“I told him that,” Rick called from the other room. A series of coughs followed.
Chase leaned against the doorframe and grinned. Not a care in the world. That always bugged me. Easy and smooth. The guy never stressed over anything. “Why? Because you’ll kick my ass?”
Fists tight, I took a step closer. It was a dangerous move considering the way the demon inside raged, but I couldn’t help it. “It’s a miracle you’re not in traction after what I walked into yesterday.”
My brother was the only human whose emotions I couldn’t see. We’d written it off as the curse—technically he was part of it, the Abel to my Cain—but it still bugged me. There had never been a problem seeing Rick’s colors. He frowned. “I got a little carried away trying to prove a point.”
“What fucking point? All the other girls in the world and you pick Sammy?”
Chase sighed and grabbed a baseball from the table. He’d won the game with it in tenth grade, and Rick had it mounted. “The point is, that even when I push your buttons, you can hold it together. If anything was going to set your dial to meltdown, that would have been the thing to do it. It was one little punch, man. I’m fine. Besides, I was a little jealous.”
Had everyone in this town lost their goddamned minds? “Jealous? Of the snarling monster living in my head?”
Chase tossed me the ball and sank onto the couch, the same one Rick had when we’d first moved in with him. Shit brown with pale-yellow pinstriping. “She’s always been all about you. Never looked twice at me. Even after all this time.”
“And that drives you crazy, doesn’t it?” I seethed.
Chase threw his hands up. “No arguments here, man. It did drive me nuts. I don’t get the appeal. You’re so dark and broody. I’m fun and charming.”
“And a prick that’ll fuck anything that walks.” I added, throwing the ball back with more force than necessary.
“Is it my fault chicks find me irresistible? They always have.” He rolled the ball between his hands, then tossed it back.
“The girls you got, I never wanted.”
“And the one you got, I did.”
There was no point in talking about it. If Sam found out the truth she’d be horrified—and who could blame her? I was a monster unworthy of love and compassion. Someone like her deserved to live in the light. Not stay hidden away in the dark. “Sam and I have no future together. Do whatever the fuck you want.”
“Since you don’t want her, maybe I will take a swing.” Chase shrugged. “Nothing serious. I have to admit, I’m really curious what she’d feel like underneath me.”
The demon’s rage ignited, mingling with my own emotion and making everything hazy. I threw the ball, this time with enough force to embed it in the wall right beside Chase’s head. “I’ll fucking kill—”
Chase jumped off the couch, taking several of the cushions with him, and threw up his hands again. “Relax, man. I’m just kidding. You know how I love to tweak you. But obviously you have an issue that needs resolving.”
The ache intensified, mouth going dry. Limit. Being here, listening to my brother’s voice, was testing my limit. The demon, sensing a crack in restraint, tried pushing itself to the surface, but I kept it down. Barely. “Could we drop the Sam thing?”
Chase took a step closer. “Look, I’m sorry. Rick said you didn’t want me here, and I get it, but I haven’t seen you in three years. You could have at least called once in a while to let me know you were still alive.”
“No,” I said coolly. I’d felt the demon’s animosity toward him in the past, but since coming home, it seemed to have intensified tenfold. What used to be an itch to punch Chase in the face had turned into something just short of need. “The sound of your voice makes me sick. I want to physically rip you to shreds each time you open your goddamned trap. You’ve always been careless, but are you suicidal, too?”
“I know what you’re thinking—”
The demon roared. I felt it as clearly as the breath moving through my lungs. The internal tremor rocked me to the core and everything momentarily went black. Deep breath. I’d worked for years on keeping the thing controlled in stressful situations. If he wasn’t careful, my brother was going to undo all that progress in a single afternoon. “If you knew what I was thinking, you’d be running right now.”
Chase had the intelligence to at least look worried. He was hovering in the doorway just out of reach. “You can’t leave town, Jax. Not yet. It’s Samantha. She needs your help.”
“She doesn’t need anything from me except distance.”
“At least hear me out, okay?”
Maybe he knew something about what was going on. Something that Sam wasn’t telling me. “Talk fast.”
“About a month ago Samantha came back home. One day she’s going to Huntington, staying on campus, the next she shows up on my doorstep asking me to help her find an apartment in town.”
“And your point?”
“My point is, this is Samantha we’re talking about. She couldn’t get away from this place fast enough, and now she’s back out of the blue?” Chase folded his arms. “I think something happened at school.”
“What could have happened?” The question was for my brother’s benefit. I already knew the answer. She’d been attacked. I’d gotten there just in time to scare the bastard off. Unfortunately, I hadn’t gotten a good look at the guy. It would have given me great pleasure to give him an up close and personal introduction to the demon.
Chase frowned. “No clue. She won’t say.”
“Maybe because it’s none of your damn business what she does?”
Expression darkening, any caution my brother felt drained away, and in a bold move, he stepped closer. “Lemme guess. She lied to you, didn’t she?”
She had, but I’d seen through it.
Chase grinned. The smug satisfaction in his expression made me—not the demon—want to smash his face into the wall. “Well, maybe in her eyes it was a lie of omission. That car going into the river wasn’t the first accident she’s had since coming back home.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Was there a connection? Had the person who attacked her at school made other attempts?
“Ask her. You’re the only one who has any hope of getting the truth. She pretty much brushes everyone else off.”
“You ask her. You’ve been here with her all this time.” The demon was getting antsy. Hands gripping the doorframe opposite my brother, I growled, “And you two seem pretty fucking cozy.”
“Get over it already,” Chase snapped. He took a deep breath, and his expression cooled a little. “I know this is hard for you, but I’m just asking you to stay for a few days. Just find out what’s going on.”
The demon flooded my mind with images of bodies washed in blood and screaming in pain. One body particular—Chase’s—made me sick, but at the same time, filled me with a twisted sense of satisfaction. I couldn’t take it anymore. “You need to leave.”
“What about—”
“Get out!” The scream tore from my throat like a weapon, leaving me edgy and raw. Beyond the front door, a dog started barking and a car alarm blared to life. “I don’t trust myself to keep it away. Go. Before. I. Tear. You. Apart.”
My brother sighed and backed away. “You’re here. I’m here. Like I said before, you haven’t done any real damage, man. You had the strength to walk away at McCarthy’s. You don’t give yourself enough credit.”
I braced both hands against the doorframe, gripping the wood until my fingernails dented the surface. “And you’re giving me too much.”