Page 88 of Where Sinners Repent

Chapter 22

Kaleb

My knuckles blanch at my death grip around her stupid fucking baseball bat. Seemingly her only source of protection, and she didn’t even have that with her.

What was she thinking?

Icy cold fury slides through my veins as I stride up the porch steps and back into the club. Looks like it’s going to be another sleepless night, because the black cat decided to sneak around a fucking club in the middle of the night and almost get herself killed.

Somehow, it’s fallen on my shoulders to teach the girl a lesson.

I might have pushed the front door a little too hard, because Maddison and Roxanne both jump as the thing smashes against the wall.

Seeing the defeated slump in her shoulders and the open cuts that I didn’t put there makes me grateful Kai didn’t kill the fucker. Now I get to watch the life drain from his eyes.

I’ll make sure he’s a pissing, snivelling, begging mess by the time he takes his last breath. Dying like the incel fucking loser that he is.

It’s almost like I blacked out riding to the penthouse apartment to retrieve the black cat’s weapon, and now that I’m here, I can barely form words.

“Let’s go,” I mutter to her, fingers aching to slide over the fresh blood on her legs and the palms of her hands.

Her eyes spring to mine, the colour of an icy pool, red-rimmed from tears.

“W... what?” she whispers.

My teeth grit. She looks as if she expects me to explain myself. I’m not going to.

“We’re leaving.”

Her eyes slide to Maddison, nervousness shining there.

Good. She should be nervous.

Maddison opens her mouth, and I turn my glare onto her, and her teeth close with a clink. Even Ash doesn’t ask questions. They know me well enough to know I don’t do things without a cause.

When I turn my focus back onto Roxanne, with her mussed-up hair and torn-up shirt, she swallows, grimacing when she pushes off the stool. Her slippered feet connect with the ground, and every movement looks like it causes her pain. Something rough stirs low in my stomach.

I fucking crush the feeling.

This isn’t about her. It’s about my brother. The girl has become a liability, proven by the fact that she wandered around in the shadows of this place in nothing but an oversized T-shirt. Tonight is proof of everything I’ve thought about her from the beginning.

If Ash and Kai had arrived any later, there wouldn’t be anything worthwhile to salvage of the girl.

And Kai would never fucking recover.

And there lies the fucking problem.

She limps towards me, refusing to ask for help despite the way her steps falter, like the stubborn little thing she is.

For a split second, I think about closing the distance between us. My hand moves before I can stop it, so I curl it into a fist instead.

She needs to learn because Kai won’t be there every time she makes a stupid decision. And neither will I.

“You know where to go,” I growl, low enough for just her to hear.

She nods, a little whimper falling past her pouty lips. She makes her way through the front door, wrapping her arms around her body as the icy air hits us both.

I don’t comfort her. I won’t.