The punishment was to be made in pain and blood.
Emerald didn’t startle when Blizzard screamed at her across the room. She just looked at him in confusion.
I knew why.
Because being a child had never been an excuse for our father to not to raise his hand or beat us. We hated it, but we never knew that it was wrong.
“Her red hair… our father always said it was a sign that she had been touched by the fire of hell. He said that her mother had thought bad things about the Colony while she was pregnant.” Emerald was just rattling now, she was turning off her emotions and trying not to think about the fact that we might be about to watch Delilah killed. This here was her survival mode—‘if I’m numb, it can’t hurt me.’ “Even her name in the old testament was one of a temptress.”
“Stop Emerald,” I snapped, tears pooling in my eyes as Delilah got closer to the compound. “Please, just stop.”
Hadley rushed down the stairs. “Eagle’s on his way back with Skins and Jess,” she said, holding out her phone. “I told him everything I could. He’s hurrying but said to text him any extra details. They’re five minutes out.”
Optimus grabbed her phone and started typing furiously.
Maybe they would be able to pick Delilah up as they came down the street. The idea was hopeful, but I kept it stored in the front of my mind. Even then, my body still ached to run out the door and across the gravel to the compound gates in hopes that if I just got her inside she would be safe.
She just needed to come a little bit—
The sharp, high-pitched sound of a bullet cutting through the air was followed by something I hoped I never heard again—the painful cry of my eleven-year-old sister being shot.
I stumbled toward the computer screen, while all the brothers looked back and forth at each other in confusion and utter fucking shock. There she was, sitting in the middle of the road, clutching her calf muscle and screaming for forgiveness.
Blood seeped through the cracks in her fingers, dripping down her leg.
I wanted to vomit.
Seeing her stare at it in horror, a pain that no young girl her age should ever have to experience. She should be complaining about doing homework, kissing boys in the playground and making friendships that would last a lifetime.
Not this.
I tried to make another run for the door, but Optimus was on me before I could even move. Then before I knew it, I was sobbing, screaming at no one in particular to just leave her the hell alone.
I couldn’t look away.
I swear it was an image I was never going to forget.
For the rest of my life.