Chapter 84Katie's POVI search the many cabinets that line the kitchen walls, only finding plates, food, and silverware. I pull on a small drawer only to discover it’s filled with guns. Then it clicks. Maybe he has some at the small bar I noticed earlier in the dining room. Closing the drawer, I run to the dining room, my feet slipping on the wood floors. My eyes search the small bar shelf from a distance. BINGO. My eyes land on the bottle of bourbon. Cephus’s favorite, I assume since it’s the only one I’ve ever seen him drink. He will hate to see this go to waste.Hurrying back to the room, I hand the bottle to Jared. “Took you long enough…” Cephus almost screams at me. His eyes are soft, and I understand his words aren’t meant to be mean. He’s in pain.“This is going to hurt…” Jared mumbled and then poured a liberal amount into the wound, his hands, and tweezers. Cephus lets out a loud scream, and a lot of curse words follow. Sweat forms on his brow, and he clenches his teeth. I w
Chapter 85Katie's POVAnger flutters just under the surface. His mocha-colored eyes turn dark as his hand reaches up into the back of my hair, holding it tightly, holding me securely.The sting of pain as my hair pulls makes me smile. “That debt is never going to be settled, piccolo.”The smile is wiped from my face as dread settles deep into my bones. It has to be settled. We have to be even now. I saved his life!“Why?” I cry out as he pulls me closer to his mouth. His hot breath is on my face, and he smells like bourbon and man. Sweat still lines his brow, and blood seeps through the cloth on his shoulder.“Because now it is I who is indebted to you…” It dawns on me that he hasn’t said that I still owe him. I’m just about to pull away when his lips crash against mine. The kiss is full of passion, hate, and anger. He holds me in place as I softly paw at his chest. His teeth nip at me in a way that has me parting my own lips.“You were impossibly fucking hot when you shot that gun,
Chapter 86Cephus’ POVShe whimpers, but only slightly as I situate her face down, ass up. Her legs are on the outside of mine, and her pussy is saturated with need. That need is for my cock.She presses back against me as I use my good arm to grab her hip and hold her in place. I smile. My piccolo is very eager for my cock.“Is that pussy hungry for my cock?” My voice is just on the verge of slipping into animalistic territory. I want her so badly, I’m just not sure what part of me wants her more—the evil side of me that says keep her forever or the new caring side of me that says let her do what she wants. Either way, at this very moment, I know nothing will stop me from fucking her like I own her. She is mine and always will be.I slam balls deep into her. She clenches around me, holding me in a vice that is so tight, I almost pass out. “Every time I slip inside this tight pussy, it’s like heaven—you’re like heaven.” She makes no attempt to speak; she merely moans and pushes back
Chapter 87Cephus’ POVKatie told me that you found out who killed your mom. When did you start claiming women? What the fuck happened?” Jared rambles obviously stressed and confused by what is going on.“Katie was never meant to be anything. She simply fell into my lap. I did what I had to do. I took her in return for a debt that was owed. She was my debt, now it is I who is in debt to her.” I slam back the rest of the juice and wipe my mouth.“So, she’s not yours, but you dragged her into this fucked up, sick, and twisted mess?” The thought of her no longer being mine has my blood boiling. Isn’t she still mine?“Like I expected this shit to be so out of hand? Luccio was basically my family. He took me in when I lost everything, but he put the knife in my back. I had no other option but to kill him. Like I told Katie, it is kill, or be killed.”Jared runs a hand through his hair, looking away from me and up at the ceiling as if he can’t believe the shit I have gotten into. It is fuck
Chapter 88Cephus’ POVI’m a monster, a sick and sadistic one, but I feel different when it comes to her. It is no butterflies and sunshine bullshit, but it is something that causes my heart to race and my blood to boil. She is becoming something to me.“I knew it,” he says, smirking at me. I raise my eyes to him. He has a smile on his face. The fucker knows what it takes for me to admit something, and he’s rubbing it in my fucking face?“Get the fuck out of here before I wipe the floor with your face.” I turn on my heels, heading to get the broom.“I’ll remember that at your wedding, asshole. As a matter of fact, I’ll put that in the best man's speech,” Jared yells after me. His words stop me in my tracks. Wedding?I hear the front door slam and know he has taken my advice on leaving, although not before leaving me with the thought of marriage. Can I ever get married? Can I commit to someone? Will Katie even be able to handle someone like me?She is strong, given everything that has
Chapter 89Katie’s POVIt’s about one o’clock in the morning when I shake Tina’s tiny shoulder, waking her.She jumps upright––we all do it in this house––and looks at me with saucer eyes.“Shh…” I whisper, pressing my forefinger to her lips before she has the chance to talk.Her eyes widened even more.She swings her legs over the edge of her old twin bed and tears my hand away from her mouth as if knowing.“What’s going on? Is he back? Is he drunk again?”The words shoot like bullets from her lips, her voice still quiet, yet very much drenched in fear.The fear that permeates our brains all the fucking time.I hate it.It’s like a bad rash that never goes away, mold that can’t be removed, or an ugly nightmare you can never wake up from.She can’t stop trembling, her collar bones sticking out through the opening of her raggedy pajamas.At twelve, my younger sister, Valentina, is in a continuous battle with herself, and her life and circumstances, as kids are when they’re too young to
Chapter 90Katie’s POVWitness days and nights like this one when we jump, startled, and frightened every time the doors get slammed in the house, and his voice is loud, his speech slurred, and his short fuse brings upon us dire times.Abandon her here, fearing that I may never see her again.That my father might do something stupid.That he might make a mistake.That someone else might snatch her because he didn’t pay attention to her while living in a daze, imbued with alcohol, or getting high.Whatever heart-rending circumstances he might create would also get her.Dark scenarios swirl in my head as I weigh my decision.The risk is enormous, and this endeavor is fit for a real adult, which I’m not.This is a test of maturity for me, and whether I pass it or not remains to be seen, but my decision has been made.I haven’t discussed it with her, and she is terrified as if she knows what this is all about.My heart bleeds while hers beats with unsuppressed desperation in her wet blue e
Chapter 91Katie’s POVI also needed a place to sleep until I got my first paycheck and rented a room at a motel or something.And hopefully, that first paycheck will come fast, as the money I still have after paying for my car is nowhere close to what I need to survive.“It’s okay,” I say, talking about my car.“What color is it?”“Navy.”We chat about it, mostly to forget that I’m about to leave.This is probably the most important thing that’s happened to us.We’ve never been apart.Since my mother brought her home from the hospital after giving birth, I’ve always been by her side.She was a tiny baby—I was too when I was born, my mother said––and quite happy.Less moody than I was, my mother had also said. But then my mother passed, and I’ve been my little sister’s sole support since she was six.I helped her with her homework and tried to make things better for her.It didn’t always work, but now it will.Things will be different.I will make this work even if it’s the last thing