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My lips twitch into a half smile. “No, I’ll be okay.”

“I know you will,” she says and I notice she’s clutching a pearl rosary in her hands in her kneeling position.

I can’t let myself be weak like this again.

Ever.

I sigh when I reach my bedroom, wanting to collapse on the spot.

Kain’s door opens just as my hand grips the handle, and my spine straightens like it knows the routine—he says something to piss me off, I take it, I get annoyed at his ruckus and the smell of weed, then I leave. My nose scrunches as I smell said weed.

“Jordie?” Kain’s confused voice fills the hallway. “Where have you been?”

I step into my room, slamming the door behind me. In my exhausted state, I forget to lock it. It opens again and Kain grips my shoulders, rounding to stand in front of me. His face morphs from confused to concerned as he takes me in—soaked hair, burning lips, smelling.

Then his expression turns into something more murderous, and his hands begin trembling. “Who the fuck did this to you?”

A beat passes.

Two.

Three.

A scratchy laugh bursts out of me, and he takes a step back. “Who did this to me?”

He closes the small distance between us, enveloping his arms around me, but it makes me wince as pain shoots through my lungs. He notices, loosening his grip. “Jordie, who fucking did this?”

I attempt to weakly push him away, all the while my knees want to give out and let myself lean on him. “It doesn't matter, viper. Get the fuck out of my room.”

His mouth scrunches, nostrils flaring before he fists the hair on the nape of my neck and drags me closer. “No one gets to hurt you but me, little devil.”

“You!” I rasp on a quiet shout. “You fucking did this, viper. Everything is because of you!” No matter what I do, I can’t fight these fucking emotions he brings out in me.

One minute I hate him, the next, he shows me kindness and I’m close to folding. I wish I could just rip this fucking heart out of my chest and get rid of him forever.

“Come on,” he says, beginning to walk me backwards.

“Where?” I push at him again in an attempt to get him as far away from me as humanly fucking possible.

“A shower, then we’re going to see Blake and Asher.”

“No,” I protest, and he freezes. I swallow down the dryness, wincing. “Not like this. Not right now.” I can’t. I can’t let them see me in this state. “And I’m not going anywhere with you. And I’m capable of taking a shower by myself.”

“You don’t get a choice.”

“Stop!” I finally free myself from him. My body shaking with rage and fatigue. My palm flies to his cheek, snapping his head to the side as it hits its intended target. “Get. Out.”

He nods, tongue running along his teeth behind closed lips.

Then, by some miracle, he leaves, closing the door behind him.

16

Jordan

5 Years Ago - Aged 18

My body shudders with relentless tears as I sit in the blacked-out SUV I was dragged into against my will, and the reality of tonight crashes down on me. All the years of unspent tears roll down my cheeks, creating an ocean in the divot between my collar bones. The men dressed in black haven’t spoken a word, not that I’ve tried to ask them where the heck they’re taking me, anyway. I don’t think I’d manage any words through the tightness in my chest.