“I need to take a piss anyway,” he responds, getting up from the chair.
I pull off my gloves and snatch up my phone. Two missed calls from Kale, the guy I have watching Theo’s house. Unease settles in my gut.
There’s also a text message from Jules that I don’t remember hearing the notification for. I pull up her message before calling Kale back.
Jules: I’m finished with my appointment. Don’t get angry, but I’m going to Theo’s. I left my locket that has my sister’s picture in it. I’ll grab Mr. Waffles while I’m there.
I scowl down at her message and notice it came in twenty minutes ago. What in the hell is she thinking? Yes, Theo hasn’t been around, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t show up at any time. The thought of her being there and him coming home sends fear racing through me. My fingers fly across the screen to bring up Kale’s number. Something doesn’t feel right, and Kale’s missed calls only makes the feeling worse.
It rings five times before it goes to voicemail. I try again and get the same thing. I hang up and dial Jules’s number next. It only rings twice before it goes to voicemail.
“Fuck!” I yell and launch my work table across the room. Shit goes flying everywhere, but I ignore it as I run out of the room. I really don’t fucking like this.
“Ella!” I yell my sister’s name.
“What’s going on?”
She’s already behind me, following me to the back room. I yank open the door that leads to where my truck is parked in the alley.
“Jules is at Theo’s and she’s not answering her phone. Tell Thomas t
o come back next week for me to finish. It’s on the house.”
“Wait!” Ella calls as I start closing the door. “What are you going to do?”
“What I should have done the first time he touched her without her permission.”
I leave it at that, slam the door behind me, and sprint to my motorcycle. I break every traffic law as I race toward Jules, my hands cramping on the handle bars. I send up prayer after prayer that she’s okay, and that I’ll have the will to not kill the bastard once I get my hands on him.
The whole way there, I keep calling Jules’s and Kale’s numbers, I’m beyond caring how dangerous it is. I know not to use a phone while riding, but my need to hear her voice is beyond overpowering and every time they don’t answer my anger and worry heighten.
Right as I’m pulling onto Theo’s street, Kale finally answers his phone.
“Where are you?” he asks, sounding out of breath.
“Pulling onto Hellmen. What in the fuck is going on?”
“Dude, get here quick. I think I just heard your girl scream from inside Theo’s house.”
A blistering pain takes residence in my stomach, followed closely by a rage so deep, so all-consuming, I can’t fucking see straight.
“Motherfucker!" I yell and pull on the gas harder then screech to a halt seconds later when I pull up in front of Theo’s house.
Just as I sling my leg over the tank and land both feet firmly on the asphalt, I see Kale running across the yard. I beat him to the porch steps. I don’t stop, just use my forward momentum and my shoulder to bust open the door. It only takes me seconds to see the destruction of the living room and the absence of Jules.
“Came from the back of the house,” Kale says, but I’m already running down the hallway.
My body convulses at what I see. My motherfucking twin hovering over Jules, blood dripping from his fucked-up ear and onto her bare chest as he frantically tries to pull down her pants.
She’s not moving. Not her arms, legs, or even her fucking chest. She’s just lying there, limp. My goddamn heart stops and my lungs painfully deflate.
She can’t be gone.
Fucking hell, she can’t be gone.
I completely lose it. Theo turns at my animalistic roar. Seeing the manic look in my eyes, he scrambles off the other side of the bed. I’m already there by the time his feet touch the floor and my fist is smashing into the side of his face. I follow him down, pleased to see a chunk of his ear missing. My girl put up a fight. I’ll finish it for her.
He throws up an arm, trying to block his face while his other flings out wildly, feebly attempting to hit me. I easily block it and land a hit to his jaw. Blood slings from his mouth and it only makes me want to see more. I want him to bleed out beneath me. He may be my blood, my twin, but he’s dead to me already, and I want to make it real. He doesn’t deserve to live. He’s a wasted piece of trash.