“You’re gonna watch what happens when you betray your family.”
He lifts the syringe.
I try to move, to fight, to crawl.Fucking anything.
But there’s nowhere to go.
The last thing I see is Monty’s fist coming down and the world swallowing itself whole.The room tunnels and colors drain while everything collapses inward.
Then—
Nothing.
The room explodes backinto existence like a bomb going off inside my skull.
Sound first—a roaring, rushing noise that might be my own blood or might be the house collapsing around me.Then pain, sharp and immediate, radiating from my shoulder through every nerve ending like lightning striking the same spot over and over again.
"Monty, get the fuck away from him!"
Nate's voice cuts through the fog like a blade, and suddenly I'm awake, consciousness slamming into me with the force of a freight train.
Nate is charging at Monty like he's done a thousand times before, like every playground bully and schoolyard fight and drunken father who ever raised a hand to us.
Except this time, there's no coming back from it.
I catch a glimpse of metal as Monty shifts his weight—the handle of a knife jutting from his back pocket.
My blood turns to ice.
I see the trap closing around my brother's neck like a noose.See Nate running straight into it because that's what he does—that's what he's always done for me, even when it means walking into hell with his eyes wide open.
"Nate, no!Don’t!"
The scream tears from my throat, raw and desperate, but the words feel like they're coming from underwater, distorted and useless.
They collide.
The impact sends them both staggering.
Nate recovers first, his fist connecting with Monty's jaw in a crack that echoes through the room.
Blood sprays.
Monty's head snaps back, but he's already swinging, his massive fist catching Nate in the ribs.Nate doubles over, gasping, but he doesn't stop moving.His elbow comes up, catches Monty under the chin.
Then his knee, driving into Monty's stomach.
For a moment—just one beautiful, terrible moment—I think Nate might actually win.
He's not as big as Monty, but he's faster, smarter.But Monty's a beast of a man, all muscle and cruelty and years of hurting people.
Monty feints left, then drives his shoulder into Nate's chest.The force sends my brother crashing into the wall, plaster cracking behind him.
Before Nate can recover, Monty's on him.
A punch to the stomach, another to the face.
Nate's nose explodes in blood, but his hands are already moving, clawing at Monty's eyes, going for anything that might level the playing field.
