Chapter Fifteen

My knuckles turn white as I grip the steering wheel, turning left so hard that my rear end breaks loose around the corner.

Motherfucker. He wouldn’t. He couldn’t.

I got a message from him a couple weeks ago, along with all of the missed phone calls. It was short and unassuming, if you didn’t know him.

Soon.

I, however, knew exactly what it meant, and though it meant that I’d get my brother back, I also knew that it would mean my woman would be in danger. Brother or not, I’m not foolish enough to know that once Zayden sinks his teeth into something, he won’t stop until it’s dead, and I’ve never seen him so infatuated with anyone or anything as he is with her. Ever.

I can’t let him have her. He saw her first, but she was never his, she was always supposed to be mine.

Parking in my usual spot, I get out of the car in a flash, slamming the door shut behind me. Not like he doesn’t already know I’m here. My feet pound against the pavement as I go around to the side entrance, entering the nine-digit code and using my thumb for the biometric scanner before the lock disengages.

I’m still frustrated Blake wouldn’t just move with me. I had been subtly working on her ever since I got that message from Zayden. She said she loved San Diego, and though I was thinking more like Rio de Janeiro, it would have worked. I debated drugging her and moving her overnight for her safety, for our happiness. I knew she’d forgive me eventually.

I didn’t want her to see that side of me yet, though. She has this image in her head of us, of me, and I like it. I want to preserve it for as long as possible. Besides, I’m certain there isn’t a place I could take her on planet Earth where Zayden wouldn’t track us down. It’s what he does best.

As soon as I step inside Zayden’s dungeon, because you can’t really call this warehouse a home, a silver blade is flying through the air and sinking into my upper shoulder. Pain spears through me as I grip the knife, taking note that only half an inch is actually embedded in me, and decide to just pull it. I yank it out with a wince before looking out into the purposefully dark room. My back is against the door when another blade comes flying through the air. I miss it narrowly, ducking just in time before another and another come at me.

“Jesus Christ, stop!” I shout.

“Oh, now you want to talk?” Zayden’s voice asks, an eerily calm lilt to it.

“Zayden,” I sigh.

“Because I thought you were too busy for your own brother. Too busy fucking my angel to pick up the goddamn phone!” he roars before stepping out of the shadows and attempting to plunge a knife into my gut.

I grab his hand, twisting it away from me. His eyes are crazed, his pupils are blown, and his features are feral. My arm shakes as I hold him back. We’ve always been comparable in strength, but he has spent the last four months in prison and he’s stronger, a lot fucking stronger.

Pinching a pressure point in his wrist, I force him to release the knife before I shove him away from me. My psycho brother I can deal with, my psycho brother with knives, not as easily.

While he’s still on the ground, I hit him across the cheek, taking him by surprise and allowing me enough time to cover him. I pin him to the ground by his throat as I speak.

“You snuck into my apartment last night, didn’t you? You touched her,” I grit out, shame and disappointment washing over me. She was right beside me, two inches away, and she was violated by my own brother while I fucking slept. The level of failure I feel is insurmountable. Words don’t cut it, so violence will have to do.

I deliver another hit on his other cheek, feeling a small sense of satisfaction when my knuckles burn from the impact.

Zayden’s eyes come up to me, those piercing blue eyes turning to practical ice as his voice comes through, strained thanks to my hold on him.

“Of course I touched her, she’s MINE!”

In a move faster than I can counter, he’s bucking me off him and maneuvering us until he is the one pinning me to the ground. Instead of the usual unhinged smile he wears when we are fighting or he is killing, pure anger drenches his features as he looks down at me.

“She’s mine and you stole her. I told you not to touch her, brother. You were supposed to protect her, nothing more,” he says with a crack of his head against the bridge of my nose.

I feel blood pour from it instantly, but Zayden doesn’t stop there.

“You fucked her!” he screams, hitting me so hard in the left kidney that I literally see white.

“You tainted her with your dirty fucking hands, and now I’m gonna cut them off,” he says as he reaches for a knife in his back pocket.

Fucking hell. He doesn’t make threats lightly. I know he has every intention of slitting my hands straight off my arms. Glancing to the side, I see a loose brick in the crumbling walls of this place. I yank it with all my might and smash it into the side of Zayden’s head.

He falls over instantly, dropping the knife and cupping his profusely bleeding wound. A small part of me feels bad, but as I stand up and look down at him, brick still in hand, I remember what he did to Blake. To my woman. And all sympathies die in the stale air.

“She’s mine,” Zayden rasps, clearly not letting this go.

“She was never yours. You can’t just claim people you’ve never even spoken to, Zayden. It doesn’t work like that. Regardless, she’s mine now, and you won’t be taking her away from me.”

“You sure about that, brother?” he says with a weak smirk.

“Positive, because if you step within a thousand feet of her again, I will shoot you on site.”

He laughs, actually laughs, a delirious one that sends a chill down my spine. I do my best to ignore him as I continue.

“Now that this is out of the way, I need to go to the pharmacy and make sure that your wrongdoing from last night won’t ruin her life.”

Despite the amount of blood he’s losing, a fire ignites in his eyes as he looks up at me.

“That is our baby in the making, you stay the hell away from both of them!” he snarls in outrage.

“No, it’s the proof of your assault that will be gone by the end of the night. I mean it, Zayden, stay the fuck away from her, or I will kill you, brother or not. You will not take this from me.”

Without another word, I turn on my heel and walk out of the room. When I get into the car, I text Doc to go to Zayden’s and take care of his injury. He’s the head of trauma at Seattle Valley Hospital, who likes to do side work under the table for us since going to the hospital in our line of work is completely out of the question. We’ve used him for years, and he knows how to keep his mouth shut and fix us up, mainly Zayden.

I fire up the engine and make my way to the pharmacy. Zayden ruins everything he touches, like hell if I’ll let him fuck this up for me as well. Yes, he saw her first, but he doesn’t know her, and she doesn’t know him. He doesn’t have an unbreakable bond that sets his soul on fire with a single look from her. I do, me and her. She’s mine, and I’ll do whatever it takes to protect her from everything, most of all him. And if it comes down to it, I’ll choose her every fucking time.