Page 89 of Blood Ties

Knox shoves me back, sending me stumbling across the mattress, and then pins me to the wall.

“If you kill me, he will never forgive you,” I say, glaring up at him even as I tremble under the press of his body. He’s so big, so strong, but what can he possibly do to me now? I’ve already been through worse things than I could’ve imagined.

“Of course he will,” Knox snarls, his mouth inches from mine, spraying spittle across my face. “I’m his brother. I’m all he’s got.”

“Not anymore,” I whisper.

Knox drags the chain up and shoves it against my neck. I choke, clawing and kicking at him, but he doesn’t budge. As darkness encroaches on the edges of his vision, I stop fighting and let myself go limp.

Then he pulls the chain away. I gasp in a single breath, and then his mouth covers mine. He kisses me hard, all teeth and tongue, oblivious to the way I shove at his chest. When he pulls away, there’s something hungry in the way he looks at me. Something that almost reminds me of Kai, that thing I noticed the very first night I met him, the deep-down starvation for something I can’t name.

“God, you make me crazy,” he says. His thumb strokes along my cheekbone, and I freeze, unsure what to make of the sudden affection from him. It feels somehow more dangerous than his lust or anger. “You’re fun, Ry. Really fun. This all could’ve been so different...” He leans in, his lips brushing against the shell of my ear. “But if you try to turn my brother against me again, I really will kill you.”

He sinks into teeth into the soft skin just under my ear, biting down until I cry out at the pain. When he pulls back, he grins at me with blood on his teeth.

?Chapter Forty-Four

Kai

I’m not sure how muchtime I spend in the attic. The days all blur together. There’s nothing to do but stare out the window and talk to Momma, who never talks back. I remember how close I was to getting her and Riley out of here, and my chest aches.

My body slowly recovers from the beating Dad gave me. I eat the food Knox brings and refuse to talk to him. Ignore the temptation to ask him if Riley is okay.

Then, one day, I bite down into my sandwich and hit something hard. I gag, spit it out in my palm, and stare: a key.

I look up at the locked door that’s been keeping me trapped here. It’s daytime, and I heard Dad’s truck pull out earlier. Is Knox gone, too?

Either way, it’s safe for me to leave the room. I slide the key into the lock until it clicks, and slowly push it open, stepping outside for the first time in days.

Definitely days, though I’m not sure how many. It must be nearly the weekend. Maybe they’re going hunting. Is that why Knox decided to set me free today? What is he planning?

Knox’s thoughts have always been a mystery to me, and now more than ever. I tried to stab him the other day. I threatened to kill him. But he let me out.

I don’t think he’d hurt me. Not intentionally. But he would hurt Riley. So after a moment’s hesitation, I head into his empty room and dig that box out from under the bed. I frown as I pull the lid off and look inside. I set aside the polaroids, and magazines, but the key is missing, along with the cash. So is Momma’s necklace.

The photograph of me is still stuck there, upside-down, something written on the back. I pick it up, and sound out the jagged letters:WAIT FOR TONIGHT.