I swallow the acid in my throat. “Shouldn’t Sarah be here then."
The room turns cold, Rocco’s teasing dissipating into ice and thunder. It makes me feel powerful and I straighten my shoulders, lifting them higher in victory.
“If you know where she is,” my dad offers coolly. “Please, do invite her. Until then, sit down and eat.”
I glance around the table, looking at my family. “Like I said.” I step back. “I’ve lost my appetite.”
Retrieving my keys from the bowl in the entryway, I storm through the door. Both embarrassed by my outburst and irritated at my family for putting me in a situation I want no part in.
“You okay?”
I whirl on Parker.
“What do you care?” I shoot back.
“I care a lot. You’re important to Codi, which means you’re important to me. I get that the situation is fucked up. I don’t expect you to play happy families with my brother, you know that, right?”
I drop onto the bench seat outside the front door on a huff.
“If it’s any consolation.” He drops down beside me. “Rocco is as out of sorts by the whole scenario as you are.”
“You’re kidding, right? Mr. Antagonist in there.”
Parker laughs, pushing his shoulder against mine playfully. “Rocco’s never been dependent on anyone. Confrontation is most of what he knows, where he feels comfortable.”
“Why me though?”
His eyes focus on the ground at his feet, the muscles in his arms bulging as he rests his elbows on his knees. “I have my ideas, but tellin’ you would be breakin’ the code.”
“Fair enough.”
“Rocco’s not the easiest person to love,” he admits shamefully. “Hell, he’s hard to like most of the time. But there’s reason behind everything he puts into motion.”
I consider Parker’s right, but I don’t want to know, more specifically I don’t want to care.
“As angry as you are at him for what went down, he’s angrier at himself. The hate you feel for him... trust me when I tell you he feels all that for himself and more.”
“I should hate you, too.”
He agrees easily enough. “You should. But you know I make your sister happy, which is important to you. You forgave me because you saw past my mistakes and looked for what Codi saw. I know he doesn’t deserve it, but if you could do that for Roc, it’d make this random fuckin’ situation a lot easier.”
I sit up straighter, rolling my shoulders. I open my mouth to speak, to dispute his request, to tell him I owe his brother nothing. But my words catch in my throat as Rocco’s skate across us both in disinterest.
“Thinkin’ I owe her enough,” he grumbles, hating that he’s indebted to me in any way.
I take joy in the way his face grimaces as he shuffles forward to lean against the wall. “I ain’t interested in your forgiveness, Rein,” he adds just to be a jerk.
“I’m not interested in giving it to you.” My words are delivered cantankerously, his attempt at taking control by telling me he doesn’t want my forgiveness, pissing me off more than his presence in my life.
Newsflash, asshole, it’s not up for grabs.
“Save a repeat of last night, think I can head home? Save us both the horror of spending another minute in one another’s company.”
He’s referring to his pitiful escape attempt. The one where he was still burning up from a fever and fainted in my dad’s living room on his way home.
Dickhead.
Once again, I was called in to check on his stupid self. He’s become the ultimate thorn in my side, one I see little hope in removing.
Rocco has accepted my family’s hospitality as graciously as one would had they been chained up in the basement. I’m here saving his fucking life, begrudgingly nursing him back to health, for reasons I can’t even begin to want to understand… and he acts like he’s a prisoner.
“Free to go whenever you care to, Shay,” I gripe. “You’re not our fucking captive.” I roll my eyes. “For the eight millionth time, Dad has insisted I help you. I’m doing that. The word you seem to have lost is thank you.”
He scowls.
“Unfortunately, I need eyes on that wound for another few days. Save a repeat of last night,” I continue. “Twenty-four hours at least to make sure that infection has subsided. Let’s skip the middle of the night escape fiasco. Trust me when I tell you, the moment you’re healthy enough to go home, I’ll make sure that’s exactly where you are.”
He clears his throat uncomfortably, lifting his chin an inch before ambling off toward the front door.
“He’s not used to being dependent on other people, Ryn. Hope you can appreciate how hard this would be for him.” He stands. “It’s been Rocco and me against the whole world our whole lives. I had him to lean on, but he had no choice but to build himself like concrete, to stop anyone from pushing us down.”
I follow his lead, standing. Meeting his eyes head-on, I shake my head. “That’s not entirely true,” I combat. “You both had Mira. He’s no impenetrable wall, Parker. He’s the fucking bomb that blows it to pieces.”
Pushing past him, I enter the house, not feeling in the least bit guilty at Rocco’s expression as I brush past him. Asshole was eavesdropping and it’s about time someone made him see the fucking truth. Rocco Shay is nothing but a poison; offering nothing but pain and suffering to those around him, the worst of all fates gifted to his own family.
Chapter Seven
Rocco
The shrill and deafening scream wakes me with a start, my body bolting upright in alarm. Disoriented, my eyelids blink down against the blackness surrounding me. My side throbs, my temples pound, my body covered in a thick sheen of sweat.
The house falls into an eerie silence, the sound of my own heavy breaths fastening the beat of my heart. My mind, foggy and still semiconscious, can’t differentiate between my dreams and reality. I’d swear the sound was real, but it wouldn’t be the first time my mind has tricked me into believing the terror from my nightmares were alive and kicking, ready to torment me once again.
I listen harder in the loud expanse of darkness, eyes finally adjusting to the darkness.
Rein.
The last few days flood my memory bank like a movie on fast forward. Camryn stitching me up. Me telling her she should’ve let me die. Attempting to leave in the middle of the night. Fainting and having to be hauled back into Camryn Rein’s bed. My body burning up so bad I was certain Dominic Rein had chosen to take his revenge. Forcing his daughter to help me, only to set me alight while I slept.
The scream happens again. The hysterical sound piercing the otherwise still night. It’s a hell of a lot more haunting in full consciousness; being forced to bear blind witness to something that agonizing for another human being.
I scramble out of the bed, ripping at the damp sheets to find my footing. Soft sobs echo through the tenebrous house, my skin crawling with the despondency in the sound.
I limp toward the stairs, hand brushing the wall to guide me through the unfamiliar surroundings. I struggle through my descent, my body protesting violently with every staggered step. I force myself forward, the distress in the tortured cries too heavy to ignore.