Ruined (The Eternal Balance #1)(74)

Chase was pale. He was shaking his head and swiping the back of his hand across his eyes.

“You’re good boys. Strong. You can beat this. You have to beat—have to beat this.”

“We will,” my brother said, voice cracking. He was squeezing our uncle’s hand so hard that his knuckles had gone white. “We will. Together. All three of us.”

I wanted to agree. We could do it. Together. But the words wouldn’t come. This was it. The end of something and the beginning of another. Rick had always been the glue that held us together. Death wasn’t just stealing the only father I’d ever known, it was stealing my entire family.

“No. For the sake of the world, you have to walk out that door and never, ever see each other again.”

“Rick—”

Rick grew agitated, pulling at the sheets and shaking his head. “If you spill each other’s blood, it will open the gates… Hell…”

His chest rose and fell for a moment, before falling still.

It was over. Rick Flynn was gone.





Chapter Thirty-Two




Sam

I wanted to scream. Of course, that was impossible. As we’d entered the hospital, Chase commanded me not to speak. I didn’t get the chance to tell Rick how much I loved him. Now, standing over his bed with the Flynn boys on either side, the darkest parts of me were glad he was gone. He’d be spared whatever horrible things came next.

“Well, that’s that then,” Chase whispered, dragging his hand from beneath Jax’s. He flinched when Rick’s fingers slipped from his and fell still on the stark white sheets. There were tears in his eyes, but his expression had reverted to cold indifference. “You take care of things here. I’m going to take our girl here for a little ride. Obviously I have some thinking to do.” He grabbed my arm and started toward the door, but Jax was in front of us in an instant. The expression on his face terrified me, while at the same time, sent a shiver of excitement shooting across my skin.

“Definitely not going to happen.”

Chase growled and adjusted his hold. If he squeezed any tighter, he’d break the skin. I could almost feel the anger coming off him. Furious, he spat, “Are you that disrespectful that you’d fight with me over Rick’s still-warm corpse?”

Jax cringed at his brother’s words, then stiffened. There was a spark of something dangerous in his eyes and before I could blink, his hand shot out, fingers wrapping around Chase’s neck. “Sam isn’t leaving here with you. Let her go.”

Chase stiffened. “Don’t. Fucking. Push. Me. Not now…”

Jax stayed where he was.

“Kill me, then… Wait. You can’t, can you? Hell on earth. Wouldn’t want that, now, would we?”

Jax, without hesitation, pushed forward and slammed into his brother, hands tightening around his neck. The three of us flew backward, crashing into the tiled wall as Chase’s airway closed off. How did I know?

Because I couldn’t breathe.

I groped at the invisible hands around my neck for a moment before the room began to water around the edges. Jax had one hell of a grip. Swaying, I grabbed the edge of a metal cart, an echoing clatter filling the room as I fell, struggling for air.

Jax, momentarily pulled from his homicidal haze, whirled around as his brother’s laugh filled the room. “Guess you forgot about that, too, huh? Seems to me like you’re well and truly f*cked, brother.”

He stumbled away from Chase, horrified, and blessed air came rushing back. Jax took a step toward me, but Chase cleared his throat and waggled a finger. “Don’t even think about it.”

But Jax ignored him, grabbing my hand, helping me stand. “Let’s go,” he said, threading his fingers through mine.

I felt his warm skin, as well as a desperate desire to go with him, but my limbs wouldn’t respond. No matter how hard I tried to kick my feet into motion, it wouldn’t happen.

Chase laughed again, and a sliver of silver glinted against the light. A moment later a sharp sting bloomed at the hollow of my throat. The blade was pressed against his neck, the edge cutting into the skin ever so slightly. Just enough of a nip to cause a small trickle of blood to run down my neck.

“Stop!” Jax snapped. He threw both hands into the air and stumbled away.

Chase sighed. He rocked the blade back and forth, gently, each movement deepening the wound. It itched and stung. “Feel free to chime in with your thoughts.”

“It’s okay,” I said, thrilled at the sound of my own voice. “It’s just a scratch.”

The look in Jax’s eyes said he wasn’t buying it, but instead of arguing, he asked, “Are you okay? He hurt you?”

“I’m okay.” Overall it was true. Chase hadn’t hurt me except for the cut, and really, it was just a scratch. A warning. He’d forced me to kiss him in the car before we came in. It was short-lived, though. He could command me to do whatever he wanted with my body, but he couldn’t force the feelings he wanted to feed on. Lust. Now that I knew what he was—what he’d done—there was no chance of feeling anything but disgust for him.

Chase nodded and gestured toward the door. “Now that we’ve got that all cleared up, let’s move forward, ’kay?”

“What is it you want?” Jax asked, a subtle quake in his voice. I’d heard it once before, right before Azirak took over at my apartment.