Page 191 of Brutal
The way the ring fit without fitting.
The file.
Nathaniel’s name.
This entire place whispering in locks and keys.
I think of my father. Of the man who made me and never crossed the threshold into my life in any way that counted.
I think of the beast in front of me, who did cross into me, who broke everything, who let me see what he was and still looked at me like my choice mattered.
“Especially now,” I say.
Something moves through his face then, and he reaches for me.
Not roughly.
Not gently either.
He draws me against him, and I go. His chin settles against my hair. For one suspended moment, I imagine a normal life for us. For two people who love each other.
But that isn’t in the cards. Underneath us, something is moving.
I feel it.
I pull back enough to look up at him.
“If Nathaniel knew,” I say, “then he was inside this before you were.”
Samson doesn’t answer. He doesn’t have to.
I see it in his eyes.
An understanding that he, as the oldest brother, was never meant to be anything but the strength, the force. That whatever he thought he knew about the night on the dock was an oversimplified version of the truth.
I glance once past him, back toward the corridor.
Toward the locked door.
Toward the end of the hall.
And the thought that rises is so cold and clean it makes my skin prickle.
The door can wait.
Because the room at the end of the beast’s hall is not the thing that should terrify us now.
It’s the fact that Nathaniel Vexley knew the lie.
And if Nathaniel knew…he’s the reason Samson killed the wrong man.
I look back at Samson.
His face has gone very still.
Too still.
“What?” I ask softly.
