CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Cammie
I had no idea where Colin was, or what took so long to untangle himself from, but it was hours and hours that I sat strapped to a chair, watching Lucas pace back and forth in front of the windows, seeming to lose sanity more and more with each passing moment.
How had I missed him beginning to hero-worship Colin?
I didn’t get to spent a lot of time with either of my brothers, and I guess, it was even less with Lucas. But I’d always assumed that was because he was busier than Nicky.
Hindsight being twenty-twenty, I could see, too, that he’d never been one to bash Colin. Nicky and I would both get going and bitch about him, about how stuck we were, about what we would be doing if we were free to.
I never heard anything like that from Lucas. And I guess I just imagined he felt the same way, instead of actually figuring out where his head was at.
Had Nicky ever had any suspicions? He spent so much more time with Lucas than I did.
If I lived through this, we were going to have a long, long talk about it.
“I guess maybe he doesn’t care as much about me as you thought,” I said, not knowing why I felt the need to provoke him when he was already riled up.
I guess, despite the insanity of the situation, I never expected him to actually do it.
To hurt me.
To hit me.
It showed me just how wrong I had been about my own brother.
Because he whipped around so fast that I swear he blurred around the edges, and the back of his hand knocked me across the face so hard that the entire chair wobbled and fell, leaving me crashing to the ground.
I was just quick enough to yanked my head to the other side so it didn’t collide with the floor with full impact, but I still felt some of the chewed-up cement flooring biting into my face.
“Shut up. Just shut up, will you?” he roared at me, his face mere inches from mine as he yanked my chair back into place. “There,” he said when we both heard the slam of car doors. “Told you,” Lucas said, shooting me a victorious look.
Stomach tightening, I tried to think past the stinging on my face and the bone-deep ache inside at who had hurt me.
I needed to focus.
I had to play to Colin now.
So I didn’t fight the way the tears started to blur my vision. In fact, as the footsteps got closer and closer, I went ahead and blinked hard and fast, making the tears slip down my cheeks.
“What is this?” Colin asked, coming to an abrupt stop as he moved onto the floor, his gaze going from Lucas to me strapped to the chair, looking as weak and pathetic as I could muster. I even forced my lower lip to tremble.
Though, objectively, it might have actually done it on its own.
“Colin, there is something—“ Lucas started.
“Did you hit her? Did he hit you?” Colin asked, moving a few steps into the room.
“I… I… I was leaving work,” I said, feeling another tear slip down my cheek.
“You were leaving work and your brother… grabbed you?” Colin asked, trying to make those things make sense.
Good luck with that.
“She’s been plotting against you,” Lucas said, pointing at me. “She just admitted it to me.”
Colin’s gaze moved between us again, brows furrowing.