Library
Home / Brutal Souls (Dark Hearts) / 42. Chapter Forty-One

42. Chapter Forty-One

Chapter Forty-One

The familiar tightening around my wrists has me jerking awake. My head is pounding, as it usually does. A glance around the room shows I'm alone. Odd as of lately, since I've woken to him staring at me, but this is Sev we're talking about. Not sure he even has a normal.

"Sevastian!" I bellow, hoping I'm right about his name. If not, I'm going to look like a real idiot. I mean, what else could it be? And I'm too pissed to use anything less than his full name. If I knew his middle name, I'd have shouted that too.

Fuck, I really don't know a damn thing about this guy, do I?

I tug on the bindings harder than I ever have before. I rock in the chair. When I hear it creak, I keep going. I'm not fucking around this time. I'm pissed. Furious.

And I'm going to get the fuck out of here.

This chair is bound to break at some point, so I keep working on it. Using the spots I'm attached to the chair to pull on it and make it weak. I call his name again, and get no answer. So I heave a few breaths and use all my might, planning to break the chair to pieces.

My legs are bound to the legs of the chair, so I thrust them forward while pushing my back the opposite way. There's more creaking, but not enough. This thing needs to be destroyed. I loosen, take a breath, grit my teeth, and do the same motion again. Pushing against the back of the chair while lifting my legs forward. There's more creaking, then a snap. Then I'm on the floor. Grateful for my arms being tied to the arms of the chair and not behind me, I groan as I roll off the cracked pieces of wood. Thank fuck one didn't go up my ass. I'll definitely have some bruises, but that's the least of my concerns. I'm out.

I get to my feet and search the cabin, knowing he's here somewhere.

He's always here.

And he's going to feel my wrath more than he ever has before.

When I'm at the bottom of the stairs, a car door closing catches my attention. I turn away from heading toward the back of the house and move to the front. I yank the front door open and am halfway down the stairs before Sev realizes I'm here.

His brows furrow, face twisting into confusion when he sets eyes on me. He underestimated me. Good. He didn't expect me to escape. Wasn't planning for it to happen. Good.

"You prick!" I shout, storming at him and punching him in the face before he can get a word out.

I get him good too, using all my anger and weight behind me. He grunts, stumbling back a few steps. I go at him again, this time shoving him. He stumbles again, his hand on his jaw, shock still on his face. He only moves because he's caught off guard, but that doesn't last for long.

"What the fuck!" he barks, shaking out of being stunned and shoving me back. Had he used all his weight, I'd be on my ass. The man is a fucking mountain. Thankfully I only move a few steps back and stay standing.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" I shout, throwing my hands up. "You've been gone for over a week, and you come back and just fucking take me again like nothing is wrong?"

"Nothing is wrong," he answers, his tone way too calm.

"Something is wrong, alright. A lot of things are wrong. With you! You're so fucked!" I go at him again, but he gets me in a hold that was embarrassingly easy. I'll blame it on my anger and not paying attention, but my pride will be feeling this one for days. Sev pins an arm behind my back and spins me so my back is against his chest and his other hand is on my throat.

"You better chill the fuck out, Justin," he growls into my ear. I head-butt him but miss. Of course I fucking miss. He chuckles, kissing my cheek. "You're cute when you're angry."

Great. He's back to his annoying self. The one thing that's going to make me even more mad, if that's possible. Every inch of my body is vibrating with pure rage, all thanks to this man who thinks it's time for jokes.

"Fuck you, Sevastian!" I bellow.

"Oh, so you finally figured it out, huh?" he says mockingly. "Took you long enough." My response is to growl and fight his hold. He tightens his grip. "You should probably chill out. I haven't even given you the bad news yet."

Bad news?

Those words do have me freezing. Because why the fuck would he have bad news to tell me? What in the world could he do that's affected me? What the hell does he know that I don't?

"What did you do?" I seethe, wishing I could see his face to tell how bad this bad news is.

"Come on. Let's get inside," he says, urging me forward but not letting me out of the hold. I dig my heels in the ground, collecting the dirt and gravel of the driveway against my boots.

"Tell me what you did!"

"Inside," he growls through clenched teeth, pushing me harder.

When we reach the steps, I lift my feet to put against the lip of the step, using my weight to stop him from going forward. He fights me, using his knee against my ass to lift me, but I stop him by slamming my foot to the next step. Fuck him if he thinks he's getting me back in that house.

"Just fucking behave for once," Sev snaps.

"Fuck you, you piece of shit!"

"You're only mad because you were worried."

"I'm mad because I fucking hate you."

"And we've already had this discussion. Now lift your feet up, or I will carry you in that house like the child you're acting like."

"Me acting like a child? You're the childish one!"

He presses forward, but I keep fighting. When I can use my leg strength to push against him, it's certainly easier. Meaning I need to work on my upper body strength more.

He sighs and says, "Fine. You want to do it the hard way? We can do it the hard way."

All in one motion, he steps back, releases me, and tosses me over his shoulder fireman style. Fucking fireman style! I'm so thrown off by not only the position, but the ease in which he lifted me. The man is way stronger than he looks, and maybe—maybe—if there is a day in our future where he isn't infuriating me, I'll ask him how much he can deadlift because I'm curious as fuck. The shock of him lifting me the way he did has me not realizing we're in the house until he's putting me down on my feet. He practically drops me and it's a miracle I don't fall on my face. The door is kicked closed so hard the windows rattle. Sev's hair is a wild mess, cheeks flushed—or maybe that's a bruise starting. Whoops.

I'm not even sorry. The man has carved letters of his name into my skin. The least he deserves from me is a goddamn bruise.

