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My shoulders straightened. “I can find them.”
He nodded. “I’m with you, brother. I won’t let you take this on alone.”
My chin jerked. “You carryin’?”
Ronan stared back at me. “I am.”
A wail from my girl. A whimper from Iris. They didn’t like the direction this was going.
“Callum, baby.” Now the tears were leaking down Wren’s perfect cheeks. “No, baby. Stay with me. I need you. You don’t have to help them, I understand, but don’t go. Please don’t go.”
I was already gone. In my head, I was ripping my brother limb from limb. My sister…well, my sister would be taken care of too. This would not stand. No one should dare lay their hands on my little bird. Since they did, they were going to wish they never had.
I strode through the apartment, grabbing my keys and phone. Ronan held Wren back, but through my haze, I saw her struggling against him. Pleading, begging, crying for me. She didn’t understand this part of me. The side of me that grew up rough and raw, with criminals and the lowest of the low. Justice would be served, and it wouldn’t be throughproper channels. Rascal and Chrysanthemum were going to receive a clear message that what they did today was unacceptable.
Wren threw herself at me, and I yanked her into my arms, holding her tight. “I know you don’t want me to go, but, Wren, I gotta do this. It’s in my blood to do this.”
She gripped my shirt as best she could with her cast. “Don’t do anything that’ll keep you from coming back to me. If you do, I’m not writing you letters in prison.”
I dipped down, getting in her face. “I’m not goin’ to prison, but we both know that’s not true anyway. You forgave me for stalkin’ you. You’ll forgive me for protecting you how I need to.” I kissed her hard, wet, as deep as she’d let me. “I’m comin’ back, Little Bird. Wait here for me. I need to know you’ll be here for me.”
She let out a tearful, pitiful mewl, but she promised she’d wait. That was all I needed. I could walk away, take care of the business that had to be taken care of, knowing I’d be coming back to my girl.
Ronan’s driver, Bill, took us to a Walmart parking lot in New Jersey. The beat-up RV was parked crooked at the edge of the lot. As soon as we pulled up, Rasc lumbered out the door, crossing his arms over his chest. He’d been expecting me. Had texted me their location himself. He knew what was coming.
I was out, moving toward him with a crowbar in my hand. “You touch my girl?”
He held his hands up. “It’s not like that, Cal. We ain’t hurt that girl. Just needed to talk.”
“You touched my girl. Youhurtmy fucking girl.” The crowbar connected to the side of the RV, and it crumpled like the tin can it was. “Tell me why I shouldn’t do that to your fucking head, Rasc. Tell me!” I pounded into the RV again, unleashing my rage there first. If I started on Rascal, he wouldn’t walk away.
“Jesus, Cal. What the hell?” He took a step back. “You gonna hit your own brother?”
“Yeah, you fuck.” I dropped the crowbar and charged him. My brother was a big motherfucker, but I was beyond my body’s limitations. Rage and righteous indignation powered my limbs, and I took him down to the pavement. Rasc had had some of the same training I’d had when we were kids, but he’d gotten soft and slow. My fist powered into his cheek, and his arms were seconds too late to block it. His head shot to the side, spittle flying out.
Commotion in the form of Chrys went on behind me, but I was laser focused on the asshole who’d once been as close to me as another human could be. I’d held on to that, even after they’d burned the bridge between us. This was me letting go. The last of my connection to my siblings disintegrated into a bloody mist as I pounded my fury into Rascal’s flesh.
“What the fuck were you thinkin’?” I screamed in his wounded, leaking face. “That’s my woman! You know you don’t touch other men’s women. You know this, Rascal!”
He’d finally gotten his arms up to protect his face, but I was straddling him, legs locked around his waist, raining blows wherever I could reach. He wasn’t fighting back because he knew. He fucking knew he’d done wrong and there was no defending it.
He was bloody, swelling, limp, but breathing and conscious when I hopped off him. He stayed down, right where I wanted him. I could have killed him. I had it in me. But that would take me away from my little bird, and that was not an option.
Bill had my back, and Ronan was containing a snarling, snapping Chrysanthemum. Gone was the sweet, good girl she’d been growing up. A hard life had whittled her down to an angry, rotten core.
“I always knew you were crazy, Cal! Look at you, no amount of money’s gonna make you normal.” Ronan held her by the waist, and still she tried to get to me. I knew my sister well enough to know she’d claw my face to shreds if she could. She’d rake her claws over the world before admitting she was wrong.
“I might be crazy, Chrys, but at least I’m not you.” I took her face in my hand, smushing her cheeks. “You broke her wrist. You shoved her out of this worn-down vehicle like a piece of trash when you were done with her.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I didn’t push her.”
Ronan jerked her hard. “You did, girl. Saw it with my own eyes. That sweet woman of Callum’s tried defending you, but there’s no defense against what you did. You fucked up, love. No comin’ back from this.”
She tried to slam her head backward, but Ronan easily dodged her attempt. “Fuck both of you. I’ll go to the press. I’ll tell them everything about how we grew up. Tell them my brother is mentally ill. You’re not stone cold, you're crazy.”
I tilted her head back and forth, examining this monster that bore my sister’s face. She hadn’t always been so damned hard, but life hadn’t been kind to Chrys. She hadn’t done much to help herself either.
“You’re not gonna tell anyone.” She hissed, but she didn’t deny it. “You’re a Traveling Rose as much as I am. That shit doesn’t fade. We don’t tell our secrets. We don’t go to the cops.”
