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“Stop fucking talking,” Rogan orders and then sighs, rubbing his head. “The information on the phone…is this all Detective Bronson knows?”
“The first few days I worked for you, he made me wear a wire,” I admit softly. “I made an excuse to take it off, it felt wrong. I was supposed to email him updates, but I started missing them. I met him a few times, demanding to know why he wanted you guys so badly.”
“What did he say?” Maddox barks.
“That you killed someone, Marvin, that you needed to pay for it,” I tell them. “He even showed me pictures of Marvin’s mutilated body.”
Maddox snorts. “We didn’t fucking kill him. He worked for us!”
“But there must be a reason why they think we killed him,” Rogan murmurs, thinking. “We wouldn’t kill Marvin, he was one of our best. There’s only one other person who would want us to be locked up so badly.”
“Charles,” Alistair sneers.
“Charles,” Rogan confirms. “If he killed Marvin, framed us, and put the detectives on our tail, it would make sense.”
I stay quiet as they talk, wanting them to know they can trust me while simultaneously wishing the mattress would suck me up and swallow me whole. “So what now?” I whisper when they become silent.
Rogan’s gaze roams over my exposed skin, leaving a burning sensation in its wake as he considers my words. “Now, Hellcat? We bring him down, we destroy him, and we stop the investigation.”
The fact he called me ‘Hellcat’ gives me hope, but Maddox storms past him and gets in my face. “I should kill you for hurting my family, for betraying us.”
Panic starts in my belly again, but I just lie there with my eyes on him. “Do it, do whatever you need to, sir,” I agree. I won’t beg or plead. I’ve said my peace, and now it’s up to them. I hurt them, betrayed them, they have every right to kill me.
They are gangsters, after all.
I wait for my fate, they hold it in their hands. Maddox pulls his gun, and Ali and Rogan protest, but he ignores them as he presses it against my head. I don’t look away, staring into his black eyes, even as the barrel bites into my skin, making me wince.
“Do it, if you need to, sir,” I repeat.
I would gladly die here if that’s what they want, if that’s what it takes. I’ve fought so hard for so long to survive, so it was inevitable I’d end up here. Dying like my parents, dying to protect my family. To protectthem.
He snarls harder, dragging the barrel down my nose and pressing it to my mouth. “I should blow you away, kill you,” he threatens, but I see the agony in his eyes. Maddox trusted me, he let me in, he let himself feel again.
I broke his heart.
A tear drips down my cheek, and he moves the gun into the path of the salty liquid to capture my pain. “I’m sorry, I never wanted to hurt you. I had no choice. Yet I still choose you, I always will.” I close my eyes to make it easier for him and wait. My heart hammers and my body shakes, but my soul is finally at peace.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper through the tears, the guilt almost suffocating.
A moment later, the gun is removed, and I open my eyes to see him turning away and pressing his face to the wall. I look from him to Rogan to Ali.
“I’m sorry,” I whisper. “I am. I just wanted to protect my brother.”
“We can understand that, even if we don’t appreciate the way you went about it. We can’t change the past, but at least we know now.” Rogan sighs, scrubbing his face.
I wilt. Is that their way of saying they won’t kill me? No one speaks, so I open my mouth to change the subject, wanting to know what happens next. Not just to me, but to everyone, now that the truth is out in the open.
“You’re going to stop him,” I begin, shaking from emotional whiplash, but I feel better than I have all week. I feel free, and the lies no longer bind me, so I can look into their eyes without feeling guilty. Okay, not as guilty. I still feel horrible about everything. “What about me?”
“What about you? You are either with us or against us,” Maddox snaps.
“It’s time to pick a side, kitten,” Alistair adds, and in his eyes, there’s hope. Hope I’ll pick them, even if he’s still hurting, but I know if he can forgive me, we can make this right.
I can make this right. I can make my gangsters forgive me.
“With you, always,” I reply immediately, emphatically, letting them hear the truth.
It helps, I see it in their eyes. Their resolve strengthens, and their anger dims. They still hurt, but observing the genuineness in my gaze and hearing it in my voice settles them.
“Good, but now that the matter is settled, we still have business to attend to.” Rogan grins and nods at Maddox, who darts his dark eyes to me.
“She still needs to be punished,” Maddox declares.
Punished?
Oh shit.
