“No,” I say coldly.
Another hit.
“You don’t.”
Cole straightens. “Okay,” he mutters under his breath, glancing between us. “That’s new.”
Maverick doesn’t move, but I can feel him staring. Thinking. Owen spits blood onto the floor again and laughs through it.
“You really don’t see it,” he says, his voice rough now.
I grab the front of his shirt and haul the chair forward, the legs screeching across the concrete. Leaning down, my head tilts as Owen lifts his chin.
“Say it again,” I growl.
Owen’s smile twists, split lip and all.
“Brother.”
My forehead slams into Owen’s face. His head snaps backward with the force. He curses under his breath, and I smirk.
Prick.
Releasing his shirt, I stand fully and wipe his blood from my face. For a second, something twists in my gut. Not recognition, not acceptance, but possibility. And I don’t like it. Maverick steps forward.
“Talk.” His voice stays level and controlled.
Owen leans back as far as the restraints allow, and he looks at me again.
“A few years before I was born, my mother had another child,” his eyes search mine. “She wasn’t in a good place, and shegave that child up for adoption, then moved across the country. There, she met my father and had me. Two years ago, she passed away. But before she did, she told me about you. I wanted to find you, and Alex came with me.”
“What the fuck,” Cole mutters under his breath.
I snort and pull Owen by his shirt back into me. “The woman who gave birth to me was a drug addict who left me at a hospital. She did not put me up for adoption, she abandoned me. She wasnothing.” I growl the last word close to his face.
Rage builds behind his eyes.
“She was our mother,” he seethes.
“There is no,our.”
Maverick taps me on the shoulder, and I shove Owen back into the chair before taking a step back running and drag a hand over my face. I stare at him, looking for any resemblance, but find none. Where my features are sharp, his are softer, his face a little more rounded. His eyes are brown, not even any hint of gray. The shape isn’t even a match.
“What proof do you have that Karson is your brother, Owen?” Maverick asks calmly.
“I took a coffee cup he was drinking from out of a trash can and had a DNA test done, compared it to mine.”
The room grows quiet and I begin to pace.
Three steps. Turn. Three steps back.
Maverick nods, not dismissing the possibility before speaking again.
“Still.I’mthe one who killed Alex, not Karson. Why not come after me?” he asks, straight to the point.
“You see,” Owen shifts in his chair. “I was going to. But after I ran the DNA test, I thought what better way to make you suffer. Take someone from you like you took from me.”
Cole steps forward now, lowering himself so he’s eye to eye with Owen.
