“No, she doesn’t,” I manage, purposely slowing my breathing to settle my temper. I don’t want to look like a raging lunatic when I face my wife, when she must be traumatized. Butfuck. It’s impossible to calm down. I exhale hard.
I flick Karl a look full of contempt. But some of the contempt is directed at myself. I should’ve checked up on her sooner, instead of letting Roderick take up my time with his bullshit. Did he keep me occupied on purpose? If so, I’ll put him in the hospital. “Stay away from my wife, if you value your life.”
Karl moans, struggling to get to his knees. “What the…? She’s my sister!” He tries to shout, but it comes out as a half whine, half wheeze.
“She’s my wife. Nobody touches what’s mine.”
“Fuckin’ sue yer ass,” he slurs.
For fuck’s sake. The negative publicity is going to stress Luce out. Maybe I should keep kicking him.
“Good luck finding a witness,” Huxley says, scratching his ear.
“You saw,” Karl says.
“I was checking the news.” Noah waves his phone.
“Saw what?” Grant says, looking around.
“I saw somebody trying to exterminate a pest. Not exactly a crime,” Emmett says.
Nicholas sighs, like the unthinkable has happened. “It’s too bad the cockroach lived. But then, they can live through nuclear explosions.”
“When people fall in a kitchen, they often suffer catastrophic damage,” Griffin says. “There are studies.”
I smile at my brothers’ unified front against Karl. I should’ve known better than to worry about publicity.
“You can’t—do this to me!” he wheezes.
“We just did.” Finally having my temper under control, I start toward Luce’s bedroom, then stop and turn back. “Listen, you piece of shit. I don’t care what happened in the past. Actually, that’s not true. Idocare—a lot—about what you did to Luce.”
Karl tries to look defiant, but it’s hard to do when you’re lying bloodied on the floor.
I exhale harshly. “Next time you see my wife, you won’t even meet her eye. You’re going to keep your head down and you’re going to apologize.”
“Wh-why?”
“Because if you don’t, you’re going to spend the rest of your life being fed through a straw.”
Chapter 26
Lucienne
I’m in a daze as Amy leads me away from the kitchen. I’m larger and taller, and my legs are shaky, but she supports me just fine while making soothing noises. I’m not sure why she’s being so nice. This is going above and beyond, isn’t it?
Maybe it’s a good thing Bianca didn’t witness the attack. She would’ve tried to fight Karl, and it wouldn’t have been pretty. She’s my best friend, so there shouldn’t be any secrets between us. But I wish I could hide what my family is like from everyone, forever.
What are Sebastian’s brothers going to think? And Amy… Does she pity me? Is this incident going to leak? Get twisted somehow and bring on negative publicity we don’t need?
Some asshole tabloid writer might even claim I tried to attack Karl first and he was only trying to defend himself. That’s happened before. Somebody’s leash broke and her dog came at me. I had to jump back and try to get the dog to go away—because it was baring its teeth and acting weird—but the media twisted that into my kicking the animal.
But I never touched that dog. And the owner never tried to set the record straight.
Amy takes me upstairs and gives me a questioning look. I point to the left, and she takes me to my bedroom.
The blood has stopped dripping from my nose, but it’s crusted over my mouth and chin. There are spots of rust on my dress, which is ruined. I think vaguely that the stain’s unlikely to come out and that Karl won’t care. Then I wonder what’s wrong with me that I’m worried about a dress.
But that seems preferable to thinking about the state I’m in. My cheek throbs horribly, and my lips sting. He probably broke the skin. Did I get blood on my necklace, too? That, at least, will come out. It isn’t that difficult to clean jewelry.
