Fine. I drop my hold on Sebastian, slowly raising my hands until the gun disappears, and I feel him shift away from me.
“Someone tell me what the fuck is happening!” Ashton shouts.
Sebastian glares at me, murder in his eyes. “Sydney’s dating. Moving on.” He spits the words at me. “Because she found out all about Sterling’smarriage.Isn’t that right?”
I don’t say a word, don’t bother defending myself. They know now. There’s no more hiding it.
“You’re fucking kidding me.” Ashton looks between the two of us, panicked. “What did you tell her?”
“She found out on her own,” I admit.
“Found his ring, and a picture of her,” Sebastian says. He turns to Ash. “Can you blame her for hating us?”
“No.” Ashton shakes his head, again and again. “No, no, no. You explained it to her, right? You, you…” He shoves a hand through his hair, mussing it. “You told her about Annika, you explained it all to her, right?”
“I tried,” I admit in a broken voice.
“What do you meanyou tried?”Ashton’s shout echoes in the small room.
“She wouldn’t stay and listen!” I say. “I tried!”
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Ashton chants, pulling at his hair. “Why the hell didn’t you tell us?”
“Because he’s a fucking liar,” Sebastian spits out. He looks like he might take a swing at me, hands flexing.
“We could have talked to her about it,” Ashton says, his voice frantic. “We could have been making this better!”
“Don’t you fucking start,” Sebastian snaps at him. “You already made everything worse! When were you going to tell us you’ve been meeting up withAnnika? Don’t fucking deny it, she saw you two together! You fucking traitor!”
“Back up.” I glare at Ash. “What the hell is he talking about?”
“Okay.” Ashton takes a deep breath and holds his palms out to face me. “Don’t be mad.”
I’m not mad, I’m fucking furious. “Talk. Now.”
“We needed information!” Ashton tries to explain. “To find out what Dante was planning! And I knew she could help! She’s always known, hasn’t she? What was going on behind the scenes?”
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” I fume, storming over to him. “You’re going rogue and making decisions like that without running it by us first?”
“I knew you’d shut me down! Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, right? You taught me that.”
It’s true. That was our motto, working under Dante, making the calls we knew he’d never agree to. Learning how to run an empire on our own.
“I’m not Dante,” I tell him, speaking through clenched teeth. “We make these calls together or not at all.”
Ashton shakes his head, refusing to see reason. “You wouldn’t agree to it. Either of you. And I don’t regret it, I don’t regret contacting her. She confirmed it. Dante’s back, and he’s out for blood. Annika says he’s using Sydney as a distraction.” He inhales slowly, glancing quickly at his brother, then back to me. “There’s more. I think we were wrong about her. I don’t think she sold us out. She was?—”
My phone rings, the sharp sound interrupting him.
“What?” I snap into it when I answer.
A crackle. Then, “Sir, we thought you should know there’s been an incident.”
“Spit it out.” I don’t have time for this. I don’t have time for any of this bullshit right now.
There’s a pause on the other end of the line. “We just found a bomb on the premises. We’re requesting permission to evacuate Oscuro, immediately.”
Such a small thing tocause so much chaos. Tiny enough to fit into a backpack left near the rear door of the club, outside in the alley. Small, but powerful enough that it could have taken down the entire building.
