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My heart can’t afford to fall for that shit, so I head toward the exit, figuring it’s safe enough now that the place is surrounded by Reapers. One of them stops me though, telling me I’ve got to wait for Maddoc or his seconds.
I sigh, suddenly exhausted by the entire fucked-up roller coaster of a day. I lean against the door jam, trying to carefully blank my mind of everything I’ve just seen.
I shudder, then suck in a long, slow breath, desperately needing a distraction. Payton’s voice gives me one. The two guys who’d been with Troy’s body have already left, but I can still hear her back there, keeping her voice low—almost intimate-sounding—as she talks to Maddoc.
About me. And what the actual fuck? It sounds an awful lot like she’s trying to convince him that this whole twisted thing is somehowmyfault.
I clench my fists, reminding myself that it’s none of my fucking business. I’m not a Reaper. I’m not part of their organization, theirfamily. And this “partnership” Maddoc insisted on has an expiration date, so it doesn’t matter what he believes about me as long as he follows through on helping me find Chloe.
“I just don’t think it’s smart to trust her,” Payton is saying. “Not with her ties to McKenna. She could be working for West Point.”
My nails bite into my palms. There’s no way I’d ever work with those bastards.
“Riley doesn’t have ties to McKenna.”
I blink, startled by the sound of Logan’s voice. He states it in a dry, cold voice that’s nothing but factual. Not like he’s on my side, just like he’s setting her straight.
It still sends a bittersweet warmth through my chest, and I unfurl my fists and rub at the ache there.
“The fuck she doesn’t,” Payton snaps. “She stinks of it. Has from the minute you took her in. You should cut her loose before we all suffer for it.”
I didn’t ask for any of this. My only involvement with West Point is thanks to my father using Chloe to pay his debts to them. There’s no way that whatever they were trying to get out of Troy, whatever message they were trying to send to the Reapers, has anything to do with me. The Reapers were alreadyina gang war with them. Maddoc knows that. He has to.
But he sure as shit doesn’t say so. All he says to Payton is that he’ll take what she said under advisement, but whatever. It doesn’t hurt. It’s just another stone to stack in the wall.
I tune the rest of their conversation out, and eventually Payton leaves, the guys finish up, and we all head home. But the problem with ignoring them is that it leaves me with nothing else to distract me from replaying the sight of Troy’s tortured, dead body in my mind. Especially once we make it back to the house and they all scatter, each man having plenty of shit to do to deal with the fallout of what went down today.
It leaves me feeling a little lost, which makes me feel weak, which I fucking hate.
“Get it together, Riley,” I whisper under my breath
It doesn’t work. I’m still unsettled, and it’s not just due to the horrific images I can’t get out of my head. Troy’s death has driven home how dangerous all this shit is. Any one of us could die at any moment. Nothing is guaranteed. It seriously makes me wonder why anyone would even think about coming out from the safety of an emotional fortress.
I mentally retreat to mine, completely overloaded by this day, and head toward the stairs, but my steps slow without my permission when I hear Maddoc and Dante talking in low tones from down the hall.
I would have thought that dealing with the West Point attack would be their only priority right now, but instead, it sounds a hell of a lot like Maddoc is chewing Dante out about what happened between us in the bathroom earlier.
“You fucked her again.” Maddoc’s voice is low and angry. “After she fuckingshotme.”
I can’t make out Dante’s low reply, but Maddoc sounds even more pissed—maybe even a little hurt?—when he replies, “Yeah, well, I’m supposed to be your brother.”
“Youaremy brother. That’s how I know exactly why you didn’t end her after she pulled the trigger,” Dante replies, loud enough for me to hear this time and with some steel under the laid-back tone I’m used to hearing from him. “Quit pretending that you don’t like and respect her even more for having the balls to do it, because we both know that’s a lie.”
Maddoc makes a rude sound. “You think I like being shot?”
“I think you like the reason she shot you. I know how much loyalty means to you, and how rare it is to find the kind that refuses to break. Riley’s got that, and she’s one of the strongest, bravest people I’ve ever met. That’s the part you like, Madd. I know you see it in her too.”
“All I see is someone who can’t be trusted.”
Dante snorts. “Oh, you can trust our princess all right. Trust her to do exactly what she told us she would from day one—whatever it takes to look out for the people she loves.”
“Personshe loves,” Maddoc corrects him as my heart starts to pound in my chest. “For her sister. It’s why she’s here.”
There’s a long pause, and I have to lock my knees to keep from sneaking closer and peering around the corner to get a look at their faces. I’d bet anything that they’re having another one of those silent conversations with their eyes that only happens when, like Dante said earlier, two people know each other down to their souls.
After a minute, Dante speaks again. “Things can change. People come into our lives for one reason, but sometimes stay for another. Like the ones who start as enemies and end up brothers.”
He’s talking about the way he originally infiltrated the Reapers to betray them, but he’s also talking about more than that. It makes my chest tighten with emotions that threaten to break down that stone fortress I’ve been building up all day.
