Page 35 of Blood Ties

Kai

“H ey... uh...” I glance through the doorway in the direction Knox went, and then back at the strangers.

They’re both looking at me, smiling slightly.

Both pretty, a little older than Riley. They’re stopping in town for a cross-country road trip; exactly the type of target my family prefers.

They met Knox at the bar and he brought them here.

I’ve seen this before. I’ve never stepped in. But I think of Riley and bolster my courage.

“You shouldn’t be here,” I say, lowering my voice.

Their smiles turn puzzled.

“What?” the blonde asks. “What do you mean?”

“I mean you should leave,” I say. “Now.”

The brunette woman laughs awkwardly, like she thinks I’ve made a bad joke. But the blonde’s gaze stays on me, searching.

“Shut up,” she tells her friend. “He’s being serious.”

I nod. I can’t seem to find the right words, they’re all jumbled in my head, but she’s listening. “My brother,” I say. Then I pause, fumbling for something to say. Something that will make them leave, quickly and quietly, but not push them into calling the police.

If the police come, we’re all fucked. Me, Dad, Knox, Frank, we’ll all end up behind bars. Momma will be left all alone.

I’ll never see Riley again.

“Knox is... he’s not...”

Both women lean forward, listening intently. And I know if I can just figure out the right thing to say, this will all be fine.

My mouth hangs open as I think. The silence is thick, complete enough that I hear the creak of Knox opening the bathroom door, heading back this way.

And then the silence is broken by a scream.

It’s muffled by the floor between us, but— not muffled enough. It’s obviously a scream. A woman’s scream. Riley’s scream.

My heart stutters. No .

“The TV—” I scramble to say. But I’m too slow, and the women too on edge after my half-assed warning.

They panic.

The dark haired one lets out a little shriek and backs away from me, throwing up her hands as if to surrender. But the blonde is sharper. She immediately grabs her purse off of the counter.

“Wait, wait, wait—” I say, trying to defuse the situation. Knox’s footsteps pick up in the living room, headed our way. There’s still a way to fix this, there has to be—

The blonde pulls out a gun.

“Back up, motherfucker,” she snarls, aiming it right at me.

I freeze, hands still up. “Okay,” I whisper, and take a step back.

“Get on your knees. Now.”

I drop to the tile. “Just go,” I plead. Dad must be away if Knox brought people home, but Uncle Frank might be out at the shack, and my brother—

Is bursting through the kitchen doorway, ramming straight into the woman with the gun.

It goes off with a sharp bang. I flinch as a bullet whizzes right past me, an inch away from the side of my head. But then she’s on the floor and Knox is on top of her, and he wrestles the weapon out of her grip in seconds. The gun goes off again.

I stare, stricken, at the dead stare of the blonde woman, the bullet hole right between her eyes.

My fault .

Her friend screams and runs. Knox shoots once more, a bullet to the leg sending her crumpling to the tile. He grabs her ankle and yanks her back as she tries to crawl away, still shrieking her head off.

“Get up, dumbass,” Knox snarls at me.

I rise shakily to my feet.

He presses his knee into the woman’s spine and twists her arm behind her back, holding her down on the floor. But as he looks up, the fury in his gaze is directed fully at me.

“You didn’t gag the bitch in the basement,” he says.

“I... She...”

She begged. She promised. All of my excuses sound flat even to me.

Knox sighs. “You’re a bigger idiot than I thought.” He shifts his weight, giving the sobbing woman beneath him a dispassionate look. “Here I was, trying to get some fresh pussy instead of fucking your girl, but you screwed everything up. As usual.”

Guilt is a stone in my stomach. I know that he was going to kill these women either way. It’s what he does. But right now it feels like my fault. And I’m sure he’s going to take it out on Riley.

Unless...

“We could...” It comes out a whisper. I clear my throat, try again. “We could keep her. For you.”

I know it’s a horrible, selfish solution. But it will keep Riley safe from him.

Knox huffs a laugh. “We’ve only got room in the basement for one.

” He shoves the gun into the back of his pants and slides his hunting knife out of the sheath on his waist. He twirls it idly, looking down at the woman.

She doesn’t even seem to register the weapon.

Her eyes are on her dead friend and her gaze is wide and blank with panic.

“But...” Knox sucks his teeth, tilts his head thoughtfully.

“We could use some fresh meat. And I think she might be hotter than Riley. What do you think?” He grabs the woman by the hair and lifts her face from the tile to show me. “Should we swap her out for Riley?”

“No,” I say, without hesitation. Even if it means I’m sealing this woman’s death, I refuse to sacrifice Riley for her.

Knox shrugs. “Well, your call.” He places his knife on the tile and slides it over to me.

I stare without reaching for it. “What?”

“It’s your choice, so you do it.”

I clench my fingers into fists, shake my head. “I don’t... you know I don’t...”

Knox sneers. “I’m sick of doing all your dirty work, Kai. Pick up the fucking knife.”

“I can’t.”

“Pick it up or I’ll tell Dad that this mess is Riley’s fault.”

I flinch. Force myself to crouch down, my fingers to close around the knife’s hilt. “Knox,” I say, pleading.

He shakes his head. “You don’t get off easy this time. This is your fucking fault, you handle it.”

My chest is rising and falling fast, but my throat is constricted, the air not reaching my lungs. My hand shakes as I force myself to lift the knife and shuffle on my knees toward where Knox is keeping the woman pinned.

When I press the blade to her throat, she finally seems to register the danger she’s in. She starts screaming anew, struggling so hard that she nicks herself on the edge. I stare at the red trickling down the side of her pale neck, and shoot Knox another pleading look.

We’re face to face, just a few inches apart.

“Do it if you want Riley to live,” he whispers.

Still, I hesitate. Then I hear the crunch of tires on gravel, the unmistakable sound of Dad’s truck pulling in. Panic blooms in my chest. There’s no way we can clean this up before he comes inside. He’s going to be so fucking angry...

Knox grabs my face and yanks it back toward him. I focus on his dark eyes. “Kill her and I’ll handle the rest for you,” he says. “I’ve got you, Kai. Promise. All you have to do is—”

I slash the knife across the woman’s throat, one quick motion, the same way I’d finish off a deer. Her scream dies in a choking gurgle. She’s dead within seconds.

It’s an easier death than Dad would’ve given her, I tell myself. Easier than Knox would’ve done it too. But all I feel is numbness.

Knox’s jaw hangs slack for a moment. Then he smiles, and leans forward to bump his forehead against mine.

“See? Not so hard,” he says, and releases his grip on my face and the slack body of the woman beneath him. He takes his knife from my limp hand, and wipes it on his shirt as he stands. “The next one will be even easier.”