Cade

“Get the fuck off my woman, Drew!” I lift my knife and fling it through the air. Target his skull. The snow is so damn thick I miss. Motherfucking shit.

“Don’t take another step or I’ll cut her beautiful head off and throw it at you.” Unbalanced. His words are filled with it.

Darkness threatens to raid my vision as I shake my head trying to clear the fog shadowing my brain.

On the other side of town lying in a bed that’s surely going to piss him off when he wakes is the mangled up body of a man who took several bullets to try and save my woman.

Chaz was shot in the arm, shoulder, and leg during an ambush where somehow Drew got away with Ivy. All I know from the dozens of calls I had while in the air with Roan is that Chaz killed several men including the bodyguard who followed Ivy around. The man is going to be hurting for a long while, but thank fuck he’s going to be okay.

Kind of ironic when the last man I killed sacrificed the life of one, all because he thought he’d be the one to take me down. But I’m not like Adam, who’s probably shark bait by now. I’m like my brother. The one who takes what he wants, when he wants.

Guilt trails down my spine. Ivy wouldn’t be hurting if I would have made it here sooner. I had no idea where she was until Roan notified me about a text from Drew. He sent it to Ivy’s phone. Prick must have left it in the SUV for that purpose only.

I should have known a man like my brother would find out. A huge goddamn mistake I made that not only Chaz could have died for, one that just might cost Ivy her life.

Difference between Drew and me though, I’m not waiting years to rectify my mistake. Drew should have taken me out the second he knew I was alive. He should have used his money to pay off someone to kill me instead of building an empire that’s going to crumble to the ground.

My insides seize.

In agony.

In fear.

Neither showing mercy as they twine around my lungs, and squeeze until I can barely breathe.

Can barely stomach the attacking images of his hands on her. Of her screams as I ran through the snowbanks toward her.

This whole fucked up person my brother has become decays me from the inside out.

I should have taken him out the easy way. Should have just put a bullet through his head every time I looked through my scope from atop the building next to his instead of waiting to look him in the eye and get the answer to my parents’ question.

Why?

“Fuck you, Cade. You couldn’t stay away could you?”

My eyes deadlock with the man who has the same blood as mine coursing through his veins. He stands, jerks Ivy up by her neck, and slams her battered body against the headstone. A knife exactly like mine is placed underneath her throat.

“She looks like a sacrificial angel, doesn’t she? Too fucking bad neither one of us will win her.”

More recollections than I care to count flicker through my mind. The many talks I’ve had with my family every time I came to visit them here. The flowers I had sent every year for birthdays, my parents’ anniversary. The tears I let fall when no one was looking. But the one standing out above all is how Drew snapped and became violent. How his chemical imbalance went missing from his warped state of mind.

Never really gave notice to the time Drew went from a fairly easygoing brother to one with so much pent-up anger for Rachel and me until I read the headlines in those articles. It all made sense to me then. The man he copied didn’t want to share the life insurance he was set to inherit from his dad’s death with his mother and sister. Mitchell Davies, a young college kid, studying criminology at NYU. He and a few of his friends beat, raped his sister, and burned the two of them inside. He ended up getting away with it. Collecting the money until the guilt ate away at one of his friends, he ended up turning them in.

Drew killed over that case. I remember how it drove my father to tears thinking a teenager was that fucked up he’d commit a crime so horrendous over greed.

I was interested in hearing about it because I wanted to be like him. One Drew acted interested in because he became obsessed with it. Obsessed enough to conduct a copycat brutal crime.

My body shakes, my finger twitches uncontrollably and my stomach churns when I see the bruises on Ivy’s face. A few minutes longer and who the hell knows what kind of damage he’d have done to her.

“Back away from her, or one of the dozen men waiting to clean this mess up will shoot you.”

Drew’s low rumbling sadistic laugh proves how off balanced he is. It contains a theory he’s this close to snapping into a cyclone of wrath. To do his best to take care of the mistake he made.

Me.

I choke down my laugh and welcome him to try.

“Cade.” My name falls from Ivy’s lips like Drew just stabbed me through my heart with my knife.

“Baby, are you all right?” She has got to be fucking freezing and hurting. So incredibly hurt that once again I’ve failed her. It slashes right through my chest.

“Yes. Is Chaz?” Her caring about my true brother barely scratches the tiny surface of my anger. It makes me love her all the more.

“He’s going to be fine. Giving you a choice, Ivy. You want to stay and watch this or have Nick take you home?”

Unraveling. I can smell Drew doing it before I see it.

I pull out my gun. This needs to be over before he loses it completely and kills her.

“She’ll do what I say. Her home, the end of her life is with me. Ivy is my wife, you son of a bitch.”

“She’s about to become your widow, Drew.” I pull the trigger. Hitting him in the leg instead of in the head where I want. His brains would splatter all over her. Not sure if she could handle that. Snow flies up in a white powdery cloud from where his body drops to the ground.

“Step away from him, Ivy.” I wait for her to move before I inch in closer. “It won’t be long, and that snow will be coated with your blood, Drew.” It’s oozing out of his leg already.

