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The idea was all too tempting, but my cousins loved this damn place, and I knew it was their future. As much as I hated my father right then, I couldn’t take it away from them.
As soon as I walked through the door, the entire bar went quiet, and all eyes turned to me. But mine zeroed in on Dad, and I walked toward him, keeping my expression neutral. He didn’t even flinch when our gazes met, and somehow, the pain in my chest only intensified.
After everything else he’d done that day, I’d thought he couldn’t hurt me more, but realizing he didn’t feel an ounce of remorse killed yet another part of me.
“River?” Uncle Bash stood. “Honey, is everything okay?”
“I thought this MC was about brotherhood,” I said, keeping my eyes on Dad. “I always loved that about this family. That it was so big, so loyal to one another. That even though I only had a few blood uncles, I had many, many more who were honorary. You all took care of one another. Protected one another.”
“River…” Uncle Bash stepped in front of me, blocking my view of his brother-in-law. “We’re in the middle of something. You shouldn’t be here.”
Slowly, I lifted my eyes to his face. “This is between my father and me.”
“What is?”
“Uncle Bash, I know that his punishment should be to face the enforcer. And I would honestly love to see Uncle Spider kick Dad’s ass right now.” I licked my suddenly dry lips. “But I’m going to ask you to please let me have the honor of making him pay.”
He grasped my shoulders. “You need to explain to me what’s going on, River. Right now. I’ve seen this look in Raven’s eyes one too many times, so I know you’re out for blood. But I need to know why.”
I tilted my head to the side, studying him for a moment. “What would happen if a brother did something that hurt another brother. Physically hurt him, I mean.”
“He would face the enforcer,” my uncle confirmed.
I nodded. “Exactly. And what would happen if, say, this brother didn’t do the hurting himself, but paid someone else to do it?”
“Again, he would face Spider.”
I’d known that when I decided to come here. Knew I was taking a huge chance in just asking, but I had to try. “Well, I’m asking you to let him face me instead.”
Behind him, I heard a chair scrape across the floor as it was pushed back. “Step aside, Bash,” he commanded. “Let her have her way.”
My hands fisted at my sides, and after a hesitation, Uncle Bash released me, taking a few steps away.
“Well, here I am, River. Say what you want to say.”
I just stood there, staring at the man who had raised me. He had given me life. He was the first man to love me…supposedly. But at this point, I wasn’t so sure if he did. He had no idea what the real me was like. Had never really tried to find out. But this…what he’d done…this pain went much deeper than realizing he didn’t know the little details about me that made up who I was.
It was agony. Worse than any pain I’d ever felt, and that included the physical pain of having my fallopian tube rupture. This pain hurt even more than losing my baby.
The man who was supposed to love me and protect me was the same man who had so effortlessly broken a part of me no one would ever be able to fix.
Was this what it felt like when Mom’s own father had shot her?
The thought made me ill. I was comparing what my dad did to what my grandfather had done. It wasn’t the same, but the betrayal felt like it was.
Hers had tried to kill her.
Mine…well, he might as well have ended my life, because the pain he’d left behind was soul-crushing.
If something had happened to Maverick, I would have died too. If I’d lost him, there would be nothing left for me. Not my family, not my friends. Nothing, because my world began and ended with that man.
I pulled the promise ring Maverick had given me all those years ago off my index finger and held it out in the palm of my hand. “Do you see this? Mav gave it to me when I was fifteen. It came with his promise that he would love me forever. That, no matter what, it was him and me. I told him I loved him for the first time that day. Made my own promises. There is nothing you could possibly say or do that would ever make me doubt that he loves me. That his loyalty is to me.”
His eyes narrowed. “You two have been together since you were fifteen?”
“Longer,” I spat the word at him, then shifted my gaze around the bar, taking in my uncles—both blood and honorary. “Tell the truth. Who here knew about Maverick and me before my birthday party?”
A few people started coughing, some of them dropping their gazes. Dad’s eyes widened as I fought a grin. So many of them had known, but not one of them had said a word.
