Wes reached for me, and I flinched, backing away from him. Something in his eyes broke in response, and he nodded, slowly straightening back up. “This was what I was trying?—”
“You’re… you and Roman are…” I closed my eyes for a moment. When I opened them again, I pushed myself up into the closest dining room chair myself. I swallowed hard, looking between the two men—Roman’s sadistic glee and Wes’s horror.
“You two have met?” Wes asked slowly.
The lump in my throat wouldn’t budge. My head high crashed into raw, turbulent emotions, like I’d been sucker punched.
Sucker punched by the man I’d just given all of my most sacred trust.
“Why would you…” I started, unable to finish a single damn sentence. I waited for the room to stop spinning, staring down at the dining room table.
“Please get her water,” Wes said to someone.
I caught the briefest glimpse of Jayne as she retreated from the doorway.
“Are you a part of all of this?” I managed to ask.
“No,” Wes said firmly. “This was the only thing I kept from you.”
“Only,” I muttered angrily, as if Wes being Max Graves’s son was just a minor omittance.
I quickly put the truth together in my head. Wes’s mom was Max’s first wife, the woman who supported him before he became a fixture of our technological and economic landscape. Roman must’ve been his younger half-brother, the product of Max’s second marriage to the nineteen-year-old model, which meant Wes had just skipped over Roman’s existence altogether.
Butwhy?
“How did you know?” Wes suddenly blurted, glowering at Roman. “How did you fucking know about the church and our plans for a club? Why would you do all of this? Why can’t you just drop it and leave me the fuck alone?”
Roman’s face revealed nothing, a slight smirk plastered in place. “Addicts are so self-centered, truly. You think the whole world revolves aroundyou. You’re starting to sound delusional, brother.”
Wes laughed bitterly as his fists clenched at his sides, as if on the brink of pummeling Roman’s face in. “You built all of this to lure me here. Well, here I am. What the hell do you want, Roman?”
Tears burned my eyes. “None of this was about me, was it?”
Wes took a step toward me.
“Don’t,” I spat. “Don’t come near me.”
His face fell, but he remained standing between me and Roman.
Jayne returned with water, gingerly sliding the glass across the table to me. Archer entered the room next, glancing around as if ensuring everyone was behaving.
I stood, clutching the table for support. “Everything that has happened inside The Circle has been about whatever weird, incestuous rivalry you two are involved in.”
Roman lifted his brows, his smile unchanging.
“I didn’t ascend because I broke through my fear. I ascended because of you.” I glared at Wes and then at Archer and Jayne. “I’ve been treated differently because ofWes.Because you wantedWes.For what? For money?” I waved a hand at Roman. “Or revenge for whatever went down with your father?”
“Whatever went down?You mean Wes’s ten-year covert operation to destroy our family?” Roman hissed. “As pitiful and ineffective as his ploys turned out to be…”
“That’s done,” Wes said. “It’s been done for years. Consider me scorched from the family tree.”
Roman’s eyes flashed. Palpable rage simmered beneath his controlled mask and contemptuous half-smile.
“Is it?” he asked. “Can someone like you ever truly bedonewith anything? You’re a nihilistic black hole, Wesley. You consume and destroy hedonistically, recklessly. You are not equipped to take care of anyone or anything.” He stared at my neck again. “Remember what happened with the last one?”
I sucked in a breath, appalled. Wes’s control snapped. He lunged at Roman, fist raised, and Archer leaped between them both.
“Shut the fuck up, Roman,” I yelled. It didn’t matter how I felt about Wes in this moment; Roman’s jab was incomprehensible.
