“Is that what you did with Sheldon?”

I felt my shoulders lift, but couldn’t fully process the weight resting upon them. “The idea of love leaves a bad taste.”

“Sheldon didn’t deserve what you did. Why did you sleep with that teacher? It’s a bit ridiculous even for you. It’s downright ludicrous.”

“Does it matter now? It all worked out for the best.” I took another swig of the bottle that was nearly empty now. Her eyes, full of reproach, looked from the bottle and back. I was still recovering from the lung transplant and wasn’t supposed to be drinking, but no one could ever accuse me of giving a shit and be right.

“How can I make this right?”

I laughed despite the bitterness settling in the pit of my stomach. I needed an escape. I needed to hide. Hiding is what I was good at.

I lowered my head and let my next words float over the skin of her neck. “You can start by letting me kiss you.”

She jumped and slapped her hands against my chest when I pushed closer against her. “Keenan! What are you doing?”

“Did you know that I had a crush on you in the ninth grade?” I asked, ignoring her struggles.

“You what?”

“It’s true. I made the mistake of telling Keiran one day how pretty I thought you were.”

“Well, what did he say?”

I let out a laugh but felt none of the humor. “He threatened to break every bone in my body if I ever talked to you. I thought he might have gotten over his vendetta against you and wanted you for himself.”

“Well, we all know that wasn’t true.”

“Maybe not, but he always wanted you. He was just good at hiding it.” I lowered my lips closer and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head.

“I—I think I should go.”

“Am I making you nervous?” I smiled down at her and conveniently placed my arms next to her head, caging her in.

“What a stupid question. Of course, you are. This is wrong.”

“At the risk of sounding cliché, can I just say doing wrong can feel so damn good?”

“You’re right… You do sound like a cliché.”

“You are too fucking sexy for words. Keiran doesn’t know what he has yet, does he?”

The slam of the door interrupted her response, and I felt my resolve collapse at the icy chill of the presence behind me, and the low, threatening growl.

“I know exactly what I have. My only question is what the fuck are you doing touching her?”

“Keiran,” Lake shouted nervously. “He, uh—I, um—”

“Lake, go upstairs and don’t come down no matter what you hear.” He never spared her a glance, but he didn’t have to. She quickly slid from my grasp. She was no sooner out of sight when I had taken her place against the wall. Keiran’s arm pinned me to the wall by my throat making breathing hard. “Do you want to die that much?”

His menacing voice was enough to make the average person cower and beg for mercy, but I had practically been raised by him. I threw my head into his and stunned him long enough to deliver a hard blow to his jaw. He quickly recovered and managed to hit me two times, once in the face and the other to my gut before I could get another hit in.

Keiran might have been stronger, but I was quicker.

We were each deadly in our own right.

We wouldn’t stop until the other was dead.

I flipped Keiran over my shoulder and onto the coffee table. It broke under his weight, and he hit the ground hard. Unsteadily, he bounced back to his feet and delivered a severe kick to my chest, sending me crashing into the wall behind me.

Slowly, I slid back up the wall, my gaze locked with his. We waited only a heartbeat, but the time seemed to stretch into forever before we crashed into each other once more.

“Son of a bitch. Grab them before they kill each other,” a frantic yet familiar voice shouted.

I was thrown backward and Keiran in the opposite direction. I recognized Dash through my blurry vision with his arms wrapped tight around Keiran’s chest. He struggled to hold on but managed to keep him subdued.

“Keenan, man, pipe down before I put you out,” Q growled. It was only then I realized I was struggling just as hard. My gaze was still trained on him, and my mind was still corrupted by the need to murder.

Neither one of us were recognizable to the other. Blood poured from our wounds. Everything in the vicinity was either broken or shattered.

Lake suddenly appeared and ran through the room, crying hysterically, throwing herself onto Keiran.