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“I can’t say! I can’t!” he shouts out with wide eyes and trembling shoulders. “It was only supposed to be an easy pickup. He told us it would be. It wasn’t supposed to go that way, but truthfully, the other one was just collateral, but he shouldn’t have tried to come at us. He deserved it,” he spit out, but then soon realized his words and backtracked, stammering.
My head cocks, my ears ringing. Is he saying my brother deserved to die?
He might as well just spit on my boots because he served me the disregard on a gold platter. My eyes blaze, and my chest explodes in rage.
“What did you say?” I flinch, my heart thudding wildly.
Ronan steps back slowly.
“I-I meant—” His eyes are wider than Jupiter.
My nostrils flare as the heat fills my entire body. Then everything goes black.
*Pequeña cobra - Littlesnake
Senhoras primeiro - Ladies first
Chapter 27
Venom
Operation: Die by my fist, bitch.
“You motherf—” I scream, cutting off the words because I drop my butcher knife, and my fist connects with Fred’s face painfully. Repeatedly. Until I see the tint that disgusts me the most. I just want to see him turn black and blue.
How could he say that to me? He was my brother. My only sibling. The one that gave me hope and always looked out for me. The one that believed in me—even when I didn’t believe in myself. Anytime I felt hopeless because I had no clear goals, he encouraged me to lean toward what inspires me. Once he was gone, everything disappeared. The house no longer had that special energy that completed our family.
I let out a screeching scream, continuing to deck him in the face, tears pooling in my eyes and the pain stabbing me over and over in my heart, my eyes blackening.Bastard.
Punch.
Here’s for the death they caused to my brother.
Punch.
The torture they inflicted on Ronan.
Triple punch.
For every child, they made suffer for their own selfish gain.
Until powerful arms wrap around my waist and pull me from his demolished face. I grip at the arms holding me, scratching at it to finish what I started. I scream, hoping to get away. I’m not thinking clearly; my mind is a volcano eruption wanting to spill its magma all over him. Ronan is unaffected by my wrath; he still holds me tight to him.
One arm stays around my waist while the other hand skates up my chest, gripping me fully into his body. “Breathe, Anita,” he whispers lightly in my ear. “Don’t let him see you break.”
My heart drops from his words. And emotion swells in my throat, constricting it. An unwilling sob escapes from me. I lift my nails from his broken skin and curl my hands over it, pulling him in as my body shakes.
The vulnerable side of me, I dare set free, is spilling out like cracks in the dam. I can’t control it. I shut my eyes, allowing his breath against my face to calm me down. His harsh hair from his beard to prick and graze my skin.The hard chill of his body to relax my hot venom. He draws me even tighter, turning me around from Fred.
I’m wrapped in him like a bear, calming my untamed spirit. His heartbeat thumps against my back, as he whispers “he’s here” and “it's okay”. I soon realize that he’s…hugging me. No one has ever gotten in such proximity to touch me like this. I haven’t been held this way in so long. I had forgotten what it felt like to be sheltered. Nurtured.
Protected from myself.
I take ten deep, shuddering breaths in my nose and harshly out of my mouth, the sweat coating my skin for that onset of fire. After he sees I’ve calmed down, he turns me around to face him. Shame is all I feel. I lost my cool; I nearly burst into tears, and hemay not want me to do this with him again. Ineverlose my shit like this.
“I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me.” I breathe out, avoiding his eyes.
Expecting to hear anger or criticism, he hooks my chin between the pad of his thumb and finger, tilting my head up. His arm wraps around my back, soothing me with gentle rubs. “Don’t ever apologize for that. You deserve to hurt them. It’s your right.” He speaks with ease.