Toxic - Luke Hemmings

Chapter 55

"It's not fair that I have to sit here and wonder why it happened. I don't know if everything he brought up was actually bothering him, or if he was just looking to pick a fight so he could separate himself. That's the kind of bullshit that gets me so mad." I turned around and leaned my back on the railing, and I saw Luke coming downstairs into the kitchen through the wall of windows.

"Do you really think he'd start a fight like that just to put distance between you?" She asked, joining me as I watched Luke mess around in the kitchen.

"It wouldn't be the first time." I sighed, flicking the butt of the cigarette onto the ground below us. We stood there for a few more minutes, and when Luke turned to head into the living room I flipped around to look back at the mountains.

"He's coming outside." Sophie said quietly, making me drop my forehead to where my elbows rested on the railing. I heard the door open, and when the footsteps started getting louder I nodded slightly to Sophie to tell her it was okay go leave. I turned around as she walked away, and she was soon replaced with Luke leaning back on the railing next to me.

"I owe you an explanation." He said, and I nodded for him to continue as I grilled the wooden planks that made up the floor of the deck. "I fucked up, and I can't let myself off the hook for it. You could've died because of me. And the fact that you're still not safe and we had to come here to run away doesn't make me feel any better." He gulped down the tears that were threatening to fall, and I pulled out the pack of cigarettes. "You fucking took them?" He chuckled, grabbing the pack out of my hands after I got one out.

"I mean, you did just take out three days worth of built-up aggression on me." I joked, lighting mine and handing him the lighter for his own. He chuckled, though, which lifted a weight off of my heart.

"Enzo and Brett are taking care of everything, but I'm personally seeing to it that the guy that put the cyanide in your car gets a slow, painful death." He said coldly, and I whipped my head in his direction the second I heard 'death'.

"You can't kill him." I said, panicking that he was even thinking that way.

"He wanted me dead. And he almost killed you." He faced me and took a drag, blowing smoke out over us as we stood in front of each other.

"Luke, you can't kill him." I said, making it known that he could die, just not at his hands.

"People need to know that they can't touch you." He said sternly, putting his hand to the back of my neck.

"So, let Enzo's guys do the dirty work. I can't imagine you taking a life." I said seriously, begging him to see where I was coming from. He just tensed his jaw and looked above my head, and that reaction was all I needed to know it was too late for that kind of request. "Luke." I tried to get him to look at me, but he just wondered his eyes everywhere but mine.

"You really thought I hadn't done that already?" He asked, not rudely, just curiously. He was acting as if it was obvious, and even if it was I wasn't someone to make an assumption like that.

"How many?" I asked quietly, probably giving off more fear than I should have been.

"Three." He said blankly. I unintentionally took a step back, but I hid it by leaning my elbows on the railing again.

"Okay." I whispered, taking in the fact that the guy I was in love with had killed three other human beings. It was a hard pill to swallow, as if the last three days hadn't been hard enough.

"I didn't have a choice. I'd be dead if I hadn't done it." He finally started to defend himself, and at least I could live a little easier knowing they were life or death circumstances.