“Nobody has anything on me.” He raised his voice. “Slasher is…one of the good guys. He saved my ass in the army. I’m alive because of him. So why don’t you get off your high horse, Professor, and show a little appreciation?”
I took a deep breath, sifting the lies through the truth. Slasher could be a soldier, and gratitude was a strong motive, but Malcolm wouldn’t leave the army and become a gang’s VP because he was indebted to its president.
He was taken in by Slasher, speaking in the biker’s tongue. If I hadn’t noticed the way Slasher looked at me, I’d have said my brother and he were having a bromance. But that was not the case. Malcolm wasn’t gay, and even if he turned gay or bisexual—things happened in the army—he would tell me.
There was something else. The continuous reversing blame strategy was enough proof my brother was trying to distract me from the truth.
A heavy secret burdening him enough to hide it. Even from me.
“What exactly happened in the army? What did he save you from?” I asked.
A dark grimace covered his face, and a little tremor ran through his hand. “The regular shit. Stop interrogating me like I’m a fucking patient to analyze and tell me why you’re really here, Vixen.”
I cocked a brow. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously.”
Well, two could play this game. “I missed you and came to see you for the holidays.”
He rolled his eyes, snorting. “Bullshit. There’s no way in hell you’d come back to Forest Grove for that. Since you left, we’ve seen each other twice for the holidays, and I was the one who visited.”
I shrugged. “You’re trying to evade my questions by asking something yourbrothersmust have already answered. You bullshit me, I bullshit you.”
His lips merely twitch because he was an unapologetic asshole. “Fine. Met your piece of shit ex yet?”
A pang set into my chest as I nodded.
“You’re okay?”
My gaze fell to the floor. “Did you know he’s engaged?”
When he didn’t answer right away, a surge of anger roiled in me. “You could have told me, you know? Given me a damn heads up?”
He crossed his arms over his chest, looking through the windows. “I’m not a fortune teller. You made it clear when you fucking left you were never coming back.”
“Even if I wasn’t, you didn’t think I needed to know? Or is this your payback? Still punishing me for leaving?”
A short sigh escaped him as he rolled his eyes. “I didn’t tell you because I didn’t know you still had feelings for that shit. Obviously, I was wrong.” His dark gaze darted at me. “Don’t tell me that’s why you’re really here, making up pilot boyfriends to make that fucker jealous.”
I swore under my breath. “I’m going to kill that president of yours. When the hell did he have the time to tell you? I’ve been with you the whole time since I got here.”
“It doesn’t matter. What matters is that cunt is still so important to you that you broke a nine-year oath to win him back.”
“No, Malcolm, that’s not why I’m here. Professor Pattison—”
“Spare me the elite position crap. You could have gotten the same thing in Washington in a few years.”
I shook my head and blew out a heated breath. I hated it when he was right. “Okay, I’ll spare you the crap. I am here because of Russell, and I’m not over what he did. But I wasn’t planning on winning him back.”
He snorted.
“I’m here for revenge, Malcolm. To take something from him, break his heart over it and watch him suffer. Maybe that makes me as pathetic as trying to win him back, but it is what it is.” A lump rose to my throat. “Then he drops the engagement bomb… You should have seen him rubbing it in my face while I was goddamn clueless. So yes, I panicked and made up a lie…or two. Sue me.”
Malcolm strode toward me and wrapped his arms around my waist in a deep embrace. I couldn’t stop my tears from staining his ugly cut.
“I thought about telling you, but I didn’t want to hurt you, knowing you were still single. And…I wanted to have his chopped off dick or something to give you when I delivered the news.”
“That would have been nice,” I mumbled.
