“Oh, I know. The great and honorable Copper would never do a goddamn thing wrong. But that girl was fucking obsessed with you. Knew she’d turn eighteen someday. And come on, all that sweetness turned your way?” He snorted. “You’d have hit that eventually. Remember, I’ve tasted those tits too. Guarantee they’re part of the reason you did hit that.”
Copper swallowed the metallic taste filling his mouth. Didn’t help his nausea. “You’re a sick fuck, Rusty.”
His brother threw back his head and laughed long and hard. “I’m good with that, brother. I go to bed each night remembering the feel of your woman on my tongue. And I sleep like a fucking baby knowing how much it’s eating at your fucking soul. You may never admit it, but I know it kills you that I was there first.”
It was the damn truth. It ate at his fucking soul like a starved piranha. But it wouldn’t for long. Because soon Rusty would die a painful death and that would be like a magical balm. He just had to stay alive long enough for the club to find him.
“Hey! I’m fucking talking to you!” Rusty screamed, hitting Copper’s face again. Then he sunk the knife deep in Copper’s thigh. Straightening, he left the blade buried to the hilt, lifted his boot, and stomped it against Copper’s ribs. His chest caved inward with a sickening crunch. Clenching his fists, he breathed as best he could without being able to inflate his chest.
Something had to give. He wasn’t sure how much longer he’d last with the way he was now bleeding.
“The fuck’s your plan here, Rusty?” Copper asked as he glanced at his thigh. Blood pulsed around the knife, running down his thigh and soaking the bed beneath him. The artery had been hit for sure. If Rusty decided to remove the knife, Copper would be in serious fucking jeopardy. “You gonna let me bleed out all over Cindy’s sheets? Then you’re gonna haul my two hundred sixty-pound dead ass outta here and clean the place before someone realizes what the fuck is going on? Good fucking luck. How the fuck you get me in here anyway?”
“Wasn’t fucking easy.” Rusty paced the room again, gripping his hair with both hands. He was losing his shit. Whether that was a good or bad thing remained to be determined.
“You forget, Rusty, the entire fucking club’s gonna be searching for me. No way in hell you cart me outta here unnoticed. Just take the fuck off. Get outta town.”
He lifted panic-filled eyes to meet Copper’s gaze. “You gonna call off the hounds if I leave?”
Not a fucking chance in hell. “Sure. You disappear, and we’ll let it the fuck go.” He inhaled wincing at the pain and whistling that came from his lungs. It ended in a fit of wet coughs. Shit, were his lungs filling with blood?
“You think I’m stupid?” Rusty screamed. “Maybe I just slit your fucking throat and leave you here. Cindy won’t be back for a week. You’ll be nice and ripe by then, and I’ll be long gone.”
Copper snorted, the action sending a shooting pain from the bridge of his smashed nose straight through his head. “Won’t matter where you fucking hide. Club’ll find your murdering ass. Then they’ll skin you alive. My one regret will be not participating.” He shrugged as best he could with his shoulders aching. “But it’ll happen.”
Anger blazed in Rusty’s eyes. How long had Copper been here? He glanced out the window.
Twilight. The sun was nearly gone. I’d been early in the day when he rode off to meet Rusty. He vaguely remembered coming to when the sky was dark once before. Had a full day really passed?
The smirk was back, curling Rusty’s lips. He stalked forward at a slow pace. “Actually, think I got my plan.” When he was within striking distance, he wrapped his fingers around the handle of the knife, giving it a twist.
Shit. Copper tensed, pulling on the cuffs in a useless effort to break free as the pain shot to near blackout levels.
“How ‘bout I yank this sucker out, then go visit your ol’ lady. Maybe remind her which brother had her first. Thinking I’ll fuck her till she can’t walk anymore. Then maybe my daughter and I take a little trip. How ‘bout that for a plan.”
Fuck. Fuck! Copper pulled with every ounce of strength he had left. It wasn’t much, but enough to hear a loud crack as wood on one of the bedposts split. “You lay one hand on either one of them, and I’ll use that knife to peel your skin off one inch at a time.”
“Huh.” Rusty grinned. “Don’t think so, brother. You’ll be fucking dead,” he said then pulled the knife out with a harsh jerk.
Copper growled through the pain. Blood spurted from the wound in pulses like a faucet with air in the line.