Ray shrugs. “You’re not wrong. She ended up offing herself in college. Blew her pretty little brains out right in her dorm room. I heard her roommate got the rest of her tuition comped. Some people have all the luck.”
“Fuck. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. She was a stuck-up little bitch.”
I blink. How can this man talk about his dead sister—clearly a girl who was going through something awful—in such a callous way?
“And then you met Rouge?”
“At Reg’s funeral, yeah.” He looks up at me, a trace of pain in his eyes. “Really could have used a friend when that happened.”
“You had Corey and Max, didn’t you?”
Ray rolls his eyes. “If fucking only. I guess they learned that, after you left, they didn’t need me either. Within a year of the Dimpsey house, they ditched me. Left me all alone. The last living member of the Club.” He glances toward my left palm, at the pink X scarred into my flesh. “But you still bear our mark. You’ll never be able to erase what you did to the Dimpseys. What you did to me.”
He lurches forward, taking me by surprise, rips his hands out of my grip, and bites down onto my left shoulder, sending white-hot pain through my body.
Blood trickles down my arm. “What the fuck, Ray?”
His eyes have an almost reptilian glow to them. Like he’s a rabid dog about to rip me to shreds. He opens his jaw and is about to clamp down on my neck when I roll out of his way and land an elbow to the back of his skull.
Jack lands a roundhouse kick to Ray’s gut and then a right hook to his jaw, spinning him around to face me again. Ray lands a few punches to my belly before I grab him by his hair and punch him in the nose. Blood gushes out of his nostrils, but he ignores it, pressing forward with inevitable resolve. He grips the wound in my shoulder, pressing his fingernails into it, forcing a cry of pain out of me as I fall to my knees.
The door to the hotel room bursts open, and I look up just in time to see Bianca gasp. “Harrison!” she calls out. “Are you?—?”
But Ray takes advantage of this temporary distraction and slips behind Bianca, wrapping an arm around her throat. He reaches into his pocket with his free hand, produces a knife, and holds it against her neck.
Hot anger laced with blinding fear hurtles through me.
I won’t let her die. I’ll sacrifice myself before I allow that to happen.
“Don’t—” I rasp out.
Ray presses the flat edge of the blade against Bianca’s throat. “Not one step closer, Brother Harry.” He rakes his gaze over Bianca. “You really did get over my slutty sister. Moved onto another woman.” He sniffs her light-blond hair. “She smells the same, though. Just like Regina did before she woke up in the mornings.”
“Ray, please?—”
“Shut the fuck up, Harry,” Ray says. “Here’s what’s going to happen now.” His cell phone vibrates in his pocket. “Okay, first off, reach into my pocket and grab my cell.”
“Why would I?—”
“Do it, or your pretty little lady friend’s blood will spill all over this tile floor.” Ray grins. “Don’t worry. It washes right off.” His gaze darkens. “I’ve done it hundreds of times.”
“She’s Bianca Montrose. Rouge’s sister. You can’t lay a finger on her. She’s off limits.”
“Is she?” Ray leans into Bianca’s ear. “I’m going to let go of your right hand now so I can see what my phone says. One unplanned move and I’ll ram my knife right into your throat. Got it?”
Bianca nods, trembling.
Ray lets go of her wrist, and she doesn’t move. I hand him his phone and he unlocks it. “Well, isn’t this interesting?”
“What?”
“Rouge has authorized the use of deadly force against anyone who gets in my way tonight, up to and including her own flesh and blood. Any last words from the little sister?”
“Please…” Bianca murmurs.
“Begging with your last breath? No wonder Rouge thinks you’re so pathetic.” Ray spits on her.
