He drove us home then, and just like the drive to Kade’s house, it was entirely silent. Tears stung at my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I held my breath whenever I thought a sob would escape, and eventually, the urge to cry passed, but the pain remained and stung terribly. When we reached the compound, I got out of the car, and without a word to Big Phil, I ran towards my family’s wing. I ignored him when he shouted after me, but I did turn to face him when I stepped inside my home.
“What?” I demanded, tossing my bloody soaked shirt at his feet as he came to a stop in front of me. “What the fuck do you want from me?”
“One day, Marco will give you to me.” Big Phil sneered. “You’re going to be my little muppet, and when I say jump, you’ll say how high. I’ll make you bleed worse than you are now before you ever disrespect me again, boy.”
I glared at Big Phil as I reached out and gripped the door handle.
“That may be true,” I spat. “But until that day, you can go and fuck yourself.”
I slammed the door in his face and hearing him kick the door and curse made me smile. I knew that I had just made an enemy out of the man, and he would most likely make me pay for it, but at that very moment, I got the better of him, and it made me as happy as a pig in shit.
“What the fuck is going on?”
I turned to face Ryder when he jogged down the stairs. He came to a stop at the end of the stairs for just a second before he widened his eyes and rushed towards me. He grabbed hold of my chin when I turned to look at from me, and when he examined my face, and my wound, his eyes darkened. He turned me so he could see my neck, and I heard his sharp intake of breath.
“Who did this to you?”
Big Phil had already stormed away from our home, and I was glad because I didn’t want him to attack my brother.
“What’s wrong with my neck?” I asked, ignoring the question. “It’s just cuts.”
“It ... it spells a name.”
My heart stopped. “What name?”
“Marco.”
You needed to be reminded who owns you, boy
Hate filled me. Hate for Marco. Hate for Big Phil. Hate for my father for not protecting me from them like he was supposed to do.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, stepping away from him. “Nothing can be done about it, so there’s no point in talking about it.”
Ryder followed me into one of the downstairs bathroom and watched me as I retrieved a first-aid kit. I hadn’t realised until then that my hands were slightly shaking. My brother stepped forward and silently held his hand out for the kit. I sighed and handed it to him as I jumped up on the counter and sat beside the sink. My brother shook his head as he cleaned the blood from my face, and it made me swallow.
“Does it look bad?”
Ryder didn’t have to speak for me to know the answer to my question. His eyes told me everything I needed to know.
“Fuck,” I said, forcing a smile. “Alec will definitely be the prettiest brother now.”
My brother didn’t smile, and it made me lose mine.
“It’s only a cut, Ry.”
“Only a cut?” he repeated, his voice rough. “It’s over four inches in length, and it’s deep enough that you’ll not be able to hide the scar it’ll cause. This is your fucking face, Kane. Tell me who did this to you?”
I felt Ryder’s anger for the one who hurt me, but nothing could overshadow the concern and worry that I knew he felt. He was only three years older than Alec, five years older than me, and ten years older than the twins, and he held the weight of the world on his shoulders when it came to me and my brothers. He took care of all of us, he always had, and I couldn’t begin to imagine how hard that was for him. He was only twenty-one, and he had the responsibilities of a grown man with four kids in a world where crime was our way of life.
“Ryder, you can’t do anything to him.”
“To who?”
“Big Phil.”
Ryder’s lips parted with surprised. “Why the fuck did he slash your face and carve Marco’s name into your neck? Why were you even around him?”
“Dad made me go with him for the day. Big Phil said my future within our family was to be like him.” I looked down. “I don’t wanna do what he does, Ryder. He hurts people.”
“Did he make you do something you didn’t want to today?”
I shook my head. “This man, Kade, owed Marco money. He didn’t have the money yet because Marco gave him a deadline of the end of the week. Big Phil asked me what I thought about it, and I told him that Marco should respect a deadline if he gave it. He cut me because I sided against him. He said it was a lesson I had to learn the hard way. He put Marco’s name on me to remind me who owned me.”