“SHUT UP!” His words echo throughout the room, and a heavy feeling presses down on my chest. He marches toward me, rage wafting off him in heaps.
Terrified, I rise from the sofa, trying to escape him.
“You couldn’t even say it,” he says in a low, hoarse voice. “You couldn’t even fake it. Well, the feeling is mutual, you pathetic worm. I should have known better than to let my faggot son speak in front of donors.”
My gut coils, his words cutting me like a knife. He’s right in front of me, and I brace myself, waiting for the slap across the face that I know is coming. Instead, he takes the water that sits on the table and throws it in my face. “Leave. I need to gofix your mess.”
He stands there, his face quaking with anger, then screams, “NOW.”
I run to the front door, feeling the tears fall, and leave the house. The car that took us here sits in the driveway, but I bolt right past it and head toward the main stretch. I run, crying and panting, until my legs burn, and I can run no more. Somehow, I managed to run right toCafe Bomberino.
I pull out my phone and call Torren.
Torren
Tobias sets the drink down and leans forward in his chair, brushing his thumb over the skull rings that adorn every finger on his left hand.
“So, Felix knows everything.”
I lower my eyes in shame because he has every reason to be pissed at me. When we burned the house down—along with all of the evidence of our slaughter—we made a promise never to tell anyone.
Even high-ranking members of the Hellcats don’t know all of the details—just that we killed our parents. They don’t know we killed nearly a dozen men along with them.
Tobias stares at me, his gaze like a physical force that presses against me. “It didn’t occur to you to omit just a little bit of information from this dramatic confession?”
I clear my throat. “I wanted to tell Felix the truth.”
“Why?”
My throat closes, but I manage to push the words out. “Because I care about him.”
When I look up, his head is cocked to the side in curiosity. “Continue.”
Jesus Christ.“Something reminded me of the Kays, and I lost it. Felix took care of me. The next day, I told him everything, partly to explain, but also because it had been boiling inside me and I needed just to get it out. I told him because he matters. Because—”
My voice gives out, the magnitude of what I want to say making me speechless.
I stutter, trying to get the words out because I want to say them so bad, but it’s just so scary. “I-I think I love him.”
The breath leaves me at once, my heart beating with a force that sends a vibration through the rest of my body.
Tobias stares at me in awe. “Really?” he asks.
I gasp, sucking in the air and releasing a surprised laugh. “Yeah.”
Tobias leans back, studying my face before asking, “What does it feel like?”
I settle into my body, really examining how it all feels. “Terrifying.”
Tobias laughs, then narrows his eyes at me. “What about the impulses you were worried about? How will you handle them?”
“I don’t think that will be a problem anymore.”
He nods, then slaps his thighs. “Well, I guess if you were going to tell anyone that we’re homicidal maniacs, it only makes sense that it’s your loverboy with a cute ass.”
I bark out a laugh that echoes in his office. “That ass is off limits,” I warn him.
“You know I’d never dream of it,” he replies in a very serious tone. I know he’d never do anything like that. Not to me, anyway.
