“I want to be alone,” Summer says.
“Yeah, sure.” I watch her walk off. All the way up the stairs and into the house, the door latching behind her. She’s told me about what happened to her, but it feels like she left a whole heap of detail out.
The brothers wear matching scowls.
“So, who is Duke?” I ask.
“Duke Whitmore,” Jett says darkly. “He was her high school boyfriend.”
The lines etched in Owen’s forehead are deep. A nerve in his jaw jumps. “The fucker was one of the boys who assaulted her.”
“I’m sick of her being scared to come home,” Jett says. “I miss her too much to go another couple of years between visits.”
We might finally have something we can be on the same page with. “What are we going to do about it?”
“We’re going to pay Duke a visit,” Owen says through gritted teeth. “Like we should have done back then.”
“Why didn’t you?” I would have. I doubt anything could have stopped me.
“Summer begged us not to,” Owen says. “She was our priority.”
That would have made me stop too. She’s the only thing that kept me in check when that prick tried to take advantage of her the night Burke showed up in L.A.
“But that’s done now.” Owen cracks his knuckles. “It’s time we have that talk.”
“Count me in,” I tell him.
From behind us someone clears their throat. “Mr. Maddox?”
Next to our head of security is a man I’ve never seen before. He’s tall and dressed in a wrinkled navy suit that looks like it’s travelled quite the distance.
“Where the hell did you come from?” Owen rumbles.
How long has he been standing here? Long enough to hear the plans we made to do something about the guys who hurt Summer? We didn’t say anything incriminating, I don’t think.
“Sorry to interrupt. I’m Agent Lane,” the stranger says as he slips a badge out of an inner pocket and flashes it to all three of us. FBI. He looks at Owen, then Jett.
His gaze flares when it lands on me, and his head jerks back. His brows squish together. It happens. People who don’t know me think they do and don’t like me. I’ve had worse reactions from people on the street.
Whatever his problem with me, he seems to snap out of it almost instantly. Either that or he has a good poker face. “I need to talk to Riot Maddox. I’ve been assigned to his case.”
30
Rebel
“What do you mean, case?” What the hell else is my brother keeping from me?
“I can’t discuss this with anyone but Riot.”
“I’m going to need more than a badge.” I cross my arms over my chest and widen my stance. The identification looks like the real deal, and he carries a regulation firearm in his shoulder holster. I spotted the weapon under his suit jacket when he retrieved his badge. But it’s not enough. With a dead goat and a possible psycho among us, he’s not getting any further on those credentials alone.
“We vetted him at the gate, Mr. Maddox,” the bodyguard says.
“I’ll come find you,” Owen mutters as he walks away with Jett, probably to replay our plans to visit Duke to the rest of the brothers.
Plans I’m going to leave my brothers out of with the wedding two days away and an FBI agent after my baby brother. An FBI agent who doesn’t seem to have overheard our conversation, thank Christ. “If you wouldn’t mind, I would like to double check them myself.”
“Of course.” He takes out a rectangular card with Bureau insignia and his name and several phone numbers on it. “You can call the head office and check with them.”