"Upstairs," he says more calmly than I expected, jabbing a finger toward the steps. The look on his face has me not wanting to argue. Had he looked mad, I'd have kept fighting him. Hell, had he been smiling I'd have punched him again. But the longer I look at him, the more I realize how fucking sad he looks. And that has my stomach dropping. I don't like when he looks sad. I don't want to be the reason he's sad. What a moment to figure that out…

"What did you do?" I whisper. It's all I can manage to ask as I watch him. In my gut, I know something is wrong. I can feel it.

"Justin, just go upstairs so we can talk," he says tiredly, tugging out the band in his hair and fixing it neater.

His calm tone has me doing as he says. I trudge up the stairs to the room. I know it's where he wants me to go without having to be told. Sev scoffs at the chair and uses his foot to kick the broken pieces toward the wall so they're out of the way. I stand in front of the desk he always leans on and turn to face him. When I meet his eyes, I notice how normal he looks all of a sudden.

This man really must be a sociopath. To change his expressions so easily? Is there a single thing in this world he cares about? How the fuck does he hide everything so well?

The words he says next throw me for such a loop that all the thoughts in my head disappear in a cloud of smoke.

"There was a hit put out on you."

I blink a few times, then shake my head. "What?"

Sev nods, stepping closer to me. "Someone wants you and your brother dead."

I frown. "Who? Why? How do you know this?"

He'd told me there was someone after me. The letter from my mother said it was possible too. But having a hit put out on me is way different from someone wanting me dead. A hit means it's serious. That someone wanted it done so badly they hired a professional.

Sev holds my gaze, and I spot a hint of that sadness back in his dark eyes. "I was…" He pauses, looking away and seeming to figure something out in his head. After a long moment, he says, "I was browsing the boards the other day and saw it."

This must have been really recent because part of Banks' job is to make sure none of the people who work for the Bellancas are anywhere on those boards in that way. Maybe with Remington being murdered, he's behind on shit? Or Remington having him so tied up with looking for Sev he didn't notice?

"Okay, so what does this mean?" I ask.

The thought of why I even believe him pops into my head, but it's gone a split second later. I need to stop questioning why I believe him and just accept it. He's never lied to me. Never steered me wrong. The guy is a lot of things, but a liar isn't one of them. The one thing about Sev is he's open about who he is. It's why he annoys me so much. There aren't parts of him that he hides. Everything is right there, in your face.

He's known someone was after me for a long time, and he very well could be the reason I'm still right now. There's no reason for him to share this information with me. He could have hid it from me from the very beginning, but he didn't.

Sev lets out a long breath before saying, "Justin, Jackson is dead."

Everything around me goes blurry. My body feels heavy, and my chest is tight. I grip the desk behind me as my entire world spins. My ears ring with a sharp sound.

Jackson is dead?

Those words replay in my head over and over again.

Jackson is dead. Jackson is dead. Jackson is dead.

My brother is dead? My twin… is dead.

"Justin?"

I clear my throat, shifting on my feet. "Jackson is dead?" I croak out, trying to hide the emotions clogging my throat.

Sev nods carefully, a frown on his lips. The man looks actually upset over this. Is this why he's looked so sad? He's sad for me?

"How do you know this?" I ask, fighting back tears over someone who doesn't deserve them.

I cannot remember the last time I cried, and the fact I'm going to cry now, over someone who is scum of the earth, is pitiful. Jackson doesn't deserve any bit of me, especially not my sadness—something I give to no one.

But he was my brother.

Regardless of who he turned into, that isn't the boy I grew up with. The one I shared a bed with when we were younger. The one who swore to always protect me. No, he didn't stay true to that as we got older, but there were plenty of asses he kicked when we were teenagers. My brother lost his way, and I hate that for him. And I hate him for the things he's done, and in no way am I forgiving him for any of them. They're unforgivable. But how do I make peace with all this? I thought, maybe, I would have time to speak to him. To let him know how I feel about all this shit. To get through to him and make him change his ways and be a better person in the future. For my own peace of mind if anything. Just to say I tried.

And now I'll never have that. There's not even a sliver of a chance of it. Death is final.

I huff out a disbelieving laugh. The man was wanted by the FBI. Even if he wasn't dead, there's no way I'd ever get time with him. Not time he'd take seriously anyway. He chose his path, and maybe I should have accepted that instead of holding onto hope for so long.

"How do you know?" I repeat when Sev doesn't say anything.

He's staring at me like a deer in headlights and I can't make sense of it. Is this how he reacts when he's upset? Did he think I was going to be heartbroken over this? Is he really hurting because I am? For the first time, I allow myself to feel something for him. When that warm tingling sensation floods my chest, I don't push it away. I embrace it.

It feels fucking good.

Especially now when I have no one to go to for this. No one who will understand.

Sev makes me feel good. He's the only one close by who I have for support. And I know that's absolutely insane, but now isn't the time to figure out my feelings for him, so I'll save it for another day. Right now, I need to figure out what the hell happened to my brother. And work through whatever I'm feeling over his death. Harboring this won't be good.

"Because I—" Sev groans, letting his head fall back on his shoulder before muttering a fuck under his breath. His gaze is back on mine a second later and he says, "I saw a comment on the boards." His words are quiet. He sounds almost disappointed. But I can't worry about his feelings. Not now. Not today. Because my twin is dead, and whoever killed him is coming after me next.

Comments

0 Comments
Best Newest

Contents
Settings
  • T
  • T
  • T
  • T
Font

Welcome to FullEpub

Create or log into your account to access terrific novels and protect your data

Don’t Have an account?
Click above to create an account.

lf you continue, you are agreeing to the
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.