What the fuck?
“Why, Brodie?” Brax asks.
“You became a detective. Chase and Jack had hockey. This was my path. Dad’s path was always mine.”
My world tips.
“The Octopus,” I whisper. The name sticks to my tongue like poison. I stand there in disbelief, staring at Brodie, my head shaking. He’s not just working for The Octopus. “You’re family?”
My gaze drags away from Brax and Brodie.
He’s their father?
Then my eyes shift to Erin.
And hers?
“This didn’t have to be your path, Brodie,” Brax sighs.
“You don’t turn your back on your family. I’m notyou,” Brodie snaps, venom in his every word. Hatred oozes off him for the man he once admired.
“You abandoned me when you were fifteen,” Brodie goes on. “Caught Dad cheating before Mom died. You walked out. Never came back. You changed your last name to Mom’s—the name weshared—and built your own family. You left me with him. This is the result.”
“I never left you,” Brax fires back. “He made his choice. I made mine. But I never froze you out. You could’ve come to me. I could’ve helped you.”
Brodie laughs, cold and humorless. “I didn’t need help. Dad told me everything not long after you ran. Maybe it should’ve scared me,” Brodie continues, eyes shining with hatred. “But it didn’t. I wasfascinated. People feared one name across the world—The Octopus. Dad hid behind the distillery in plain sight while building an underground empire. He told me I could be a part of it.”
I try to see the four-year-old boy who used to engage in snow battles with me, but he isn’t there.
“It wasn’t enough for me,” Brodie says. “I wanted my own empire. Not to be swallowed by his shadow.”
“Hidden Access,” Brax mutters.
“You wanted to have the drugs running through it,” I say, the words burning on my tongue. “A secret society.”
How could I have been so stupid?
He had told us about the club.
“Dad didn’t like the idea of a member exclusive room in a nightclub. But he gave me some leash. I just had to prove the drugs in a hidden room could be profitable, rather than his traditional ways.”
“If he agreed, why steal drugs from him in the first place?” Rudy asks. “Seems as though it all went south from there.”
“I stole them before he agreed,” Brodie admits. “Didn’t think he’d notice. I wanted to test the market. It was stupid—reckless—but I handled it.”
“You didn’t handle anything,” I yell. “You threatened Laurel. Manipulated her into coming to us.”
Brodie shrugs, unbothered. “Fate.” He talks about it as if it’s a business meeting where people lost financial investments rather than their lives.
“Laurel was the one listening to my call, looking foryourbrother. Elliot had called her the night I caught her spying. When I saw his face on her phone, I knew I could use her. Makeher do what I wanted. Her connection was perfect. Anyone else wouldn’t have worked. She was collateral.”
“And what was Jack?” Rudy asks.
“I never meant for Jack to get hurt. Just wanted to rile Elliot enough to run him out of town. Didn’t know convincing him I slept with his girl would make him snap. He never stood a chance.”
“You son of a bitch!” Rudy screams. “You were there and youlefthim!”
“Elliot did nothing to you,” I hiss.
