Page 29 of Restitution

Her voice cuts off as someone tackles me from the right,winding me and sending shocks of pain through my cracked ribs. We skid across the muddy grass and roll down a small hill until I land on my back, groaning at the tightness in my chest.

A hand grasps my collar and shoves me into the long grass when I try to get up and defend myself. I’m weaker than usual. I’ve not slept, and I’ve hardly been able to hold my food down most of the time.

Plus, I’m high as fuck.

A fist smashes me across the cheek, and I glare at the person above me.

But then my lungs seize.

Jason.

Before I can say a word, he snatches my jaw and grips me hard enough that I can feel my teeth nearly cracking. “What the fuck, Kade?”

Then he hits me again.

“You fucking shot at her!” he yells. “What the fuck are you playing at?”

This is not how I wanted my night to go. Bernadette’s going to get him killed if I don’t deal with him.

I grab his throat and headbutt my brother. “Get the fuck off me.”

Jason falls back with a bleeding lip, wiping it with the back of his hand as he comes for me again. This time, I kick him in the chest and get to my feet while he falls back once more.

I roll my jaw. “Stay in your lane, Jason. Stay the fuck out of this.”

He looks fucking terrible. Thin, pale, his eyes sunken – he looks like he needs a year of sleep.

What happened to my big brother?

“Kill him,” Bernadette snarls in my ear.

Everything goes quiet at those two words.

Kill him.

Kill your brother.

Kill the brother you beat up and left behind.

The brother who lost everything the same night Stacey did.

I roll my jaw again and throw my fist at his face as he pushes to his feet. Once, twice, three times, until my knuckles are red and split open. Jason doesn’t even try to block the blows, his head snapping back with each one.

He falls to the ground.

When I try to climb on top of him to stop him from fighting back, tomakehim fucking stop, he knees me in the ribs again, and I nearly burst into tears at the ripping pain cracking my bones.

When I got to my apartment in Stirling, Bernadette had every guard nearby waiting for me in my front yard. They beat me to a pulp and left me lying in the mud.

Rough him up, Bernadette had said.Make sure he remembers his task.

Now Jason is throwing me aside and punching me again. “Stop fighting me!” he yells. “Fucking stop it!” The next smash to the face stops me from retaliating, and I let him keep going – I just lie there and take it. “Why would you do this?” My eyebrow splits. “Why?”

He’s shouting over Bernadette’s voice. She’s telling me to use my blade and kill him.

“Stacey didn’t cheat on you,” he says, stopping his attack and grabbing my chin with a solid grip. “She was raped.Wewere fucking raped, Kade.”

Bernadette huffs. “I swear, if I hear this girl’s name one more time, I’ll go there and kill the bitch myself.”