“I’ve got Alex on the line.” Liam holds up his cell, coming closer to drop the phone on the coffee table, center to all of us, before retreating back to his spot by the island.With things settling down, I sent Alex back out to look for our sister.
“Any luck tracking down Rea, Alex?” Liam asks.
“No. Not a trace,” Alex replies, with resignation in his tone, sounding more tired than I’ve ever heard him.
“I sent her a text,” Aidan speaks up, “about this meeting, but her phone is still off.”
I work a muscle in my jaw. As much as I don’t want to deal with this fucking meeting right now, not having Rea here feels wrong.
So much for rule number one.
A long silence rings out and no one says anything, but the weight of their stares on me is heavy.
“Someone want to tell me what we’re meant to be discussing? I’ve got shit to do.”
Liam frowns. “You can’t avoid her forever, you know.”
I roll my eyes, fists tightening at my side.Of course,this is aboutBriar.
“I’m not avoiding her. I was just with her,” I bite back, although my words lack any conviction, and both my brothers pick up on it.
“You have to deal with this, Koen. It’s been over three days.” Aidan says calmly.
“Weren’t you like… stalking her?” Liam asks, and I fix my glare on him.
“Yes,” I say, my tone clipped and short.
“But you didn’t know she had a kid?”
“No,” I bite out, clenching my jaw.
He laughs,the fucker.“Don’t take this the wrong way, but… you’re aterriblestalker.”
“Shut the fuck up, Liam,” I growl.“She betrayed me. Betrayed us.Briaris the reason you were almostkilledthe other night, in case you’ve forgotten that little fact.”
My bite doesn’t dim his swagger, and he leans back further. “Aye, she is. I haven’t forgotten, becauseBriaris also the reason I wasn’t. Shecalledyou,sheconfessed;that’s got to count for something…”
I scoff, refusing to look at either one of them.
“She lied to me foryears. Would she ever have even told me if I hadn’t—” I stop myself.Kidnapped her?Christ, that’s hardly a defense. “Who's to say she’s not still lying? Is that kid really even mine?” My words come out bitter, and I regret them almost instantly, but I’m too stubborn to take them back.
“Don’t even start with that shit,” Liam snarls. “She’s got your eyes, your attitude; that little girl is your spitting image, and you know it. And hernameisRemi.”
I look away because Iknowhe’s right. There was never any doubt in my mind, from the second I looked into that child’s eyes—Remi—I knew she was mine; Ifeltit deep in my bones.
“Christ, you’ve gone ice cold.” Liam pushes off the island, crossing his arms and shaking his head, looking down on me. “On Briar, on the kid… You don’t get to freeze her out, Rí. Not when there’s a kid in the middle. You’ve spent your whole life fighting for this family,bleedingfor it, and now, when it’s your own flesh and blood, you’re going to stand here and pretend she doesn’t matter?”
My throat tightens. Anger and guilt eating me alive. But the betrayal still burns hotter.Briar hid my kid, lied to me, spied on me, sold my brother out to the fucking Italians and Russians, and I’m just supposed to move past it? Get over it?
No.
“What do you want to do?” he continues, when I stay silent. “Kill your kid’s mom?” Liam asks me point blank. The gloves are off; he’s not holding back.
My shoulder twitches, and I roll it back, cracking my neck to release the growing tension.Yes. There is a part of me that wants to wrap my hands around Briar’s throat, a part of me that wants to put a bullet between her pretty blue eyes for what she’s done. For theyearsstolen, how she’d been playing me forweeks… who knows what information she’s been feeding to Gio—and for how long.It was all a lie.Everything about this girl was a fucking lie. Every instinct within me screams for blood, demands I make her pay.
But when I picture it—her body still, bright eyes dark—something inside me reels back. I couldn’t, even in the moments I find myself blind with rage, I know I could never bring myself to hurt her. And it goes against everything I was taught, how I was raised.Betrayal means death. There arenoexceptions. It’s weakness.She’smy weakness. And for the first time in my life, I don’t have a plan. I don’t know what to do or how to move forward.
Briarruinedme. Even now, with her locked away down the hall,I can’t fucking shake her. I can’t kill her, but I’ll never be able to forgive her.
