Kansas (Ruthless Kings MC Atlantic City #2) - K.L. Savage Page 0,88

I unlock the door and run outside, barefoot. The ice is freezing against my skin, causing goosebumps to rise.

“Amos! Amos!” in desperation and fear, I cry out his name.

“Not a chance.” A hand covers my mouth, and he drags me off the porch, my knee smashing against the wood. “He loves me, you know. Me. Not you. It will always be me. You’re nothing but a bed warmer.”

He grips onto my hair, my sore scalp, and I try to scream again from the pain. I’m still sore from surgery.

“You were supposed to fucking die in the crash, bitch. And now I have to do it myself.”

My feet hit the sand, and I still fight him the best I can, but I can’t get my feet under me. Ice cold water hits my ankles, and it feels like knives digging into my flesh. He dunks my head in the water, keeping a firm grip on my shirt.

I can’t see him through the water’s surface. It’s a blur. I’m blinded.

And I’m going to die.

It gets to the point that I have to open my mouth. My head is brimming with pressure, and I have to breathe in, but I know it won’t be air. It will be water.

It’s the body’s natural reaction to survive.

I wait as long as I can and open my mouth. A rush of water invades my throat. The frozen tendrils wrap around my lungs, suffocating me.

Drowning me.

I’m losing my energy, my strength, and darkness starts to creep around my vision. My arms stop flailing, and I’m about to give in to the peaceful depths sweeping inside me.

This is it. After everything, this is how I die.

But then…

The pressure of his hands is suddenly gone, and I’m lifted out of the water. I cough, spurting up water as I try to breathe.

“That’s it, you’re okay. You’re fine.” Pulse turns my head to the side as I continue to spit up.

“You son of a bitch!” I hear Amos yell.

Pulse lifts me into his arms, and my teeth chatter together from the cold. “Let’s get you inside.”

“N—no,” I shiver. “I want to know who it is.”

I need to know who almost killed me.

The stranger slams against Amos, but Amos is bigger. He doesn’t move. He swings another punch, knocking the guy off his feet.

“You’re my brother!” Amos screams, wrapping his arms around the guy. Carson, maybe? I didn’t get a good look at him. Amos throws him on the ground and stands over him, getting prepared to deliver the final blow.

When I heard her scream for me, I’ve never moved so fast in my life.

By the time I got up, out the door, and ran to the end of the breezeway, she was underwater. She’s been through too much to ever know fear again.

I kneel onto the sand and wrap my hands around his throat. This fucking hurts. It’s a close second to what I felt when Violet was in her car accident.

“Why? Nigel, why would you do this to me?” The one person who I thought was my best friend, my brother before I knew I had any, has betrayed me. “I haven’t seen you in years. This doesn’t make sense.”

He stops fighting me and his blue eyes collide with mine. They are glassy, sad, but I don’t see an ounce of regret in them. “You were mine,” he says.

My brows shoot up to my hairline, hell past my hairline. I could not have heard him right.

“You were mine. We are meant to be together, Amos. It’s been you and me from the start. I didn’t know how to tell you, but I knew you felt the same. All those times growing up, all the time we spent together, all the looks we shared… I love you. I’ve loved you forever. I came back from my trip to see you, but saw you with her,” he sneers.

I tighten my hand around his neck more and curl my lip. “I don’t love you. I’ve never loved you like that, and I never will. I love her, and you were going to take her from me.” I can’t believe he is saying all this. I had no idea. He never made it seem he liked me in that way, and maybe that’s because I’m straight, and I don’t look at men, but for him to go to this extreme…

I can hardly comprehend it.

“I love you,” he says again, a tear dripping from his eye as his hand falls to my cheek. “Can’t