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Greyson’s jaw flexed. He didn’t want to tell me.
I would’ve loved to storm from the room, but I might’ve passed out. And as much as I hated to admit it, I was safer with these men around me. I needed them…until I figured out what the hell was happening and how to fix it.
“We told her about how you were going to check on Alexa and Alli,” Jack prompted him helpfully.
“Yes,” Greyson said, taking a seat beside me. He spread his arm across the back of the couch, not touching me. “I did. But that’s not the whole truth, is it?”
“Really campaigning hard for favorite status,” Carter muttered. “And it’s transparent as fuck.”
“Oh, you’ve all got a long way to go to get to good standing, forget favorite status,” I assured him.
“Kennedy, I think someone came after you because of me.” Greyson’s ice blue eyes met mine. “I checked on my sisters and my mom because I was afraid maybe they’d gone after them to get to me. But they’re okay.” He answered the question I’d been about to ask, as if he knew what I would ask. “Then I went to try to find the man who did this.”
“You told me that you could protect me,” I said softly.
His face twisted as if he were in pain. “I’m sorry.”
“This was why we never claimed you,” Jack burst out, as if it had been weighing on him this whole time. “It killed us all, Kennedy. Knowing you were out there, and we couldn’t see you.”
“We should’ve just killed our way through the splinter group that betrayed the Jackals,” Greyson growled. “We could’ve done it together. If you three hadn’t turned chicken shit.”
Carter scoffed. “If it were that easy, Kennedy wouldn’t be in danger after all this time. If you’d been able to clean up after yourself, to protect her, we wouldn’t have had to hide her away?—”
“It didn’t fucking work, did it?”
“It worked for years!”
“And I was miserable for years!” I cried out. They were so frustrating. “I needed you! All four of you!” I glanced around at them, but they still looked stubborn as fuck.
And then they were arguing again.
“Stop!” I shouted. The second I yelled, my headache ripped through my mind, worse than ever. I raised my hands to my temples as if I were trying to keep my head from exploding, because that was how it felt.
Instantly, all of them went silent. Jack rushed to me, sinking onto the opposite side of me from Greyson and wrapping his arms around my body as if he were going to protect me. Sebastian looked stricken. Carter’s hands bunched into fists as if he were ready to throw punches, but there was no one to attack.
“You’re hurting me.” I said quietly. “Every time you fight.”
“I’m sorry.” Greyson had slipped to his knees, and he was staring up at me now, impeccable in his gray suit, his crisp white shirt just barely revealing the tattoos that climbed his powerful neck. “What do you need from us, baby?”
“I need you to work together,” I told them, looking around at their faces. “I need us to fighttogether.And since none of you seem to be able to work together…I need you to follow my lead.”
I was done being the victim they protected. The sweet girl they kept secrets from, so I never even knew about the nightmares that lurked behind me.
But this was my fight. I was the one in danger.
These four alpha males all thought they needed to be the ones who led, so they couldn’t work together…not even to protect me.
It was time for me to be the boss.
2
“Whatever you need,” Greyson promised me. “You know you’re our queen.”
“I wish I knew that,” I said, jumping to my feet.
But it was a mistake. Moving so quickly left me in terrible pain.
As soon as my face crumpled with pain, all four of them shut up. They leapt to try to get me to sit down, ready to sweep me off my feet again.
