“That’s my girl,” I muttered under my breath so he wouldn’t hear me. I really didn’t need to poke the bear even more than I already had.
“You know what that tells me? Shehasbeen looking into her sister’s death, and she knows about the two of us,” Roman went on. “Andthattells me you’ve been lying. Not just to me, but to the whole damn Club, ever since we gave you this assignment. So… tell me I’m wrong. Tell me this is all some big fucking misunderstanding. Tell me you honestly had no idea what Violet’s been up to.”
I shook my head. “No, you’re right. I’ve known all along.”
He threw his hands up, face twisting with fury. “What the fuck, Julian?” he shouted. “Why would you do this? Do you have any idea what kind of damage she could do to the Club? How much damage she could’ve done already?”
“I do, yes. But I’ve got it all under control,” I said smoothly.
“I sincerely doubt that. I don’t understand why the hell you—” Roman suddenly cut himself off, eyes widening. “Oh, fuck. You want her, don’t you? That’s why you did it.”
I didn’t respond to that. He already knew the answer.
“Who have you told?” I asked, trying to figure out just how much damage control I had to do.
“No one,” he said stiffly. “I came straight over here after I left.”
Relief flickered in my chest. “Good.”
Roman’s jaw tightened. “I didn’t say Iwouldn’ttell anyone,” he said. “Like I said before, you betrayed the Club. Lied to the Council, too. It’s my sworn duty to report you.”
“So is that your next stop?” I asked, raising a brow. “Council Chambers to report your own brother?”
“Loyalty to the Club is meant to supersede everything else, isn’t it? Even familial ties. And you’ve royally fucked us here.”
I shook my head. “Violet hasn’t done anything to hurt us.”
“Yet,” he shot back. “Do you have any idea what could happen if she decides to fuck with us? We’re lucky she didn’t do anything already. She could’ve run to the media or posted some big essay online, and that shit could’ve gone viral before we even had a snowball’s chance in hell of stopping it. And she still could! She could completely fuck every single last one of us!”
“She won’t. Shecan’t.She’s at the estate, remember?”
“Not forever,” Roman replied. “If anything happens to the Club because of her digging, it’ll be your fault, Julian. We’ll all have to pay the price for your reckless behavior.”
“Actually, if you think about it, this whole situation started because of you and Calista,” I said, eyes narrowing. “So really, that makes ityourfault, doesn’t it?”
I regretted the words the second they left my mouth.
The silence that followed them was lethal. Roman froze, his chest heaving, and for a moment, I thought he might explode right there, his fists clenched, knuckles bone-white, eyes wild with a kind of anger I hadn’t seen in years.
Instead, he turned on his heel, storming toward the door. His shoulder slammed into the frame as he went, hard enough to make the glass in the cabinets rattle.
“Fuck,” I muttered through gritted teeth. I strode after my brother, raising my voice. “Roman, wait. I didn’t mean it like that.”
He didn’t look back. His fists stayed clenched as he exited the room and stalked down the hall, heading straight for the stairwell.
I kept following him, calling out. “Roman! Stop!”
He still didn’t reply. Just picked up his pace to avoid me catching up as he hurried down the stairs. Then the front door slammed a few seconds later, the echo ricocheting through the foyer like a gunshot.
“Fuck,” I muttered again, dragging a hand through my hair.
I’d crossed a major line.
Not just this afternoon. I’d been doing it since the start of the month. And now that it was all finally coming back to bite me in the ass… I had to decide who I’d bury to keep Violet safe.
28
Violet
