Wicked Games

26 - Reid

Chapter Twenty-Six | Reid

No number of punches I throw at the punch bag is going to be enough to tame the anger I'm feeling. I'm fine. I don't understand why everybody is on my case. The man who took me in from the hell I was living was shot a few feet away from me. I'm bound to be affected by it.

And I was even angrier when I woke up this morning to see Eliana gone. It was something that used to panic me when we were younger. We shared a room with two separate beds, but she always ended up sneaking into my bed, so if I woke up, and she wasn't there, or in her own bed, I'd lose my shit and assume that she had been taken away from me. And nobody will take her away from me again, not even Eliana herself.

My punches get harder, and before I know the bag drops to the floor with a harsh thud. My breathing was heavy before but now it only starts to increase, and I hunch over, bracing my hands against my knees.

"I'm fine. I'm good, not bad." I whisper to myself over and over again.

"I had a lot of anger like that once." I spin around to see Dax leaning against the wall with his colourful, tattooed arms crossed against his chest. "Did me no good most of the time." He shrugs a shoulder.

I don't know much about Dax but what I do know is that he was holed up in some cell most of his life, trained to kill. He was under the control of some other sick fuck that liked controlling children and turning them into monsters for their benefit. Now Dax makes it his life choice to hunt people like that down and kill them. Overall, he's killed about a hundred, and it makes my skin crawl that there are probably thousands more.

"It must be difficult battling bipolar with the way you've been raised." He pushes himself off the wall and steps closer to me. "Your family are worried, and you've got huge responsibility now that King is in a bed stuck to a ventilator keeping him breathing." I wince at the bluntness coming from him.

"I'm fine. My family are being dramatic." I wave him off and he chuckles.

"You're lucky you have this family to look after you, and you're extremely lucky to have a woman like Eliana who loves you." I scoff, and he furrows his brows. "Did I offend you?" He tilts his head and raises a brow.

"She doesn't love me. She hasn't told me she loves me since we were eighteen." I point out and Dax slowly nods his head.

"Sometimes actions speak louder than a few words, Reid. You've both experienced traumatic shit, she loves you, trust me. She just shows it differently to others. She's up there while you're down here, and she's stressing about keeping this family together. Eliana is worried about you." My heart pinches, and I turn my glare to the punchbag lying on the floor. "The longer you go on like this, the longer you go on not taking the medication that your mind and body needs, you'll lose the people in this house. One by one."

"No, I won't."

Dax laughs.

"King could die, so that's one checked off the list, and Mabel will leave with her and your baby brother. Brad will go. Creed will go. Amelia might not be living here but when she finds out her dad is dead, she'll go far, far away. Antonio will become a man and realise how much of a coward you've been and last but not least, Eliana will leave." My head shoots up and I squint my eyes. "She'll move on, find someone else who will love her. Build a family."

"Shut the fuck up!" I grit, but he continues to taunt me with his stupid words.

"She will eventually say 'I love you' to another man, all because you chose to give up so easily." I storm over to him, and give him a good right hook, but he doesn't react. He laughs and wipes the blood away from the corner of his mouth. "You are not fine, Reid, no matter how much you delude yourself into thinking you are."