I slam my palms against that hard chest—the one that had no right to be anywhere near me last night when he knew what he had done. How could he? How could he tell me he would handle everything and then burn my fucking house down and fuck me while the embers cooled?
“You twisted, pyromaniac bastard!” I yell and push him again, backing him into his car.
I know it shouldn’t be this easy to move him, that he’s letting me, and that somehow makes me angrier. Does he think my wrath is so pitiful that he can get away with it? Is my fury just a tantrum to him? Is that why he did it, because he thinks I’m not a force to be reckoned with? And what was he thinking when he opened the car door for me at the hospital, loaded me into his passenger seat, and latched my seat belt for me? That it would be a fun surprise to find my house gone?
“Do you get some sort of sick kick out of this?” I scream. “Why did you even bring me here? To watch me fall apart? You make sure I get all this special treatment at the hospital so I’m all better just to tear me down?”
“He thought it would be better if you saw for yourself,” Caleb mumbles from the safe distance he’s taken.
“What?” I snap.
“He thought it would be—”
“I heard you!” I screech, and he flinches.
“And you,” I turn on Nix. “What did you think? Did you think I needed to see this for myself, or do you think my fuckingsistershould have told me?”
“You needed to rest! And I knew you were going to be mad,” she says with the sort of indignance that makes my blood boil.
“Whowouldn’tbe mad?!” I spit. “Why aren’tyoumad? It was our house, Nicole. Our house! Everything we had to our name. Why the fuck would you be okay with him burning it down?”
“Because we didn’t have a choice!” She stomps her boot, the indignance turning into a plea. “They were going to issue a warrant. You think I wanted this? I didn’t want any of this. I didn’t want to kill someone. I didn’t want Marshal to touch me. I didn’t want to make your life any harder than I already have. But this was the only way—”
“Only way!? We’re homeless! I was gone for one week. One! And you let—”
“It’s not her fault,” Jax cuts me off, putting a hand on my arm as if I don’t already see the tears welling in my sister’s eyes. But he doesn’t get to speak. He doesn’t get to say a single fucking thing. And he sure as fuck doesn’t get to touch me like we’re ever going to be intimate again.
I whirl around, shaking him off as if his touch is poison. “I know damn well whose fault this is.” I look him square in his deceptively handsome eyes, hating that I fell for them. “Mine! For ever letting you into our lives.”
Something like hurt flickers across his features, but he doesn’t get to be hurt, not after what he’s done. I mean, where has Nix been sleeping this week?
“Well, it’s too late now,” he growls, clearly wounded, “so, get in the car.”
“Excuse me?”
“Get. In. The. Car.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you,” I scoff and run a hand through my hair. Jesus, he really is insane.
“What, are you going to stay here? Sleep under a toasty two by four?” He has the audacity for his lip to twitch before looking away, and I could kill him. I really could.
“Go on, guys.” He motions toward Nix and Caleb. “We’ll meet you there.”
“No!” I grab Nix’s hand and yank her toward me. “We’re done with you and—” I wince, hating to include Caleb, but how could Nix continue to see him when Jax is his brother? I don’t see any world in which that works out, “and you,” I say to Caleb, avoiding his eyes.
“You don’t speak for me,” Nix rips her hand from mine at the same time Jax sighs.
What in the fuck?! “Yes, I do! And we have to find somewhere to go.”
Though I don’t know how we’re going to do that. We have no car, no money, and no family. The irony is that if Marshal were alive, I would have called him—completely oblivious to his perverted ways. But he’s dead, and the only thing I can think of is to go to Bell’s. There’s a back room, and maybe we can stay there if we keep it on the down low, at least until I make some tips. Then we can get a motel and then… I don’t know…
Tears involuntarily spring to my eyes.
We’re so, so fucked.
“Kira…” Jax’s voice softens.
“Don’t.” I swat at the air, afraid I might crumble. The anger is evaporating, leaving only fear and despair in its place. “This is your fault.”
