HOMICIDE

HOMICIDE

“Yes.” Cage shrugged, still oblivious to the situation, swirling the glass of whiskey in his hand. “What do you want me to say?”

“You worry about your brother this much?” Pax asked, voice low but edged with accusation.

Cage ground his teeth, but he didn’t give Pax a reply:

That’s didn’t seem to stop Paxton, he pressed on “He didn’t seem too eager to meet you the few times we’ve met. And you haven’t even told me his name.”

“We didn’t end on good terms. I’m just trying to make peace with him. What the fuck are you implying?” Cage snapped, his eyes narrowing, irritation flaring now.

“Nothing, I thought…”

“He’s my only brother. I don’t want to have a brawl with him. I love my brother, and I can’t understand why he won’t talk to me,” Cage interrupted Pax.

“I’m drunk, not stupid, Cage,” Pax said all of a sudden.

Cage froze. That line caught him off guard and piqued his curiosity. But he didn’t say anything. Not yet.

“You’re drunk, not stupid,” Pax repeated softly, almost to himself. As if he was trying to confirm his sanity.

Cage’s brows knitted. “What the hell are you talking about Paxton?”

Pax let out a shaky sigh, voice distant, echoing off the hallway. “Your brother met me at the store… and told me you were a monster.”

Cage’s stomach twisted, and he squinted down the dimly lit hallway, trying to pinpoint where Pax’s voice was coming from.

“Paxton, where are you?” Cage called, stepping toward the sound, tension coiling in his chest.

No reply.

“Where the fuck are you, Paxton?!” His voice sharpened, each word slicing through the air, filled with an unease he couldn’t shake and he walked past doors.

Then came the quiet sobs. Not just the sound of tears, but a low, almost broken sound, and Cage’s blood ran cold.

He followed it, heart hammering, until he saw Pax sitting on the floor with his back to him, surrounded by scattered photographs.

His heart sank, goosebumps erupted on his skin and his body ran cold.

Cage’s eyes widened as he took in the scene.

The pictures were his private collection of Cash — boudoir shots including black and white pictures, colorful naked art of his younger brother, and candid photos taken when Cash was unaware; exhausted from his orgasm or passed out from too much sex. These pictures held moments never meant for anyone else’s eyes.

And on the screen a video played, of Cash in a pink lingerie, stroking his dick while Cage was behind the camera.

“Good boy” he praised a younger looking Cash “Keep those legs wide open cupcake.”

“Stroke your dirty little limp cock for me”

His office, his sanctum, had been violated.

“I warned you not to go in here,” Cage said, his voice was low hard and carrying the furious tone of betrayal.

Pax didn’t flinch. He remained sitting on the floor staring at the screen, his back turned to Cage trembling, a glass of wine at his side, tears streaking down his cheeks.

Cage stomped inside the room and turned the TV off.

“Brother?” Pax’s voice was soft as he repeated again,, but the anger was still there, simmering under the surface.

“How did you get in here?”

“You knew him,” Pax whispered, voice breaking, barely audible. “You lied to me, Cage. You told me you didn’t know him.”

Silence.

And then…

“You’re fucking your brother?” Pax accused and Cage instantly saw his fear materialize.

The world seeing him for the evil he was.

“Cash is just my brother, that’s… you’re drunk and seeing things. Come, let’s get you to bed.” He walked to over grab Pax, but the next words stopped him.

“Cash? He is the Cash? The one you’ve been making me cosplay just so you could fuck me?” Pax’s mouth was opened in shock. “Cash is your brother?”

Cage huffed in annoyance and turned away. He’d been too tense and he had slipped. “Don’t start this shit again. You’re beginning to sound crazy.”

“You are trying to manipulate me,” Paxton said. “I see you tense up and look like you want to devour him whenever he’s around. And when he smiles at someone else, you lose your mind.”

Cage didn’t move. He couldn’t.

Paxton laughed bitterly. “You want to know what hurts the most? It’s not that you don’t love me, Cage. It’s that of all the things you could do, you choose this abomination? That’s incest!”

Cage slammed his glass down on the table. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Then tell me!” Pax shouted, standing up from the floor and stepping right up to him. “Tell me why you have all these? Tell me why you want to kick me out? Tell me why you always look at me like I disgust you when all I did was love you! You’ve never called my name when you fuck me.”

“Because you make it too hard!” Cage snapped, voice rising. “You don’t listen, you question everything, and you don’t understand the kind of mess I’m trying to fix!”

