“My girl don’t like to be all closed in. That’s why she always escapes.”
“I wanted to talk to Ryan,” Rebel grouched. “I was going to find a rock to throw at his window and hopefully hit his stupid head.”
Shame crossed Uncle Val’s face and Rebel regretted her impulsive words. She hadn’t come to cause any more hurt. Diesel had done enough damage to her earlier.
Standing, Uncle Val grabbed Hogzilla’s collar. “I can’t apologize enough, Reb.”
“He should say sorry for the rest of his fucking life.” Rebel got to her feet and dusted off her backside. “Youshouldn’t.”
“As my niece…” Uncle Val bowed his head. “I don’t know where I messed up with Ryan.”
“The only thing I hold against you isher.” Rebel tipped her chin to Hogzilla, deceptively sweet and calm right now. “Nothing else, but I want to see Ryan. My brothers got home, so I figured he was, too.”
Uncle Val looked at his watch. “Puff’ll be home in ten or fifteen minutes. She’s all excited about Harley’s play.”
“Ryan’s secret is safe, Uncle Val.”
He nodded and relaxed a fraction. “Come on, baby. We’ll go in through the kitchen.”
Luckily, she was none the worse for wear after her run-in with Hogzilla.
Rebel rarely visited Ryan, especially in his bedroom. They’d just recently forged a friendship because he’d been such a fuckhead for so long, especially to her twin.
When she knocked on his door and he invited her in without asking who it was, she walked into his room and smirked at the alarm in his eyes.
Uncle Val had worked him over good, every bruise and cut quite deserved. A towel around his neck, his brown hair damp, he wore only boxer briefs.
“No wonder you have such little man energy,” she said, plopping on his bed and enjoying his anger. “Oh no, fuckhead, check yourself before I punch you in your fucking mouth.” She beamed at him. “Or call Diesel and laugh while he guts you.”
Ryan paled and raised his hands as if he resisted an invisible barrier, then he swore under his breath and glared at her. “You hate me. I get it. But you can’t have me killed because of Mom. If I could’ve died, Diesel would’ve done it last night.”
“Or my father,” Rebel said in bored tones.
“Now that you’ve told me what a piece of shit I am and not part of the family and how you despise me, get the fuck out of my room.”
“One thing about having a father whoalwaystwists situations to have his fucking way is I can detect guilt a mile away. You see, little man, I didn’t say one fucking word of whatyousaid I said. You think I feel that way because you know it’s what you fucking deserve.”
“You think you know me, bitch?”
“Nice try, fuckface. Not a deterrent. Your bullshit is child’s play when you have my brothers under the roof.” Straightening, she folded her arms and glowered at her cousin. “Do you know what I hate the fucking most, Ryan?”
“What? Not that I fucking care,” he added on a sneer.
“You fucking care, you miserable motherfucker.”
Clenching his jaw, he glanced away.
“I hate thatIcare too, asshole. I hate that I had started to trust you andlikeyou as a cousin and a cool guy. I hate that I saw you as part of the family.”
“I’m so—”
“Don’t say it again.” Rebel swiped an angry tear away. “What you did hurt me so bad, Ryan. So get off your fucking pity party and guilt trip to convince yourself that no one ever really liked you. We did. You’d become one of us. If you hadn’t, it wouldn’t be so devastating.”
“Everything started happening at once, Reb. I stopped being invisible to everybody and I started regretting what I was doing. I didn’t know how to get her back.”
Rebel drew in a breath. “And you went to fuckbreath, dickbrain John Donovan because he knew the entire story about why Molly’s Dad took her.”
“Yes.”
