Chapter 95: BOTH HAVE YOU
AMARIS
Why were they all scowling at each other than giving me a clear answer.
Nia looked pointedly at Rowan who immediately said with clear warning in his tone, "Nia it is really not worth bringing this up right now."
"It is totally worth it," Nia countered stubbornly, then turned her attention fully back to me. "Ryker talked us into staging an accident for you and—"
My breath hitched painfully in my damaged chest. "What the fuck?" I looked directly at Ryker still standing in the doorway. "You caused this? You almost killed me and the driver?"
"No," Ryker stated firmly without breaking eye contact.
"Yes he did," Nia contradicted him immediately.
I looked back and forth between them rapidly, feeling my head start to pound worse. "Then what are you even saying right now? Did he cause the accident or did he not cause it? Pick one."
"Well, he technically did not cause the specific accident that almost killed you," Nia explained, her words coming faster now. "But he had already set up another completely different accident to happen just after the location where yours actually occurred. So if you had somehow escaped Victor’s murder attempt, you definitely would not have escaped his planned accident."
"What the actual fuck!" I tried to stand up from the bed but my battered body absolutely refused to cooperate with that plan, so I just sat up as straight as I could manage instead while ignoring the sharp stabbing pain in my ribs.
I knew Ryker was a sick manipulative fuck but I never fully realized until this exact moment that he was an actual homicidal lunatic who staged car accidents.
"Nia, please can I talk to them alone," I managed to say, my voice coming out strained and slightly breathless from the pain.
Nia glared at me in complete surprise, her eyes wide. "Do you really actually want to talk to them? After everything I just told you about what they did?"
"Unfortunately yes," I admitted even though I knew how insane that sounded.
Maybe I was insane. Maybe that concussion had scrambled my brain significantly more than the doctors thought.
"But... but... whyyyyyyy would you possibly want that?" Nia stuttered, looking at me like I had completely lost my mind.
Maybe I had lost my mind. That would actually explain a lot about my recent decision-making.
"Please Nia," I repeated, putting as much pleading into my voice as I could manage.
She scowled deeply and grumbled under her breath about me having an obvious death wish and making terrible life choices, then slammed the door hard enough to rattle the entire frame as she left the room.
Ryker immediately moved to lean against my vanity with studied casualness, crossing his arms over his chest. The same vanity where he had spread my legs wide and used his mouth on me until I came apart screaming his name. I shoved that particular memory away forcefully before it could distract me from the much more important fact that he had apparently tried to murder me.
Rowan moved forward to stand directly beside my bed, positioning himself in almost the exact same spot where he had almost kissed me before Nia burst in and interrupted us.
Was that intentional positioning on his part? Were they both doing this deliberately?
I looked directly at Ryker, needing to hear him actually say the words out loud. "Did you set up an accident specifically for me?"
"Yes," he responded immediately without any hesitation whatsoever.
I was genuinely surprised by how plainly and easily he admitted it, like staging potentially fatal car accidents was a completely normal Tuesday afternoon activity. "And you thought that was perfectly okay?"
"In my defense it was just supposed to be a relatively minor accident," Ryker clarified like that somehow made attempted vehicular manslaughter acceptable. "Not actually designed to kill you. Just injure you enough that you couldn’t leave."
"How does that make it any better you sick fuck?" I demanded, my voice rising.
"Well if it is any consolation at all," Ryker continued with that infuriating smirk that made me want to throw something at his head, "good boy Rowan here was completely in on the plan too."
Rowan shook his head in clear frustration but notably did not actually deny the accusation.
I laughed but there was absolutely no humor in the harsh sound. "Here I was stupidly thinking he was different from you, that he had some kind of moral compass. But I mean there is a pretty obvious reason you two are identical twins."
Rowan moved even closer to my bed until he was standing right next to where I was sitting, his expression deadly serious. "We wanted to keep you here at Gravemoon with us. This was honestly the only way we could think of to stop you from leaving permanently."
I shook my head slowly in complete disbelief. "How does that even make it better? You were willing to physically hurt me just to keep me here against my will?"
"But our plan did not even actually go through," Ryker pointed out like that absolved him of responsibility. "Someone else beat us to it. Victor got to you first with his own murder attempt."
"You should really shut up right now," Rowan told his brother seriously. "You are making this situation so much worse with every word."
I looked back and forth between them, these two infuriating men who had somehow become impossibly tangled up in my life in the most destructive and complicated ways possible. "What do you two even want from me at this point?"
Rowan looked over at Ryker and Ryker gave a slight nod like they had discussed this extensively beforehand and come to some kind of agreement.
"My brother and I talked at length," Rowan started carefully, his voice measured. "And we both agreed that tomorrow night is the full moon."
He paused and clearly hesitated like he was not entirely sure how to continue this conversation.
Ryker picked up where his brother trailed off. "We agreed that tomorrow night we would have you. Both of us. Together."
Wait.
What?
My brain stuttered trying to process what he had just said.
"What the actual fuck?" I sputtered inelegantly, unable to form more coherent words.
Rowan added quickly, "Just for tomorrow night."