Pax’s lip trembled, but he held his ground. “And who made that mess, Cage? Huh? You or him?”

The question landed like a knife to his throat.

Cage turned away again, his chest rising and falling fast. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“You obsess over him Cage! He’s like the air you breathe! What more do you want to do, to make me understand more than what I’ve seen?!”

Cage looked at him then, really looked at him. The anger in his eyes softened into something raw, something close to regret.

“Paxton…” he said quietly. “You were never supposed to get this know about this.”

Pax blinked. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“This… everything… I don’t know why I feel this way about him,” Cage said. “I… I love him so deeply”

They stood there, inches apart, the air heavy with everything they couldn’t say.

Paxton’s hand twitched, as if he was reaching to hit Cage but stopped halfway. “This must be a fucking joke” he said softly.

Cage sighed defeatedly. “It’s not.”

“Tell me you’re lying”

Silence.

“Say it!” Paxton snapped. “Tell me what you just said is a fucking mistake!”

Cage didn’t move. The veins in his neck stood out as he swallowed hard.

Finally, in a voice barely above a whisper, he said, “I can’t.”

Paxton exhaled shakily, his eyes closing as a tear slipped down his cheek. “Bastard!”

Cage took a step closer, his voice low and rough. “You don’t understand what is going on”

“Get the fuck away from me,” Paxton gritted out and wiped his tears.

Cage’s hand lifted as if to touch his face, but he stopped himself. He looked exhausted, torn between anger and guilt.

For a moment, neither spoke. The clock ticked softly, the house breathing with them.

Cage turned, pouring himself another drink from Pax’s bottle, with shaking hands. “Go to bed, Pax.”

“No.”

Cage looked up, his jaw tightening. “Please.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Paxton whispered. “Not until you tell me the truth.”

“What truth?”

“Why? Why him?.”

Cage’s hand stilled. The silence stretched again, painful and deep.

Finally, he said, “I don’t even know anymore.”

“Well, fuck you Cage” Paxton turned to leave, his footsteps quiet against the marble floor. “You know what, I change my mind, I’m getting my things and getting the bell out of here”

Just before he disappeared down the hallway, Cage’s voice stopped him.

“Paxton.”

He turned.

Cage’s expression was readable,  part fury, part disgust. “Don’t leave this house.”

Pax frowned. “Why? You wanted me to leave earlier.”

Cage looked away, his voice dropping to a whisper. “You have to calm down and relax.”

Paxton didn’t reply. He just stood there for a long moment, his chest rising and falling in silent pain, before walking away into the dimly lit living room. “No. I’m going to go out there and tell everyone that what you truly are. A monster.”

Alarmed, Cage abandoned his glass and hurried after his boyfriend’s “Paxton! You’re too drunk. Sit down!” He called out loudly.

And Paxton yelled “No!”

“You’re drunk, Paxton,” Cage muttered loudly, trying to convince himself more than the younger man.

“I’m not drunk!” Pax snapped, dropping his glass on a table. It teetered dangerously to the edge and shattered to the floor.

Cage was getting agitated and overwhelmed “Sit down….”

“I can’t believe I’ve been fucking such a disgusting thing like you…”

“Sit down, please…”

“How sick do you have to be to fuck your own younger brother?”

“You’re making me mad, sit down please…”

But Paxton shook his head, “Trying to manipulate me…” he stepped over Cage’s forgotten golf bag and went for his phone.

“I’m begging you to obey me and sit down”

“Don’t you think I’ve done too much obeying? You irritating creep. You repulse me Cage!” Paxton spat.

And that did it.

As Paxton moved around picking up his things to leave, Cage had picked up something else. His eyes were dark and empty and for a moment he wasn’t human.

An oblivious Pax was still angrily rambling “I pray God forgives my soul for this terrible sin I’ve committed by being with you.”

“Paxton!”  Cage screamed.

“You’re nothing but a cold blooded monster… umph!” Pax groaned as the golf club in Cage’s hand came in contact with his skull and gave a sickening crack.

Pax froze, a horrified look of betrayal on his face when he touched his head and his fingers came down, wet with blood. “What… what have you done…?”

Cage was breathing heavily as he stepped back, club still in hand as he watched Paxton’s limp body drop to the floor.

He felt… empty. No remorse at what’d he done.

After all, Paxton was trying to jeopardize what he had with Cash.

Blood seeped from the open wound in the dying man’s head, and ran down the marble floor to where Cage stood, the red liquid soaking his shoes.

Then the adrenaline rush came in.

“I… I killed him.”