Page 24 of Climbing Everest

Why the fuck would Madd care if Brix had hurt her? She obviously isn’t dead. There isn’t a single bruise on her.

So, at worst, Brix fucked her. We all planned on that. She is ours. She might become my legal wife, but we will all own every inch of that curvy ass body.

And we sure as fuck won’t be paying for use of it, either.

When Maddox starts in her direction, Brixton moves to put himself directly in his path, slapping both hands on Madd’s chest and shoving him back.

“Don’t fucking touch her,” he growls, his voice deep and full of warning.

The fuck?

“If the two of you don’t knock it the fuck off…” I let the threat hang in the air, mostly because I don’t know how to finish it.

Now I’m wondering if dragging Everest back was a bad idea, especially if she’s going to sow dissent in the ranks.

Fuck this bitch.

Brushing past Brix and Madd and their stare down, I stalk toward Everest, smirking when she takes a step back, and wrap a hand around her arm.

She trips over the sheet as I drag her with me to one of the bedrooms. By the rumpled bedding and heady smell of sex, I assume this is the master bedroom and where Brix fucked Everest. Or at least one of the places.

When I release her arm, she takes several steps back, putting more space between us, her dark brows pinched tightly together.

As I stare at her, I see a small silvery scar near her hairline I hadn’t noticed before. It definitely wasn’t there when we were growing up. I know every inch of this bitch, have licked, sucked, or touched every single part of her. I would have noticed the scar.

Not to mention, there was a good chance one of us would have either been present when she was hurt or would have seen her after. It’s the kind of scar that looks as though the wound required stitches. I don’t remember her ever having stitches or even a broken bone when we were growing up.

Her hands are clutching the sheet to her chest so tightly her knuckles are white.

“Since when do you give a shit about a man seeing your tits?” I ask, unable to stop myself from fucking with her. Two days and she’s already fucking with us .

“Fuck you, Kato,” she spits out, her eyes shooting daggers at me.

The color of her irises has always been mesmerizing to me, the way they could go from gray to blue depending on her mood.

Right now? They’re a dark, storm cloud gray and her bottom lip is quivering.

I don’t know why, but the fact she looks on the verge of tears pisses me off. It pisses me off because my first instinct is to drag her into my arms, comfort her, and kill whoever made her sad.

Balling my hand into a fist, I turn and pace away, squaring my shoulders and rolling my head on my shoulders. Two days and she’s fucking us all up.

This was a mistake. No way in hell will I let her or her family get away with it, with what she put us through, with the damage she and her father put us through. Fucking twenty-four years old and I’m officially a Don.

Not that I wasn’t ready to step up, but my hand had been forced because of Everest.

Turning back to face her, I glare as she grabs the shirt Brix must have shed when he fucked her and tugs it over her head before dropping the sheet. The hem of the t-shirt hangs to midthigh on her, the sleeves all the way to her elbows.

Everest isn’t exactly a petite woman, but Brix is freakishly big, both in height and muscles. He’d gone balls to the wall with working out after he realized we’d been played for fools.

Even with the shirt covering her, I can see the top peaks of the tattoo Brix had designed for her. Problem is, I want to see it all. I want to see our brand on her. I want to see our initials permanently branded in her skin, the kind she can’t erase short of laser removal.

Storming toward her, I reach for the shirt, ready to tear it away from her body so I can see, but the bitch actually has the nerve to swat my hand away.

“The fuck are you doing?” I growl at her, advancing again.

“Kato, listen to me. We need to talk –”

I lunge at her, my hand instantly wrapping around her throat once again. “I don’t want to hear a word from your fucking mouth other than yes, sir and an apology. Anything and everything else you can keep to yourself. Your words mean fuck all to me. You mean fuck all to me.”

Lie. Biggest fucking lie in the world. Even through the anger, the rage, I still love this woman more than I knew was possible to love another human being.

Other than the child she’d killed, the baby I’d thought the four of us were bringing into the world together.

I’m prepared for the tears that well in her eyes. I’m even prepared for the way her bottom lip quivers.

What throws me off is when she raises a knee and slams it directly into my balls, effectively causing me to release my grip on her.

I cup my junk in my hands and Everest takes the opportunity to slam a fist into my jaw, knocking me off balance so I’m lying on my side, grunting and groaning against the feeling of my balls being smashed.

I swear they’re in my throat at this point.

“If I have to kick your ass to make you listen, then so fucking be it, asshole. I am not that sweet girl the three of you fell in love with anymore. I’ve been through more…

fucked up shit than anyone should ever have to endure.

And it wasn’t my fucking fault ! I didn’t kill our baby.

I didn’t run away from you. Brix told me what my father told you, but it’s a fucking lie.

This whole time, I’ve been trying to tell you he thinks I’m dead.

I stayed away so he would continue believing that… to protect you !”

She screams the last word, even though it’s broken with emotion, as though she had to force it through the clog in her throat.

“I lost the baby after my father’s men beat me nearly to death.

I almost died, too, you fucking asshole.

One person… one ,” she screams, bending at the waist so she’s hovering over me, “out of all my father’s employees protected me.

He found someone to help me, to take care of me, then sent me away.

And now you’re making sure the whole fucking world knows not only am I alive, but right back in the lion’s den.

So if you’re going to put a bull’s eye on all our backs, then you’re going to start fucking listening to me.

I will not let you continue treating me as though I did something wrong when I’m the one who –” Her words cut off on a sob.

When she’s the one who almost died. When she’s the one who her father tried to have executed.

When she’s the one who experienced the miscarriage. A miscarriage caused by her father, by his men, at his order.

“I wouldn’t tell him who the father was…

that’s why he told them to hurt me, and you know I’ve never meant a fucking thing to him.

But since I was a female, he could have married me off for power.

I was of absolutely no value to him without my virginity intact.

You know, the fucking virginity I gave you when I was seventeen? ” She’s back to yelling again.

My balls still ache, I still feel as though I’m going to puke, but now I’m no longer sure whether the nausea is from the pain or her words.

She hadn’t run from us. She hadn’t aborted our child.

She’d been beaten nearly to death. She’d lost our child because of her father.

And we’ve hated her for four fucking years. We’ve treated her like absolute shit for the past two days.

Okay. Two days. I can make up for two days.

Problem is the absolute fire, the hate and anger burning in her eyes as she glares down at me.

I have a feeling it’s going to take a whole lot more than buying her pretty shit or even apologizing to earn her trust back.