Page 12 of Light in Your Eyes (Romero Brothers #1)

Kellan

I feel her behind me when I step into my room.

"Close the door," I command, and she does as I say.

What happened in the backyard angers me, but I must admit that it was my fault.

I still haven't turned around. I expect her to talk first.

"What the hell is this?" her voice holds pain and anger, the tremor in it letting me know that she's trying to hide her fear.

I turn around, which makes her immediately step back. It's bothering me that such a slight movement from me causes her to draw back instantly. It's obvious that she sees me as a threat.

"What is happening?" she demands. Her choked sob makes me imagine the tears running down her face.

I can't blame her for crying. I heard the sound of water splashing when I found her in the backyard. They must have tried to drown her. Not to kill her, but to build the fear inside her.

"Your brother hired me as your caregiver," she says, " but then you told me to get lost. Why didn't you tell your brother about that, huh? And now you're expecting me to be your slave?" The frustration is evident in her voice.

I don't say anything yet. I know that she still has a lot to throw at me.

"This place is fucked up." Her choice of words makes me off guard because it's so different from the way she spoke to me for the first time in the basement.

That time, she sounded tentative, innocent. Right now, she sounds like a mess, like she's falling apart.

Her ragged breathing lets me know that she is about to break down.

"This place—" Her voice is shaking uncontrollably. "What the hell is this place? I don't want to be here. I don't belong here. Please, just let me go."

If she thinks that it will be that easy to just step out of this place, she's mistaken.

"Unfortunately," I say, and I do feel that word. I want her to leave this place too. "It's not possible anymore."

I step forward, and she retreats again. Her movement leads her to my bed. I follow her, causing her to be cornered against my bed.

"Once you step into this place, you can't get out of it," I say. "Either you're a part of us, or you're dead. The only way for Black Wings members to leave this house is if they're on a mission."

"I don't want to be a part of it," she cries. "You guys are crazy. You're all evil."

Again, I can't blame her either for feeling that way because of what they did to her in the fountain. But silently, I'm angry at my brother for choosing a girl like her to be here. She doesn't belong in our world. She's not suited to be with us.

"What do you guys do for a living? Killing people?" she asks, and I don't even know whether she asks that out of genuine curiosity or sarcastically. She sounds both.

I tower over her. "We might."

I can hear her faint gasp, and I can feel her trying to crawl away from me on the bed.

"What are you doing?" she stutters.

My blood starts to boil again. I don't know what's happening to me, but feeling her shaking because of her fear of me makes me angry.

I never thought that feeling someone shaking could annoy me this much. I felt people's fear of me when they fought me, but it never bothered me like this.

I draw my face closer to her, causing her to yelp. "Are you fucking crazy?" I hiss. "I'm not going to fucking touch you."

My words stop her movement, but then she cries softly. "I don't want to be anybody's slave. I'm not yours. I'm not a tool for you to use as you please, whether it be non-sexually or sex—"

"Shut the fuck up," I bite out. "Let me tell you something."

She's silent, and I can hear her swallow.

"I have no interest in you," I say. "You just happened to be stuck here, and there's no way out. I'm actually doing you a favor. I doubt that there will be a place for you to sleep soundly other than this room, my room, after what happened tonight."

I didn't mean to make her remember what happened back there near the fountain, but she had to hear it.

There's no other place safer in this house for her than my bedroom.

Back there in the yard, I could hear their whispers when they thought about ways of using her. I could hear Luca's excitement and sick thought in his voice when he talked to her.

I'm blind, not fucking stupid.

No matter how much I don't want to admit it, the safest place for her here is where she is with me.

"So, we're going to do this," I say firmly. "You are here with me because you have no other choice. I am allowing it because my brother is being a pain in the ass. You're going to stay in this room, but you will do your best to make it feel you don't even exist."

Silence falls.

She might be at a loss for words, but my idea is the only way for her to survive.

"This place is not for you, Layla," I speak in a low voice. "Black Wings is not where you belong. It's not your comfortable home where you can sleep soundly holding your unicorn. It's the place where you will hear gunshots and witness bloodshot when it's necessary."

She lets out an audible gasp. I can even hear the slap of her palm covering her mouth, as though she can't believe what I just said.

"I'm fucking blind, and I'm not your fucking hero," I make my point clearly.

"So, it's up to you. You might want to try to escape and risk getting yourself killed.

You might want to roam around the house where they will steal a chance to harass you, or you might want to stay here and be good, pretending like you don't even exist."

She doesn't say a word for a while, but then she whispers brokenly, "Why do you have to be so mean?"

I scoff. Then I walk away from my bed and head to the bathroom, leaving her to absorb everything that just happened to her.

It's only day one with Layla, and she has already given me a fucking headache.