“Jesus, man.” Dice scrambled, grabbing a bottle of Jack Daniel’s, Jim Beam, and Johnny Walker.
I scowled. “Three wise men?”
Dice slammed the bottle of Jim Beam down on the counter after pouring the shot. “I’m a prospect, a bartender, a cleaner, and basically everything else you want me to be. But I’m not a fucking mind reader.” He placed the glass in front of me. “Now drink the motherfucking shot.”
Manic laughed next to me. “Little prospect got some balls.”
“Shut up,” I snapped before tossing back the shot. It burned as it slid down my throat, but I loved the sting as it settled in my stomach.
“Dude, you should lighten up a bit, okay? Get that stick out of your ass.”
I held the empty shot glass out toward Dice. “Fill it.”
Dice eyed me as he poured Jack Daniel’s right up to the brim. I kept his stare as I gulped it down without cringing. He waited a few seconds with the bottle in hand, until I waved him off.
I turned to Manic. “I don’t have a motherfucking stick up my ass.” I glanced at Neon sitting next to Wraith. “I just don’t get that.”
“Get what?”
I indicated in Wraith’s direction. “That. I don’t get how no one sees her fucked-up brother whenever they look at her.”
“It’s simple.” He shrugged. “Just stop obsessing about the fucker, and you won’t see him around every goddamn corner.”
“How the fuck can you say that?” I clenched my jaw. “After everything that son of a bitch did? First Granite and Onyx’s dad. Then Neon. Alyx. And trying to rape Wraith, his own goddamn sister?”
“Oh, so youdocare?”
“About what?”
“Wraith.”
“Not the motherfucking point.” I turned in my seat, frustrated as hell.
“Listen man, just chill.” He placed a hand on my shoulder. “For one motherfucking night, chill the fuck out and hang with us. Get drunk, fuck a whore. Have a goddamn orgy. Just forget about all the shit that’s happened. Forget about Slither—”
“Not a chance,” I snapped.
“I’m serious. One night. It ain’t gonna kill ya.” He got up, grabbing his beer. “One night, dude. I can promise you, that rage will still be there tomorrow.”
Manic walked off, and I called out over my shoulder, “I ain’t fucking no whores either.”
“Yeah, yeah. We all know you lost your dick.”
I cursed under my breath and gulped down my drink. It seemed I was the only one still obsessed with making Slither pay. Fuck knew why I was so uptight about everything, being a miserable shit. I had the fucker. I had him tied in a basement, with nowhere to go and nothing to do but wait for me to inflict more pain. A part of me wanted to tell the guys. I wanted each one of them to spill blood, blood that would atone for what that fucker had done to all of them. But with Wraith here, and Onyx being pussy-whipped, I didn’t know whether I was still able to trust him. Even though he had more than enough reason to want to carve Slither’s spine out after he tried to rape Wraith, what if she pleaded to his humanity in a bid to stop Slither’s suffering by my hand? What if Onyx had a change of heart, and decided to spare the fucker’s life to make his bitch happy? I couldn’t chance it. I wouldn’t. Nothing would stop me from eventually bleeding him dry.
The girls laughed behind me, and I glanced at them for a few seconds. Alyx and Wraith both had smiles on their faces. Neon as well, but hers was different. Unlike the other two, her smile didn’t reach her eyes. She wasn’t happy. Not even close. As a man who had been standing in the shadows watching her for years, I knew every expression, every line on her face, and every smile. No one could read her emotions simply by looking at her like I could. There wasn’t a single motherfucker in this world who knew her as well as I did. That was why I felt the hate so strongly, bathed in the rage, because it radiated off her, reaching for me with its cold fingers of agony. How was I supposed to think of anything else when I could feel every goddamn thing she felt?
The grief. The bitterness. The fucking pain. I felt it all the way to the marrow, and it was slowly gnawing away at my bones. Whenever she broke down, I fell with her. Whenever she cried, a part of me died. Every breath that tormented her haunted me. I was so consumed with her anguish, I no longer knew who I was without it…without her.
For years, I kept my distance, thinking I wasn’t good enough for her, trying my best not to think of her, not to wonder how it would feel like to have her in my arms. Her infectious laugh used to fill the halls of this place, the most beautiful sound in our dark world. Whenever I was in my room and I heard her laugh, I would smile. It was the sliver of light that reminded me there was still some good in this life.
But it was gone now. It disappeared the day they took her, and it never came back. They ripped it from her, ruined and molested it, turning it into nothing but a void of black. Because of him, I’d probably never have that again—never experience the laugh that made my heart beat for a moment. How was I supposed to live with that? How was I supposed to forget what they did to her, and what they stole from me?
Never.
Granite got up from his seat, and I narrowed my eyes as Onyx joined him, both walking in my direction.Fuck.
I held up a hand, indicating for Dice to bring me another cold one as Onyx settled in on my right and Granite on my left.