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“Like fucking what?” Jace grits out. “What the fuck is he going to do?”
“He’s going after them,” I answer, my tone void of emotion.
“He’s going after them,” I repeat louder.
“He’s going to make it brutal.”
Chapter
Twenty-One
COLE
Regret takes over me, and every part of me fills with a bitter hatred toward myself and the things I said.
There is no excuse, there was no need for me to push as hard as I did, no need to punish him with the utter bile that came flooding out of my mouth.
It was meant to hurt and meant to cut to his core. What kind of person does that make me?
What kind of man wants to take someone’s trauma and hold it against them? I may not have grown up with my parents, but my nana assured me they loved me. Unlike the piece of shit Lucas got dealt.
When Lucas gave us the file in his drawer, we uncovered his secrets with the police reports of his trauma. The way his father would pimp him out to his friends and record it, sell footage and images of him. Yet, we didn’t take any of that into consideration, not once when we considered the pain of losing Tia did we consider how he might be affected too, how he wasprobably beating himself up, mentally struggling to comprehend his carefully constructed plans going so devastatingly wrong.
We burst through the warehouse doors in a whirlwind of panic. The workers turn toward us, and one man steps forward and holds his arm out to stop us going any farther. My shoulders broaden, prepared to fight, but a sharp voice cuts through the air. “Let them in.”
Finn O’Connell throws a toothpick to the floor and tilts his head in the direction of the office.
The guy drops his arm, and I can’t help but shoulder barge him as we storm past and into the office.
“What are you doing here?” Oscar’s scrutinizing gaze slices up toward mine, and the coldness behind his stare makes my blood turn to ice.
I fucked up.
I know it.
And the way Oscar is assessing me now, he knows it too.
Harper mumbles something to Tia, and she shushes her with a calm tone I know she doesn’t feel.
“You brought the children here again?” he asks with a raised eyebrow. The insinuation that isn’t a good idea clear in his tone.
“We need help.” I jut my chin out.
Oscar leans back in his chair while Finn tenses beside me. His stare cuts to Tia, then back to me. “I told you we’d take care of them.”
I shake my head with growing frustration. “It’s not that. It’s Lucas.”
Oscar flicks his eyes over us, as if searching for my brother, before his jaw sharpens in understanding.
“What’s his plan?”
I scrub a hand over my head, anxiety building with each second he’s unaccounted for. “I don’t know.”
Finn steps forward. “Did he know anything about Viggo and our plans to take them down?” he asks Oscar in some sort of clouded conversation, as if they don’t want to give too much away about their plans. My gaze darts from Finn’s to Oscar’s, searching for a sign as to what exactly they’re talking about.
Oscar finally exhales, taking my breath with his. “He did.” His jaw clenches, then unclenches. “Fuck!”
Jace pushes past Tia. “Just what the hell are you talking about here?” He leans over the table, eyeing Oscar. “I want to know what the fuck you’re talking about. Right fucking now!” he demands, stabbing his finger into the table for emphasis.
