I don’t like the way he’s looking at me. Or how rough and low his voice is suddenly. How hooded his eyes are when he locks gazes with me again.
“I’m his brother. If anyone has a reason to be here, it’s me.”
Rooke’s lips curl up at the edges. It might have been a smile if that mirth ever reached his eyes, but they’re as cold and hard as the wall he has me pinned against.
“You really think all we did was fuck?” Rooke says, putting so much emphasis on that last word, it conjures up images of him pressed up against my brother.
Bitter saliva rushes into my mouth.
It tastes just like Rooke’s cum.
“He couldn’twaitto let it all out. The beatings. The assaults. Any of this ring a bell, Kai?” He uses the tip of his finger to move a chunk of hair off my forehead.
My face heats. Part shame, part guilt.
How could Ezra snitch like this? And tothisfucking psycho of all people? What the hell did my brother even see in him, anyway? He doesn’t give a fuck about anyone else but himself.
Yet somehow he conned Haven too.
How either of them can find him?—
Okay, fine. Rooke’s attractive. I’ll give them that.
But can’t they see how fucking manipulative he is? Maybe because he was never interested inme, I never got to experience the charm he slathers on his victims.
Until now.
“We had a tough childhood. Who doesn’t?” I snap.
There’s a fractured light in Rooke’s eyes then. Something wild, almost frantic that glows before he dips his head, the shadows blocking it out.
“We? Sounds like you quite enjoyed yourself as a kid. Ezra’s the one that suffered, not you.”
My jaw clenches.
Un-fucking-believable.
“Hechose?—”
Rooke’s free hand clasps my throat. He leans into me, his warmth, his smell, all forming a dark oppressive presence that keeps me at bay as much as the hand on my throat.
Kick him in the fucking balls.
Claw out his eyes.
Spit in his face.
Do. Fucking. Something.
But I do nothing. I just let him manhandle me, my teeth clamped closed, my entire body trembling with suppressed anger.
“He chose?” Rooke murmurs. The tip of his nose brushes mine, his warm, sweet breath washing over my mouth with every word. “And exactly which options did you give him, boy?”
“Me?” There’s a buzzing in my ears.
Rooke is too close again.
His body too warm. Too hard. Too insistent as he presses against me. I need to figure out the thing in Rooke’s words that’s not making sense, but my brain is too busy stopping my dick from getting hard.