“Still determined to use a weapon on me instead of fighting like a man. Bet this wasn’t how you planned to end me was it? Bet you wanted to burn me alive. Listen to me beg and scream the same way our dad did. You know he begged me to let you and Rachel go. Tried pleading with me that you’d all stick by my side and get me the help I needed. Had to laugh in his face before I slammed my fist in it. Stick by me, my ass. He would have put me in an asylum or prison just like what happened to Mitchell Davies. He wasn’t as smart as me, was he? We should talk about that story, brother, don’t you think? Goddamn, I loved that story. I beat that kid though, didn’t I? He didn’t get away with killing his family. He got caught, sent away for life. I studied that case until it was all I could see. I had it perfected. But then you had to go and survive.”

Mitchell Davies deserves to die just like Drew does.

He’ll get no response out of me until I make sure Ivy has it in her to stay out in this sub-zero cold until I finish. One blink from her eyes and I’ll finish this now.

It takes her determined gaze not leaving mine for me to stand here and not squeeze the life out of him. He needs to suffer before I do him a favor by relieving him of his misery. There has to be all kinds of disarray running through his crazy head. How the fuck he hasn’t snapped by now is a riddle I’ll never solve.

Not a flicker. The only thing dripping from her is understanding of the choice I’m given her, and her trust that I’ll kill him before he hurts her again. I’ll never doubt this woman’s ability to stand tall again. Her willpower is as clear as her love for me is. It shines brighter than the light casting all over her face.

Her bruises and scars that will last a lifetime are worth the decision I made. One she deserves more than I do to see this through. One that will prove I’ll always give her a choice.

“You want to die from my fists? If that’s what you want then throw the knife and any other weapons you have, I’ll do the same. If you don’t, the next bullet goes in your skull. After you’re dead, I’ll take Ivy home, get her cleaned up and fuck her until she’s screaming my name.”

Steam, it billows out with his loud white puffs of air. I could taste the end of my vengeance. After this, I’ll have nothing except good memories to make and a long future with Ivy.

“It isn’t going to work that way. She dies, you die, and I die. You fucked my wife! I should’ve killed the betraying bitch years ago and moved on. I’ll be goddamned if I make another mistake by letting either of you live.”

He pushes himself up so fast I don’t have time to blink. The blood drains out of my face when at the same time I fire off another bullet and nail him in the shoulder; he plunges his knife into Ivy’s arm.

Time stands still. Her bloodcurdling scream ripping from her mouth while she drops to her knees. I failed her again.

“Goddamn, that stings. Nice shot, brother, but take a look at her. She’s on her hands and knees just like she should be.” Drew’s low rumbling words hold years of pain and torment.

I can’t fucking breathe.

My lips curl over my teeth in anger, bloodthirsty for this fucker who will not steal another life from me.

My vengeance becomes a livewire. I dive at him. He howls in desperate agony as I take him down.

We roll and tumble. Two enraged men fighting to the death.

Brother to brother.

Black soul to blacker soul.

Arms, fists, and legs flying everywhere. Blood dripping from his wounds. I give the man credit for coming at me when he’s profusely bleeding.

He lands an uppercut to my jaw. I nail one in his gut, another to the side of his head as we throw our hatred into every motherfucking punch.

I blink away the blood gushing from the severe cut to my brow. Circling my brother as he circles me. Each of us inhaling air cold enough to freeze our lungs, exhaling heavy white puffs of heated air.

“As much as I’d love to dance in a circle with you. I need to get my girl fixed up.” I lunge at him. No mercy is given as I dig the tip of my finger into his bleeding shoulder.

“You’re bleeding out from both wounds. It won’t be long until you die.”

“You aren’t any better than me. Choosing to kill me over making sure she’s alive.” He’s gasping for air now. Scrunched up features are starting to show his pain.

I can smell his fear. Feel his death drawing near. Fuck, it’s about goddamn time.

“I know damn well my strong woman is alive. If I didn’t, you’d be dead already. Ivy, you good. He’s yours, get up baby.”

A little rise in the corner of my mouth lifts at both ends. It’s then he becomes aware of how I intend to seal his fate with the way his eyes shift to her.

“I say when your life ends, and it ends here. By her hand.”

I wrap my arms around Drew’s waist and take him to the ground, a rush of adrenaline filling me. I can smell his death. Feel Ivy’s freedom and taste my vengeance.

My head snaps up. I keep my eyes on the rise and fall of her chest as I bind my legs around his neck and squeeze.

“Ivy is mine. She loves me, and you love her. How does that make you feel, brother?” I nudge. “Hell is too good for you, but wherever you end up, I hope you suffer eternally. There will be no penance for what you have done.”

Drew’s body begins to convulse. But it’s not in terror; he’s trembling in unadulterated rage, his face contorting to display the monster he’s become.

“Fuck you,” he shrieks out in pain. The urge to snap his neck off pushes my hate for him to my legs. I won’t do it no matter how much I’ve planned and plotted and killed while I waited. This kill belongs to Ivy. Demons be damned. I’ll fight them off if they dare try to haunt her.

“Ivy, get up baby. He’s all yours.”

Drew’s body begins to flail trying to get out of my hold. His laugh a ghosting echo in the wind.