My eyes find hers for a beat, but unable to cope with the disappointment staring back at me, I shove past her in my need to escape.
“I don’t fucking think so.”
Grabbing my arm, she uses all her strength to drag me back around and land another punch.
And this time, she doesn’t stop, fighting with me until I have no choice but to attempt to stop by blocking her painful blows.
“What’s wrong, Bro? Jodie is fair play to hurt how you see fit, but you’re going to go easy on me?” she taunts, her knuckles coated in blood and her chest heaving as she stares me right in the eyes. “You wanna play God, toy with people’s lives for your own pleasure, then let’s fucking play.”
The roar that rips from my throat doesn’t even sound like it belongs to me as I retaliate and allow myself to dive headfirst back into the darkness that has consumed me since I began telling Jodie the truth about our lives.
Our fists fly, grunts and groans erupting from us as we brawl. I treat her almost as if she’s one of the guys because I’m more than aware she’ll kick my arse even harder if she suspects I’m going easy on her. She’s more than able to hold her own against each of us, something that I fucking love about her. My sister is a bad-arse and I couldn’t be prouder to share blood with her.
She manages to dodge almost all my advances, leaving me without a doubt in more pain than she is. Not that I don’t deserve it.
I do. I deserve all her wrath and then some for what I’ve done tonight.
I was hell-bent on my revenge. It’s clouded my every decision, my every judgement for almost as long as I can remember. But tonight… tonight was the first time I really appreciated just how toxic it’s really been. How the words Mum said to me not so long ago about it killing me, my hatred for that man dripping poison into my blood, were nothing but the truth.
But watching Jodie shatter on my bathroom floor as I revealed everything… That was one hell of an eye-opening experience.I felt the pain I was causing her right down to my soul. I knew it was wrong, but hearing the pain in his voice was something I’ve craved for so long that I was powerless but to continue. To finally rip his cold, twisted heart out and stomp on it for ever thinking it was okay to treat Mum and me the way he has over the years.
“Come on, Toby. Use me. Get it all out,” Stella demands as she bounces on the balls of her feet in front of me, her fists up, ready for my next strike. “The sooner you give up, the sooner your time is going to be up and I’m going to make you talk.”
“Argh,” I roar, slamming my shoulder into her belly, knocking her off her feet in one quick move.
We land on my thick carpet with a thud and I quickly start blocking her blows to my already sore ribs as she uses every ounce of her strength.
Eventually though, with her pinned beneath me, I manage to get the upper hand and lock her wrists to the floor above her head.
“Better luck next time, Princess,” I taunt as she bares her teeth at me.
“Come on, baby. You can take him,” a deep, rumbling voice comes from behind me, startling me enough to loosen my grip.
Stella flips us despite her pathetic weight compared to mine, and I quickly find myself at her mercy with a smug-as-fuck Seb grinning down at me from over her shoulder.
Stella’s eyes track my injuries, my split eyebrow and lip, swelling eye, and what I’m sure is already dark bruising on my ribs.
My sister is fucking lethal.
“What exactly is going on here?” Seb asks, clearly the only one in the room who doesn’t know what I’ve done.
“Go and find us some strong alcohol and Toby can confess,” Stella says, finally getting off me after one more long warning look. “I hate you right now, just so you know.”
“As you should,” I mutter, sitting up and realising just how much it really does hurt now the adrenaline is starting to wear off.“I hate myself more though,” I mutter quietly.
Stella takes off after Seb, leaving me alone to lick my wounds once more. But I know they’re not going to let me hide for very long.
Hauling myself to my feet, I stumble through to the bathroom with my hand pressed against my ribs.
“Jesus,” I mutter when I come to a stop in front of the mirror and take in the state of my face.
It had barely healed from our fight in the Wolves’ Den last week. My lip has split back open in the exact same place, blood making its way down my chin.
Lifting my arm, I wipe it away with the back of my hand and hang my head, allowing myself a few seconds of self-pity before I have to go out there and face their wrath.
Stella knows. Fuck knows how, but she does. And the disappointment in her angry stare chilled me down to the bone.
The reality of what I’d done was already hitting me hard enough. I really don’t need her telling me just how badly I fucked up tonight. Not that I think for a second I’m going to get out of it.