Page 4

“I have looked at her face.” I was shouting again. “For two and a half years I looked at her face and I believed every word out of her mouth.”

Wren stood still, staring at me like she couldn’t believe what I had done. “Get out,” I said. Quiet, but it carried. “Get the fuck out.”

“Seb, please. If you’d just let me explain—”

“There’s nothing to explain.” I was back to full volume now. “I saw it. We’re done.”

She looked at Dutch. He opened his mouth, and I could see it, could see him about to say hold on, everybody just hold on —

But I got there first. “Get. Out.” It tore out of me. “Go get your shit and get out. I don’t ever want to see your lying, cheating face again.”

Wren sobbed.

“Go to him,” I shouted.

She backed toward the door, still crying, her hands shaking so badly she could hardly hold onto her purse. “I didn’t do this,” she whispered. “Whatever you saw, it wasn’t me.”

“Get. Out.”

The door closed quietly behind her.

I stood there for a long moment. I’d done it. I’d caught her, exposed her, thrown her out. I’d protected myself from the woman who’d tried to make a fool of me.

So why did I feel like I was dying?

Nobody in the room moved. Nobody said good riddance. Nobody clapped me on the back. The brothers stood where they were.

Handful was staring at the door she’d gone through. “Brother,” he said slowly, “her face—”

“She was caught. People do strange things when they’re caught.” I grabbed the bottle off the bar and took a long pull.

The brothers peeled off one by one, collecting their women and their kids, steering them out of the common room in twos and threes. Family dinner was over before it started. Nobody asked if I was okay. Nobody tried to defend her again or asked if I was sure.

I was sure.

The video was real. The evidence was clear. Wren had betrayed me. I’d caught her, and now it was over.

I took another drink, and tried not to think about the way she’d looked at me when she’d begged me to believe her.

Chapter 2

❧

— Glitch —

Consciousness came back in pieces. The pounding in my skull. Something dead on my tongue. My arm moving on its own, reaching across the mattress.

To her side.

My hand landed on cold sheets. Flat, undisturbed. My fingers spread over the place where she should have been, and for a fraction of a second I didn’t remember why it was empty.

Then I did.

The video. The confrontation. The look on her face.

I jerked my hand back and sat up too fast. My stomach rolled. I stayed bent over my knees until it passed.

Wren’s face kept flashing behind my eyes. The confusion. The desperation. The way she’d begged me to believe her.