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“And you’re old enough to be put on the bench. I keep my mouth shut out of respect, but you’re attacking my woman like you have a right to? Fuck that. I’d pick Con to watch her back any day over yours. The truth is, it has less to do with your ability to protect her and more to do with my belief in you that you would. I couldn’t wait to become a brother, and now, because of you, I’m questioning if I was a damn fool.”

“Both of you sit the fuck down!” Havoc roars. Probe does immediately, but Powers hesitates for a second. I know everyone at the table clocks it because they tense.

I squeeze his hand, and eventually he does sit, but not before tugging me into his lap. I might have protested if it were not for the fact that I can feel him vibrating with anger.

“It’s okay. I’m okay,” I tell him softly, reaching up to cup his jaw and tilt his head down so he stops death-staring at Probe.

“It’s not okay. None of this is. I get it—we lost a brother. And yeah, I wasn’t as close to him as the others, but it doesn’t mean I’m not feeling his loss too. I’m just not willing to blame an innocent fucking woman. We all played our parts in this. We kept shit from the women, which meant we didn’t know some of them had encountered James before, because none of us thought to compare notes. Citi became a victim because of an error on Kruger and Havoc’s part. The whole club failed to kick Pig out when we knew he’d never cut it as a prospect. And even Capone wasn’t faultless. He left drinks unattended in the truck that multiple people have access to. One Star had already been hidden inside one time. That’s a fucking warning nobody listened to.”

“Why would he even think that someone would slip something in their fucking drinks?” Circus snaps.

“Must be nice being a man,” I mutter, earning a glare from him. I shrug. “That wasn’t me trying to be a dick. That’s me pointing out the fundamental difference between men and women. You won’t find a woman in this building who would leave a drink unattended and go back to it.”

“Nobody here would slip something into a woman’s drink,” Crane says, offended.

I look at him sadly and hold up my hands before flipping down my fingers. “Pig, Hicks, Bear, Snake—” I’m cut off before I can continue.

“That’s different. They’re bad fucking guys. We’re not. Not like that anyway.” Crane folds his arms.

“Oh, my bad. I couldn’t tell. They wore the same cut, had access to all the women and kids, knew shit that even the old ladies weren’t privy to. But if you can tell me how to spot the difference between a good guy and a bad one, hell, between a good brother and a bad one, I’m all ears.”

His mouth snaps shut before it opens again, but nothing comes out. He frowns in concentration, and I can almost see how everything he took for granted starts to unravel. “Fuck.”

“That about sums it up. We have to assume all men are potential predators until they prove otherwise. And even then, in my case and Delphi’s, that’s not always enough.” I run my fingers through my hair, feeling a headache start to throb at my temples. “Can I just tell you the rest and then be done?” I can hear the tiredness in my voice, so I know everyone else can too.

“We’re listening,” Havoc says, narrowing his eyes at Probe, daring him to say something.

I close my eyes and take a deep breath before I begin. “After finding the notebook and the name of this place, I knew I had to come here. It seemed as good a place as any to start my journey. I knew I had to run. And I knew I had to do it alone, so I planned as methodically as I could. Squirreling away small amounts of money and playing the doting girlfriend until he loosened the reins a little. I knew it was a test, so I fought every urge to run then. I just spent my time doing as much research as I could.

“When I felt like my act had been convincing for long enough, I slipped something into my guard’s drink and ran. I didn’t come directly here. I tried to make my journey look random, just in case someone was tracking me. I stayed on the fringes of the grid and set a false trail before I eventually made my way to Raven Falls. I never expected to find Lil still here after all that time. I thought she’d be long gone, if she’d ever been here at all. So imagine my surprise when I saw her in the diner with a couple of MC brothers. She was acting like she didn’t have a care in the world, and yeah, I get it, she’d been living clear and free for a few years. I was just so fucking pissed. Don’t get me wrong, I get why she ran. I don’t even blame her anymore. But in that moment, all I could see was how free to laugh and joke she was while I was trapped as her stupid understudy, forced into playing a role made for her.”

“You didn’t sell her out,” Probe states.

The only reason I respond is that he doesn’t pose it as a question. “No, Probe, I didn’t sell her out. That’s not who I am, and you should know that.”

“How? I don’t even know you.”

“Because you knew the other Lil so well? Tell me, what was her favorite color? What food was she allergic to? What about her drink of choice or the book she had read so many times it had pages that were dog-eared and torn?”

When he doesn’t answer, I shake my head. “You didn’t know her. None of you did, or you’d have noticed the woman living with you for the last six years was an impostor. I’d know if any of you changed. I might not assume you were an impostor, but I’d know something was very fucking wrong. Because I took the time to get to know you all.”

To prove my point, I look at Toot. “Your favorite color is purple, but you tell everyone it’s black because you don’t think it’s manly enough. It’s purple, though, same as Greers.” I point to Mac next. “You’re allergic to pineapple. It’s not a life-or-death situation, but you break out in hives, and your voice goes all hoarse and scratchy for days.”

I point to Midas. “You have a dog-eared copy of To Kill a Mockingbird, but you’ve never read it. You bought it second-hand, which is why it looks that way. You tell yourself you’ll read it one day, but you won’t because you haven’t been able to get into it the other eight times you tried. Your favorite books are the Percy Jackson series.”

Everyone turns to look at him, but he shrugs. “What? They’re good fucking books.”

“My point is that I know you guys. And you might not know me on the same level, but you know me a fuck of a lot better than the last Lil. So no, I didn’t sell her out, but you can be damn sure I confronted her.”

“What did she do?” Powers asks before anyone else can jump in with their bullshit.

I look at him and swallow. “She set me up.”

Chapter Fourteen

POWERS

“What do you mean, she set you up? Set you up how?” I question.