Page 61 of Kael

He let another mile pass before he spoke again. "You thinking about leaving?"

That made me turn. "What?"

"Now that you've seen what this life can look like. Heads on the floor. Houses burned. People we care about getting shot at. You thinking about walking away?"

I was quiet for a long moment. The road hummed under the tires.

"It's not much different than the life I'd been living before you," I said finally, my voice coming out low. "Just cleaner now. And I don't wake up wondering if I'm going to die on a bathroomfloor with a needle still in my arm. So no. I'm not thinking about leaving."

He nodded once and kept his eyes on the road. Something in his posture eased.

We didn't talk much after that.

Kael pulled into the driveway. The house was dark. He killed the engine and got out first, scanning the porch the way he always did. Nothing looked off. The cameras were green; the door was locked. He unlocked it and stepped inside, flipping on the hall light.

I followed, close enough that I could feel the heat of him at my back.

He took two steps into the living room. I heard the crackle of electricity, and then Kael dropped.

Before I could process what I was seeing, everything went black.

Pain dragged me back. I don't know how much time had passed.

My head throbbed as if someone had taken a hammer to my skull. The floor was cold under my cheek.

I didn't move. My body remembered what my mind hadn't caught up to yet—danger. I could feel it in my bones, the wrongness in the air.

I blinked, trying to make the room stop spinning. I was face down near the couch.

As my vision cleared, Darius came into view first.

Kael was tied to a chair in the middle of the living room, his wrists bound behind him, ankles secured, blood already at the corner of his mouth. Standing over him like he owned the place was the one person I never wanted to see again.

My stomach dropped. My skin went cold. Every nerve in my body screamed at once.

Fuck my life.Less than an hour ago, I thought a crazy bitch would kill me. Now this.

"Wakey, wakey, motherfucker," Darius taunted Kael.

I didn't move; I watched through my lashes. Kael glared at him.

"You think you can just take my woman?" Darius circled the chair. "I didn't think I'd ever get the chance to settle this score." He laughed. "Until that bitch gave me the address. Crazy bitch came out of nowhere and said she could help me. I thought she was lying until she gave me the security codes and everything. Then I was inside."

Kael didn't flinch. "She's not your woman."

"She was." Darius stopped in front of him, leaning down until his face was inches from Kael's. "She was mine long before you came along. I had her under control—drugs, fear. She knew her place. And you—" He spat. "You took that away from me. You made her think she could be something."

"She is something."

"She's nothing." He stood up, pacing. "She's a junkie. A whore. A failure. And you—" He swung a crowbar, stopping just short of Kael's face. "You're going to watch me take her back. And then I'm going to kill you. Slowly."

He walked over and drove a fist into Kael's gut—hard. I heard the air leave Kael's lungs in a rush. Darius hit him again, then once more across the face. Kael's head snapped sideways, blood filling his mouth.

"I had her trained. Had her on a short leash and a shorter high. She didn't eat, sleep, or breathe without my permission. You ruined her—got her mouth running too much again."

He crouched in front of Kael, still smiling. "I'll put the needle back in her arm and remind her who she belongs to. You know she used to cry and thank me for it? She'd thank me whileshe was shaking. That's control. That's ownership. What you did was theft. You killed Brook, too, you thieving motherfucker."

My hands curled into fists.