Page 152 of Illicit Games

Like the weak pathetic scum he is, he passes the fuck out. Without a word, Nathan comes and jolts him awake with another cold blast of water.

The second his eyelids open, I do what I threatened.

A punch for every hit he delivered on Iris.

His cries and howls feed the violent monster inside me.

When he’s on his last breath, I take out the gun and finish him off with a bullet to his forehead.

The echo of it soothes my soul.

Chapter Forty-One

Kian

My brother and I sit in the carcass of our vengeance. The dilapidated shed reeking of death and hell.

I need to be home with Iris, aware that I haven’t called or texted her the entire day. She knows me too well to know what I was doing tonight. It’s why I left before she could wake up and try to talk me out of it. No way was I letting Arjun stay alive. As for Vicky, she’s going to suffer and rot in jail.

“How did you know I was going to be here?” I ask Nathan.

Taking a drag from his cigarette, he blows smoke toward the sky. “Where else were you going to be?”

“It still doesn’t explain why you were here tonight,” I probe. He doesn’t say anything, but I read between the silence. “Why pretend she doesn’t mean anything to you, Nathan? Why hurt her to get back at me?”

He doesn’t answer for the longest time. I think he never will until he speaks without glancing at me.

“I wanted to make it easy.” Blowing out a ring, he explains, “I was always going to lose her to you. It was only a matter oftime. She would’ve never forgiven herself for choosing you over me. I didn’t want her to think she owed me anything.”

“So what?” I accuse. “You decided to shatter her trust instead?”

“It’s easier to be the bad guy than a good one.” Pinning me with a condemnatory look, he utters, “You taught me that.”

“Did the truth change anything? Or are you going to keep punishing me?”

“You’ve had eighteen years with the truth, Kian.” He throws the cigarette to the ground. “I’ve had a fucking week.”

My ire dies, realizing I’m being an inconsiderate ass.

“The truth isn’t a magic pill that you can expect me to swallow and make us brothers again,” he says.

“I understand.” My apologetic tone gives him pause. “And I am sorry for everything. I hope you believe it.”

“Iris has made you soft.”

I scowl, thinking it’s a taunt. Then I notice the sly curl to his mouth, realizing he’s teasing me. The way he did when we were kids. “She sure has.”

It’s wild to me that sitting three feet from a dead man in a prison is where he and I are having a heart-to-heart.

Catching me staring at the cold body of Arjun, he says, “Go home to your girl, Kian. The worst is over.”

“She was spying on me.”

“I know. I found the offer letter and the NDA.”

I laugh humorlessly. “Of course you did.”

“You can’t hold it against her, Kian,” says my brother. “Iris is fiercely loyal and protective of the people she loves. When it comes to you, she’s twice as overprotective. If she didn’t tell you, it’s because she was guarding you in her own way.”