bending at the waist, Kane drove his shoulder into my stomach and forced me backwards. He was drunk. Too drunk. Somehow I held my feet. I let him drive me backwards a couple of metres before planting my feet, halting his progress. It seemed to have drained him of most of his fight. Pushing off me, he dropped his grip and stepped away.
Once I was free I took a moment and gulped down a few deep breaths. I knew I was trying to be tough, but Kane had knocked the wind out of me. My head throbbed like a bitch. A couple of metres away, Kane was slumped over, hands on his knees, panting hard. He looked defeated, but I knew he was a stubborn ass. Hell, it was a trait we shared. A trait that served us well in business, but tonight I knew it would be his downfall. He wouldn’t let this go.
“You going to tell me?” I invited, hoping to end this sooner rather than later.
“Fuck you, Spencer,” he snarled, straightening his spine.
I could read the determination in his eyes, the pitfall of being a twin. It was late. I was tired. I had a beautiful girl in my bed I was desperate to check on. I didn’t want to be stuffing about being a dickhead.
