I look down at her from my full height, holding the back of my right hand up to her so she can see the scars that blend into my tattoos. I steady my voice. “These scars are from surgery. Two plates and ten pins,” I offer. “My hand was broken in six places. Ask me how.”
She reaches her finger out to trace the scars but stops herself, balling her fist at her side instead.
“How?” she whispers softly.
“On Gator Freeland’s fucking face. And then on Marco,when he tried to stop me after I found out what he did to your sister. I would’ve fucking killed himandGator if Archer and Raef hadn’t pulled me off. So…I can promise you, Mia…the last place I’d ever fucking be is sitting idly by while those two fucking pigs raped a sixteen-year-old fucking girl.”
* * *
Mia
Aiden’s voice booms, loud and threatening in the quiet space, and I take a step back to absorb his words as he watches me. I know what he’s saying is true. Because this drug destroys the barrier between your brain and your mouth.
There was a world where I imagined he was there that night. A world where he turned a blind eye to Marco and Gator’s abuse of my sister. There was never a world in which I thought he’dfightagainst it.
“He was your brother. It made sense to me that you stood behind his order—”
“I didn’t stand behind shit! I had no idea what those two fucks were planning. Marco deserved to die,” Aiden growls. “And hewasn’tmy fucking blood. I was glad when your family killed him.”
I recoil. Mason said they were brothers.
“I don’t understand.” Confusion and pure vulnerability line my tone as I realize maybe I’ve bitten off more than I can chew. I should’ve done more research; I should’ve delved deeper.
“In all your thorough investigative work, you never pieced together that he was mystepbrother?” Aiden seethes. “My father married his bitch of a mother when I was thirteen. Sheconvinced him to adopt Marco and give her bastard kid our last name. Any other fucking questions?” he asks, his voice full of suppressed rage.
Utter despair fills me as I sit in the face of a glaring dead end. I look at this man before me, his eyes reflecting the same question that lingers in mine. We both made wrong assumptions, we both fought, and it turns out we were on the same side all along.
“Yeah, actually,” I challenge, not knowing what else to do. I turn my eyes up to his and hope my mistakes cancel out his. I may have lied, but he kidnapped me and drugged me, so I’d say we’re even. “If I’m not the spy you thought I was, and you aren’t the monster I was convinced you were…then whatarewe?”
Our eyes lock as we realize the only truth left between us.
We’ve been dead wrong about each other this entire time.
Chapter 32
Aiden
“If it wasn’t you, then could it have been Dagger?” She sounds so defeated.
Anger still courses through me at how easily she thought I had something to do with her sister’s rape.
“W-would you help me? Please?” she whispers so vulnerably, it nearly knocks the fucking wind out of me. Another sob escapes her throat. “Iknowshe wasn’t crazy. I need to know who else was there so I canendthem. I’ve already let her down so much.”
I can tell how hard it is for her to ask. I know enough about her already to know she doesn’t turn to people for help ever, and my chest tightens. I fucking hate that I care. I fight the pull I feel to her, the need to protect her.
“You lied to me,” I spit out. “And then you have the fuckingaudacityto ask me forhelp? If you were anyone else, you wouldn’t still be breathing.”
This fucking shit makes me talk too much.
“I don’t have anyone else to ask. You’re my best option tofind the truth, and I have no idea why, but I think I fuckingtrustyou.”
I study her closely, not knowing how to respond to that kind of honesty, because fuck me if I don’t also trust her in a way I can’t comprehend.
“I left her, Aiden. The night she was raped. We were supposed to be together, and I left her for a stupid boy. One I couldn’t even fucking get wet for because”—she scoffs, pacing in front of me—“apparently my type is deranged fucking psychopath.”
Don’t hate that confession.
“And then I left heragain, the night she OD’d. I didn’t think she had any drugs. It didn’t seem like she was using.” Her eyes are lost in a memory, and when I see her screw them shut, I know it’s a bad one. “I was only gone for half an hour, and when I came back, she was…gone.”
