Brother.
“My son seems to think you won’t be persuaded,” Sebastian says and then looks off in the corner. I follow his gaze and realize a body is standing there in the shadows, arms crossed. I can’t make out who it is. I turn my gaze back to Sebastian, who rolls his sleeve down his arm again. “For your sake, I hope he’s wrong.”
He turns away again and heads for the heavy door behind me.
“I need to meet with our supplier,” he says casually, as if he’s stepping out to do a grocery store run. The metal groans as he pulls on the door. “I hope to see you soon,mija.”
The door slams with a creak, and the silence that echoes crushes me.
And then footsteps sound from the shadows until his face fills my visions, his lips tipped into a smirk.
“Hey, Little Silver.”
Brodie.
“Surprised?”
My lip wobbles, my lungs burn, and bile rises in my esophagus.
“Is it sinking in yet?” he asks as he watches me.
A knot forms in my chest at his words.
My mother was clear, stating someone blackmailed her. She didn’t come because of Sebastian. Or because of Laurel. Someone else pulled the strings.
Brodie’s still watching me, like he knows exactly where my thoughts are landing. Like he wants them to land there.
The drugs Laurel hid come back to the forefront of my mind. The ones Chase thought belonged to The Octopus.
It wasn’t Sebastian that dragged my mother back into my life. It was someone else. The room hums, and it hits me before I even have time to prepare for it. Hawk wasn’t operating on behalf of The Octopus. Hawk was orchestrating everything himself.
My pulse stutters. Copper fills the inside of my mouth from biting my cheek.
The drugs.
The lakehouse.
The necklace in Brax’s kitchen.
Brodie.
Hawk isn’t a faceless stranger. Hawk’s been in my life. In all of our lives. Laughing. Joking. Dating my sister.
My stomach lurches.
Chase was hunting The Octopus when he should’ve been searching for Hawk. But Hawk is Brodie.
And we’re realizing that all too late.
I stare at Brax,my hands hanging useless at my sides. My fingers tingle from how hard I’m clenching them. The fury in my veins is a live wire, buzzing through, hot and frantic. I haven’t said a word, not since the words tore out of him.
Brodie took Erin.
They’re detonating inside my skull on an endless loop. The nausea hadn’t even faded from waking up alone. I knew before I hit the stairs that I wouldn’t find her making pancakes.
I woke Roman, dropped him off at Elena’s, and tore through the night like a street racer. I called Rudy on the way. He was already outside when I pulled up, hair wild and fear coming off him in waves.
I wasn’t prepared to see Brax lying on the floor of his living room, Bella kneeling over him as she shook him.
