I dropped my eyes, keeping my mask resolutely in place. “Send me away. Disown me. Do whatever you want.” I kept staring at the carpet as I pleaded for leniency. “You have my word; I won’t come back.”
I’ll run with her. Take her where you’ll never find us.
Cut chuckled. The sound was like a babbling brook in hell. “I have no intention of doing this half-assed, Jet. This is what has to happen. Don’t prolong it.” Raising his arm, he pointed the gun at my chest.
Everything went into fucking lockdown.
My eyes zeroed in on the weapon; no amount of courage could prevent me from debating the worthiness of my life. Yes, I wasn’t like him. But fuck, I’d tried. Didn’t that mean anything? “I’m still your son.”
He pursed his lips. “Debatable after the past few months.”
“I disappointed you. I proved unworthy, but for Christ’s sake, just let me go. Banish me, cast me away, make me penniless. Do whatever you want. Just don’t kill me.”
The word ‘please’ danced on my tongue, but I swallowed it back.
I’m not weak.
I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of begging.
“You’ve heard the tales. You’ve seen the proof of why we live such strict lives. You know I can’t do that, Jethro. It’s better for everyone this way. You’re firstborn. I cannot legally grant my estate to Kestrel while you’re still alive.”
“I’ll sign whatever you want renouncing my claim.”
“Jet—” Cut growled, stepping closer, calm and resigned. “What’s done is done. Time to suffer the consequences.”
He discussed taking my life as if I were the household trash and not his flesh and blood.
I turned my back on him and looked out the window again, reliving the procession of cars that’d stolen Nila from my world.
She’d given me so much, yet taken more than I could bear.
It wasn’t fair.
Life is never fair.
I snorted.
My life is over.
“Jethro—” His temper snapped my name in half. “Unless you want a bullet in your brain, I suggest you come with me. As terrible as you think of me, I don’twantto hurt you.”
I spun around. “What?”
My heart raced in false hope.
Moving closer, he waved the gun. “Come without a fuss. You don’t want your sister to see a mess in here...do you?”
Whatever hope had gathered in my heart ruptured. I flinched at the thought of Jaz witnessing a gruesome dispatching.
“I’ll come with you.” Crossing the distance between us, I wrapped my hand around the muzzle of his gun. “Put it away. It’s not needed.”
Silence webbed around us.
Cut sighed and holstered the weapon in the back of his trousers. “Good boy.” The compassion in his eyes was so wrong. Hedidcare for me—more than he would admit.
Normally, my condition meant I had no choice but to listen. To feel. To understand.
Not this time.
