Then I see the big asshole heading my way. I meet him in the middle of the room.
“You keep forgetting you can’t have her,” Austin spits.
Kira calls out both our names—the only thing that stops me from breaking this motherfucker’s face.
“You keep forgetting I already do.” I promised Dana and myself that I’d back off. Take it easy, not push too hard, and what I said is just that: me verbally pushing too hard.
But it’s the truth. The hardcore, brutal truth my soul keeps screaming out, and one I know Kira feels deep down.
She runs up to us, trying to push us away from each other, to work her way between us. She can’t. We’re too big for her to move, and we’re too busy wanting to kill each other for her to make us want to.
“Both of you! Stop!” Kira cries out.
“Just walk away already,” I warn him, for her sake more than anything.
“I’m never going to walk away from Kira unless she makes me.”
My vision turns bright red.
“If you guys fight, I will never forgive either of you. I mean it!”
At her words, Austin and I instantly take a step back away from each other.
I want to kill him for it.
I can see in his eyes that he wants to kill me, too.
His eyes flicker toward Kira, and he runs his hand through his hair before heading to the entrance of the living room. There, he stops, turning his head to glare at me over his shoulder. “Don’t forget you’re her stepbrother. You can never give her what she deserves.”
It’s a perfectly aimed blow.
I want to see him fucking bleed at my feet. “You ever ask her to be your girlfriend again, and I will kill you.”
“Brayden!” Kira slaps me in the chest.
I don’t turn away from Austin’s stare. I’m dead serious, and I hope he sees that.
He laughs, a bitter, mirthless sound. “I’d like to see you try. After all, you’re not the only man willing to kill for her.” Before I can say anything, he walks away, and I hear the front door slam shut shortly after.
Kira hits me again, harder this time. “You’re such a fucking asshole!”
“Why? Because I told him the truth?”
“It wasn’t the truth!” She storms away from me.
I follow her. “Kira, wait.”
“Just leave me alone.”
We end up on the second floor, outside the door to her room. I catch up with her and grab her arm.
“What?”
“Look at me.” I don’t drop her arm until shes does, that seemingly permanent anger in her gaze. “Did you really agree to think about being his girl?”
Silence.
The same silence she gave Austin when he asked her if she was thinking about me the night they slept together.
“Kira.” I can’t hide the slightly broken tone of my voice. Shit, it’s nothing compared to how I feel about this shit situation.
“Don’t look at me like that,” she says.
“Like what?”
Her little jaw twitches. “Like I’m tearing you apart.”
“You are.” My voice drops so low I wonder if she even heard me.
The shocked expression on her face tells me that she did. Her nostrils flare slightly and her disbelief becomes rage. “You fucking asshole.” She points at my room. “You stood in there, packing your bags to go to your girl.”
I flinch. Knew this was coming.
She’s not done. “You stood there, looked me in the eye, and you took that fucking call.”
I remember. God help me, I do.
“You told her, while staring at me, how much you missed her—”
“I lied,” I mumble.
“Did you?” She jams her finger into my chest. “Did you?”
“Yes!” All I want is to hug her right now. Hug her tight. Somehow erase all the bullshit so I can get my sweet Kitty back.
Fucking shit, it’s like I barely see her smile nowadays.
“And when you went to her? How many times did you fuck her? How many times were you with her after that?”
Too fucking many. “I had to think of you. Every damn time, I had to close my eyes and imagine it was you just to get through it.”
She slaps me. “Fuck you, Brayden.”
I grab her before she can storm into her room. “Hate me for it, but I loved you. Every minute that I was with her, every minute that I wasn’t, I still loved you.”
“You don’t know how to love, then.”
“You’re right. You’re so fucking right, baby.” I want to run my fingers over her skin, comfort her, but all I can do is offer her the truth. “I had no idea how to love you. I know that.”
She’s silent as she contemplates what I’ve just told her. What seems like sympathy flashes in her eyes. “Your parents fucked with your head growing up, I get that. But you had no right to fuck with me.”
“You’re right.”
“I fucking cared about you so much. Forget what I felt for you as a girl, I was your friend, you asshole.”
I would love to fall to my knees and beg her forgiveness. Would, too, if I thought it would help in the slightest. “I know. I know. That’s why, no matter how much you feel you need to hurt me, I’ll still be here. I’m not going anywhere.”
She murmurs my name sadly, eyes glittering with unshed tears.
Needing something—anything—I reach for her and pull her into my arms.