I am dead to Royal. If I’m dead to him, am I even alive at all? My twin, my other half, just tore me out from the roots, and I want nothing but to end all of it, for the pain to be gone.
Royal steps around me as if I’m not even there, and I hear the first punch connect. I don’t exist to him anymore. I’m nothing. And if I’m nothing to him, how can I be something to myself? I pick up the gun, push myself to my feet, and stumble down to the bank to the water.
twenty-seven
Devlin
Crystal staggers off down the bank, and I turn to follow, but Royal steps into my path. “You think you’re going to go after my sister?” he taunts, his fists up. The asshole slid on a pair of brass knuckles while I was distracted by the sight of her in distress.
“You just disowned your sister,” I say. “She’s not your sister anymore. She’s my girl. Get out of my fucking way.”
Royal’s fist comes quick and hard, before I can step past him to go after her. I dodge at the last second, but not quick enough. His knuckles glance off my cheekbone, and I curse under my breath when I feel the metal slice open my skin. I use my own momentum to sink a fist into Royal’s middle, going for the solar plexus. He doubles over, cursing and growling.
Beside me, Duke tackles Preston. The guy’s only got one good arm, but I don’t have more than a second to worry about him rebreaking it and what that will mean for his future. Royal’s back up and swinging.
I’m bare-knuckled, but I’m faster than him. I dodge the next blow entirely and sink a left hook into his side. This time, he stays upright, getting in a quick jab before dancing back into a defensive stance.
Colt and Baron are trading insults as their fists fly like a couple of boxers. But Duke’s got Preston on his back, whaling on him again and again while Preston tries to block the blows with his broken arm. I duck away from Royal and grab Duke by the back of the neck, flipping him off my cousin and onto the muddy ground. He’s on his feet in seconds, diving at me like a left tackle.
I duck him, and he slides across the ground and rolls to his feet. Royal’s fist connects with the side of my skull, and I go down like a ton of bricks. Blackness swims in and out of my vision, but I keep myself going, landing on my hands and flipping around, swinging my legs in a wide sweep. They connect with Royal’s, and I use one foot to lock into the front of his ankles while I take out his knees with the other foot.
He hits the mud hard, but he rolls free of my legs, untangling himself in the process. My head is still throbbing like a giant is crushing it in his fist from the brass knuckles colliding with my skull, but I’m clearheaded enough to know I need to be on my feet. I’m a better fighter that way, especially against these assholes. They’re bigger and stronger than us, and they came to bring pain. My advantage is speed and stamina. If I can dodge enough hits to tire him out, I can get in some good ones and knock him out cold.
I’m back on my feet before Royal, but not by much. He comes in swinging, but I duck and grab his arm, using his momentum to throw him to the ground again. The problem is, the guy’s had a concussion recently. If I hit his head, I might kill him. If I wanted to do that, I’d pull the gun from my waistband. Even though Royal made it real fucking clear he’d have no problem ending my life, I’m not sure I could live with myself if I killed a man. And I know I couldn’t if it was Crystal’s brother. I vowed to spend the rest of my life protecting her, not hurting her. I know how much it would hurt her to lose her brother, even after he said those things to her.
Royal starts to get up, but at the last second, he kicks out, delivering a sharp roundhouse to my shins. Pain roars up my body, and I stumble. The slippery ground gives way under one foot, and I fall. In the second it takes me to hit the ground, the realization that Crystal didn’t return hits me. Maybe it makes me a pussy, but suddenly, fighting is the last thing on my mind. Panic grips me, and dread clenches inside my chest. Rain beats down, and the water’s rising higher every minute. If she slipped and fell in…
Before I can get to my feet, Royal swings. His brass knuckles smash into my jaw, pain explodes through me, and blackness snaps closed around me like a trap.
*
I wake to the sound of the rain still beating down and a grinding ache in my jaw, my head, my ribs.
“Devlin, dude, wake up,” Colt says, slapping my cheek hard enough to sting.
When I blink the rain out of my eyes, he’s crouching over me. “Did you just slap me?” I ask.
“Pass out like a bitch, I’ll slap you like one,” he says, a relieved grin spreading across his face.
“Who you calling a bitch?” I ask, sitting up and slugging his shoulder hard enough to make him wince. I look around and see the deep tracks left where the Range Rover was stuck in the mud, but there’s no sign of the car itself.
“They left,” Colt says, hopping to his feet and rubbing his shoulder. “They went toward the party. I’m going to move our cars before they come back and wreck them.”
I hand Colt my keys, and he jogs over to the cars.
“Need a fainting couch?” Preston asks, holding out a hand to me. He’s peeled off his shirt and is holding it to the left side of his face with his free hand.
I slap his hand away and push myself to my feet. My ribs hurt like a bitch. That asshole must have kicked me while I was down. Not that I didn’t have it coming. I did the same to him after he wrecked my car.
“Where’s Crystal?” I ask. “Did they take her?”
“No,” he says. “They ran like pussies when they saw we were strapped.”
“Fuck,” I mutter. They might have only brought one gun this time, but if I know anything about the Dolces, it’s that they won’t be shown up. If my cousins brought out their guns and threatened them this time, they’ll bring theirs and shoot to kill next time.
“Come on,” I say. “Help me find her. We’ve got to get her out of here before they come back for her.”
The road is a dead end, so they can’t get out another way. They’ll have to come back through here after whatever shit they’re going to pull at the party. The party is the least of my concerns. It’s forty degrees and pouring rain out here, and Crystal’s been gone for… I don’t know how long I was out. Too fucking long.