Not again.Not here.
Mellow steps forward.“What brother?Name.”Because he thinks it could be an enemy club.No, that isn’t the kind of brother Jonus is referring to.
Greene only smiles bloody, broken, pleased with the devastation he just detonated inside me.
“Ledger knows,” he croons.
“Quit speaking in riddles,” Shafts snaps.
Greene tilts his head toward me.“Tell them, Ledger.Or Damian can.”
I close my eyes, inhale once, slow and jagged, then exhale the truth like poison.“I killed a man,” I state.
The room goes silent but not in the shock kind of way more like stupefied.
“Everyone here has,” Stunt mutters.
But Greene shakes his head slowly with a proud smirk.“Not like this.”
“His name was Adrian Greene.”
Greene’s one good eye gleams.“My brother.”
A beat.Another.
“He was trained with us,” I share.“Military contract work.No oversight.No rules.The kind of jobs that leave scars where skin can’t show them.”
Greene barks a laugh.“That’s one way to say it.”
I ignore him.I force the memories out before they choke me.
“Adrian was unstable,” I explain.“Mean.Violent.Would’ve killed civilians if they got in the way.Hell, he did once.And when he snapped on a mission, he had to be stopped.”
Greene snarls.“You murdered him.You slit his throat in the dirt and left him there.He was unarmed, unprepared, and you slaughtered him.”
I get halfway to him before three hands slam into my chest, pushing me back.
“Easy,” Chux warns.
I breathe hard enough my ribs ache.“Because he tried to kill a family,” I rasp.“A woman and her kid.They wandered into a target area by mistake.He thought it would be fun to clean up loose ends.”
“I told him to stand down,” I continue.“He laughed.Said he was going to rape her corpse and make her kid watch.I did what had to be done.”
Greene jerks against his restraints.“You slit his throat like an animal!”
“He was an animal!”I roar back.
“Afterward,” I state, “the target retrieved his body.Jonas was already ghost because he watched me end him, even though I didn’t know it at the time.He set things up for it to look like Adrian died in an explosion so the contract would pay out more.He knew what really happened.I let him make the play so his mother didn’t have to know what her son had become.He was supposed to stay dead to me since I agreed to protect his brother’s legacy.But he didn’t.He lived.And he’s been watching me ever since apparently.”
Greene smirks.“The brother you stole.The future you stole.”
Shaft studies Greene and then looks to me.“He wants to break you.Don’t let him.”
Chux slams his fist onto the metal table.“Enough.”
Nitro gives a signal and Chux swirls a finger up in the air.“We got what we need.Shaft, Nitro move him.”
Greene is hauled to his feet, still sneering.“You think this ends with me?”he spits.“Ledger took Adrian.And then he joined the Kings.You all have your own enemies.I just lit a new fire for them to come for all of you.”
