Chaos & Carnage (Black Creek, #4)

by R.A. Smyth

“So, you’re saying you want to piss Cain and Dante off so that when you get kidnapped by your sister’s boyfriend’s father and his sidekick, and locked in a windowless room where you’re beaten daily before having a gun aimed at your face and told to kill some random guy or you’ll die instead, that you can laugh at the look of thunder on their faces.” I’m careful to keep my reaction to myself as I unpack everything he just shared. I’m reasonably sure he hasn’t told Sawyer any of that, and even though he flippantly tossed the words out, I know they cost him a lot to say. So, rather than prying his wounds open any further, I simply shrug. “Pretty much.” “You’re very strange.”

Love, laughter, happiness. Those are the emotions that center you when you’re on the verge of dying. They’re what remind you why death is worth defying. Pain might let you know you’re not dead, but it’s those moments with your family and friends—the small moments that seemed insignificant at the time—that will push you to live.