“You think you can just fuck my daughter? Your SISTER! In MY house?” Ryker’s roar splits the suffocating silence, his voice a feral snarl that reverberates through the room.
His body tenses, a fighter ready to pounce, every tendon of his frame screaming violence. But I don’t back down, I never do. I meet his rage with a cold stare, raising an eyebrow as if he’s nothing more than an irritation. Because he fucking is.
“I didn’t just fuck her,” I growl. “Idestroyedher—for any other pathetic excuse of a fucking man you’d try to sell her off to.”
His fists clench, his face twisting with fury and he takes a step toward me, but then he freezes when he hears her.
“Daddy don’t!” Ebony screams, her voice breaking like glass.
His chest heaves, but his anger doesn’t ease. Instead, he spins on his heel, his eyes locking onto her naked form.
“You’re a fucking disgrace!” he bellows, the harshness in his words enough to make her shrink into herself. She cowers under his disgust, her fear filling the room and it pisses me the fuck off.
But when he raises his hand, his intention to hit her obvious, something inside me snaps. I don’t think—I just act. I lunge forward, my fist flying, and I drive a hard blow into his ribs from behind. The satisfying crunch of impact makes him groan, his body buckling.
But it’s not enough. As I pull back to strike again, he recovers, spinning and his fist collides with my jaw, pain exploding through my skull. I stagger back, spitting blood, but before I can regain my footing, he charges, slamming his shoulder into my stomach. The impact drives me into the cupboard, the power shattering glass and wood, sending shards raining around us.
Pain flares, but the wrath and resentment only fuel me. I slam my elbow down, once, twice, again and again, smashing into the back of his head and neck with bone-crunching force. The world narrows, everything reduced to the raw heat of violence and hate I have for him. Ebony’s screams pierce the haze, but they feel distant. All I see is red and murder. I can’t—and won’t—fucking stop.
He lunges for my throat, fingers outstretched like claws, but I move back just in time. My fist swings again, colliding with hisnose with a crack. Blood spurts, but Ryker doesn’t waver. The bastard is like steel—ruthless even when he’s calm, and now, his fucking rage makes him unstoppable.
We tear into each other, fists flying, bodies colliding in a chaos of violence and every punch lands like a thunderclap. The room is a mess, smashed to pieces, the sound of hard blows and ragged grunts filling the air.
“Stop it! Both of you, stop!” My mom’s scream cuts through the noise as she frantically rushes into the room.
She tries to wedge herself between us, but we’re past the point of reason. The anger is too raw, all too consuming, too much hatred between us and we keep ripping chunks out of one another like animals in a fucking cage fight.
Then Ryker does what he always does—escalates. His hand shoots to the back of his jeans, and he yanks out his gun.
The air freezes. Time itself seems to stop.
As he levels the barrel at my forehead, my mom’s shaky breath hitches, and Ebony whimpers, curling tighter into herself like she could disappear. I meet his gaze head on with an expression as calm as death, my chin raised.
“Please, Ryker…” My mom begs in a whisper.
Blood pours from his broken nose, his eyes wild, barely human. I’ve always known it would end like this, with a gun in his hand because that’s the type of coward he is.
“I love her,” I say, my tone even, unshaken. “I always have and I always fucking will.”
Ryker laughs—a cold sound that’s more disbelief than humour. He cocks the gun with a click, the metallic soundmaking Ebony scream. She buries her face in her thighs again, shaking, unable to bear the sight of what’s coming.
“Fuckingloveher?” he spits, his teeth stained red, his fury boiling over. He takes a step closer, pressing the barrel harder against my skull. “You know she’s yourlittle sister,right?”
His voice is full of disgust as he continues. “No,” he snarls, his lips curling in a sneer. “You didn’t love her, Rook. You fuckingusedher. Used her to get to me. One last shot from your cunt father to worm under my skin.”
My jaw tightens at his accusation. Of course, Ryker would twist this into something like that—it’s all he knows. His history with my dad has poisoned his every thought, and how he treats me has always shown that, but he couldn’t be more wrong with this one. I didn’t fucking choose this.
I didn’t want to fall for the enemy’s daughter, my stepsister. But here I am—weakly, irreversibly,utterlyin love with her.
I couldn’t give a flying fuck about the hatred between our dads. It doesn’t even cross my mind when it comes to her. She’s not her father’s shadow, nor the reflection of what he is. She's his opposite, a flicker of warmth in a winter that seeks to freeze me whole.
And maybe that’s why she means so much to me. She’s the one thing in my life that feels steady, even when everything else is shaking. As long as I have Ebony, I have a fucking reason—something to hold on to when the rest of the world slips through my fingers.
“No, he wouldn’t,” my mom tries to protest.
“Shut the fuck up, Cindy!” he growls, and his tone with her ignites something primal in me and I see lose it.
“Don’t talk to my fucking mom like that, youcunt!” I snarl, stepping forward, my fists curling.
