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I feel sick.
Kaiden pauses, bends down and retrieves something. Standing, he hesitates before holding out his hand to me. I eye him warily.
“Keep this on you, Odi,” he tells me, handing me my now closed flick knife. “Stay safe.”
With that little caveat, he goes, and I’m left fuming on the bed at my own damn stupidity.
“Who do we need to kill?” Axel growls as he walks in and takes stock of my tear-stained face.
“Dude!” Zie snaps at him, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.
“What?” He snaps, pointing at me. “She’s crying. I’m not having it. Who the hell upset her? I’ll make them pay. Especially if it was that good for nothing dickhead boyfriend of hers. I’ve been itching to beat the crap out of him since day one.”
“It’s fine,” I say, wiping my tears away. “It was my fault anyway.”
“What? What happened?” Kaiden demands. “There’s no way that turd muffin has made you cry because you deserve it.”
“It’s not Billy,” I sniff.
“Billy,” Axel scoffs, which he does every time my boyfriend’s name comes up. I bite my lip and look at Zie for guidance. I don’t know what to say.
“The General lost his temper when she spilled her drink over dinner,” Zie explains heavily.
Zie had invited me to stay over for dinner after we’d spent the day playing in his pool, everything was going fine until I dropped my glass of water at dinner. Then Zie’s dad, The General, lost it.
“Was it coke? Did it stain the carpet?” Kaiden frowns. I understand his question, Mrs Montgomery loves white. Virtually every room in the house is decorated all in white, even down to the thick plush inappropriate carpets. Who has carpet in a dining room anyway? Especially with kids.
“No. It was water and Odi caught all of the mess with her napkin before a drop left the table,” Zie answers for me.
“So what did The General do?” Axel frowns. He knows there’s something going on. We’ve been friends long enough for him to know that I don’t cry easily, and that I certainly wouldn’t be upset over being yelled at by Zie’s dad.
“He shouted.” Axel fixes Zie with a hard stare. He knows we’re holding back on him. “And he...grabbed her arm…then he pulled her out of the room. He dragged her to his private study and locked the door. She won’t tell me what happened after that.”
The three of them stare at me and I wrap my arms around myself for comfort.
“It was nothing,” I insist.
“Peony—” Axel barks, but Kaiden takes a different tack.
“babygirl, tell us,” he says softly, taking my hand in his and stroking it lightly. I’m a sucker for him, his touch, the honey-soft melody of his voice. I stare up into his star-coloured eyes and I melt.
Leaving my hand in his, I use my free hand to reach over and carefully, tentatively, pull back the sleeve of my cardigan. Slowly, the material slides back to reveal a long thin angry red burn along my forearm. I keep my eyes glued on Kaiden, who doesn’t react, while the others hiss and curse around us.
“It was an accident, I’m sure,” I whisper.
“He accidentally lit the fire, heated up a poker and then, what? Tripped and held it to your arm?” Axel’s voice trembles with pure rage. I keep my eyes averted from him and focus solely on Kaiden.
“You know this was a one off babygirl, right? He won’t ever touch you again. I promise.” Kaiden stares at me so earnestly that I believe him. I nod.
“We won’t let him touch you again,” Zie promises.
This is all my fault.
My father warned me years ago to make Odile mine if I cared about her so damn much, and I failed. With that stupid fucking brand, I failed. It was supposed to tie her to me – to all of us – forever. But once we were discovered, we didn’t get the brand. We never went back and did it later on either, even once Odile was allowed to hang around with us again.
And so she’s just a scarred up girl bearing the brunt of our fucked up friendship.
She never once complained about it, but now The General is going after her, trying to stake a claim on something that’s mine. What he’s done to her makes me feel sick.
