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I didn’t like her expression and remained standing. “Go ahead.”
She looked at the ground as she spoke. “You know I wanted to be a journalist, right?”
I nodded without uttering a word, and she was forced to meet my gaze. “I’ll just say it. I got curious about your brothers. I heard about the club and I went there.”
There was no way this conversation was leading anywhere good, so I remained silent. “I met him.” Again, I said nothing. I would let her hang herself. “Connor that is. He owns the club.” She glanced at me. “You knew that?” Instead of answering, I just stared at her. She was beginning to look like a stranger in my eyes. She took a deep breath. “Anyway, it just happened. I didn’t mean for it to. But he’s magnetic, exciting—”
Everything apparently I wasn’t. I cut her off mid-sentence. “You fucked him,” I finished for her. It wasn’t a question.
“Don’t be crass. We had a relationship… of sorts…” She glanced away. “Until some months back… Anyway, I still love you.”
I laughed. It wasn’t out of bitterness or anger. I laughed at myself because I’d been the fool to come here. She had been one of two people who knew one day I would have a reckoning with the King family. Grant was the other. Finding out she sought out the brother I’d never met and he’d seduced her had been the final blow to any possibility between us. There was at least some satisfaction as it sounded like he’d been the one to break things off.
“Does he know about me?”
She blinked, probably because I hadn’t professed my undying love. “Yes and no.”
I fisted my hands, not because I wanted to hit her. I wanted to hit the wall. “Which is it?” I gritted out.
Had she spoiled all my best laid plans? If Connor knew, then for how long as he hadn’t reached out to me.
“Yes, I told him about you, my boyfriend.”
“Ex-boyfriend. You broke up with me, remember,” I clarified.
“I shouldn’t have.”
I let my silence urge her on.
“I didn’t say anything else about you. Though when he ended things, he suggested I go back to you.”
“Too late for that.” His suggestion only pissed me off more. A rich guy like him discarded the small-town girl, thinking she was good enough for me, her small-town ex-boyfriend.
I moved to the door.
“Liam,” she cried.
I didn’t wait. I left with an anger I couldn’t put words to.
Something else I realized was I wasn’t pissed at her. Her betrayal hadn’t hurt much. I was angry that my brother had the life I didn’t and now had also had the girl that was once mine. She’d dumped me and he’d dumped her. He’d had it all. I had nothing.
That fueled my drive. I’d found an address for the notable King before I drove to New York. It was time for that reckoning to finally happen.
One
Liam
Bolstered by everything that brought me to this moment, I stiffly knocked on the door in front of me. Though I’d prepared a speech in my head a thousand times, everything changed when a different man than the one I’d come to see opened the door.
He looked every bit the billionaire’s son. Though he wore jeans like me, it was clear he hadn’t gotten them from the same store I had. Even his black tee shirt looked like it cost more than my flannel one. Hell, it likely cost more than everything I wore, including my prized boots.
We sized each other up a minute before I held out my hand and said, “You’re Connor King, right?”
It was a guess that turned out to be a good one. He didn’t return my offer of good will, keeping his hand on the door. I was reminded most people had stopped handshaking in light of things. “And you are?”
This was it. I said the words I’d waited most of my life to say. “Liam. Your brother.”
That wasn’t all I’d longed to do after the conversation with Carrie. I’d assumed I’d marry her one day. Yet here I was with a different motivation.
I stepped forward swiftly and swung my fist at him. Anger made me sloppy. I’d underestimated the privileged bastard before me. He turned out to be a lot quicker than I expected and had me pinned to the wall like a fly. Damn. I hadn’t lost many fights in my life, and it was a bitter pill to swallow that he’d gotten the drop on me.
“What the fuck?” he yelled near my ear.
If I’d been thinking correctly or at all, I wouldn’t have said what I did. “That’s for Carrie,” I gritted out.
“Carrie—” At the tail end of repeating her name, I heard the realization as he trailed off. “You’re my brother?” he asked like maybe he could accept the idea.
