I don't need this too.
"You hear me, Kane?" Cash stands up and gives me a kick in the ribs. The pain is sharp and real.
Then, before I can catch my breath, he kicks me in the chest too. A sharp, silver-tipped boot lands square inside my brand. The pain swells. Something worse than being burned alive. Broken ribs and rotting flesh.
Stars swim in the blackness behind my eyes.
"Badlands," Cash sneers. "There's not gonna be a rescue, Kane. It's over for you. "
In my head, I'm already standing. Already moving. Already watching Wyatt's eyes go wide as I drive his own rifle stock through his sternum. Already feeling Cash's throat collapse under my thumbs.
I name the bones I'll break. I count them like rosary beads, a prayer of violence that drowns out Cash's voice.
I think about the photo Eleanor never took—the one with my hands around her son's throat.
The one where his eyes bulge and his tongue turns purple.
The one where I finally become what they always said I was.
I fall into darkness with the words on my lips…
Demon.
For we are many.
The creak of the cabin door wakes me. I crack my eyes open just in time to watch Cash's silhouette disappear into the soft pastel hues of a breaking dawn. Wyatt follows him out. Their voicesdrop to whispers, but the broken window to my left carries words like the wind.
"This is getting out of hand," Wyatt says, voice tight with something that might be fear. "Marcus is acting crazy, man."
"He's always been a little off," Cash replies.
"No, I meancrazycrazy. Says he's keeping Savannah out at north ridge all week."
My muscles lock. North ridge. The hunting cabin. Five miles of pine forest from the main house. No cell service. No neighbors. Just log walls and trophy heads with glass eyes.
And Savannah.
"We're not gonna let him do that, right?" Wyatt's voice cracks. "What if he hurts her?"
I start working the rope again. There’s a slickness there. Letting them move smoothly. Blood. My wrists are bleeding.
After a pause that stretches too long, Cash says, “OK. Fine. We’ll go check on her. I mean, what is the point of all this if he…”
Cash doesn’t finish.
Wyatt asks the same question I’m thinking in my head. “If he what?Kills her? You don’t think he’s gonna kill her, do you? I mean, Cash. What the fuck are we doing? If she’s dead…” He stops.
If she’s dead… what?
What was he gonna say?
“No,” Cash finally responds. “No, we can't have her hurt." Then, quieter, "We need that fucking inheritance."
Inheritance.
What the fuck is happening here?
Is this about my dick inside their sister? Or… something else?
