AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’m so fucking pissed that even Sydney can’t break through. Nothing else matters except the fury coursing through me.
Except for the betrayal I should’ve known was coming. I should’ve seen a thousand miles away.
Sydney parts her lips as if about to speak, but I beat her to the punch—I shove the stupid purple notebook into her chest and confront her about what the hell she’s been up to.
“Care to explain?” I growl. “What the fuck is this, Singer? All this shit you’ve been writing down about us? So this mean you’re the traitor we’ve been looking for?”
Everybody stands as still and speechless as Sydney. Even Velma’s at a loss for words.
Sydney shudders in a deep breath and pulls her shoulders tight. “Mace—”
“Don’t fucking call me Mace right now. Don’t fucking call me Mace ever again,” I snarl in her face. “You better have an explanation for what the fuck this is, or so help me god, you’re in for a world of hurt.”
“I can… I can explain,” she says, speaking fast. “Mace… Mason, that’s my journal. I write down my thoughts—”
“Those thoughts include talking about how the Steel Kings have ruined your life and deserve to pay?” I interrupt. My hands clench into white-knuckled fists at my sides. I’m doing all I can to hold in the rage, but it’s about to bust free. “What are you doing here, Singer?! TELL ME!”
She flinches at my roar, then takes a precautionary step back. Her nerves change up her voice, making her sound timid and unlike herself. “I was here be-because I was hoping to find out about my father. He was…. he was…”
“SPIT IT OUT!”
“He was murdered!” she yells back. She juts out her chin and her eyes sharpen. “Pop was murdered, and I know the Kings had something to do with it!”
There it is.
Her confession. Her real motive. The reason she’s been here all along, fooling everybody.
Disgust mixes with the rage in my expression. I eye her head-to-toe like she repulses me, and she does. A scheming, backstabbing bitch wrapped up in a pretty package.
If she were a man, I’d have already knocked her out.
And worse.
I hadn’t wanted to believe it. Even after my suspicions and distrust of Sydney. When Sandie tossed the book at me, I had almost ignored it altogether. Sandie’s known to tell tall tales, and she’s irritating enough, I wanted her gone from my presence.
But the niggling feeling crept up on me. That it was worth a look. What I found inside was enough to send me speeding down a blackout tunnel of pure rage.
I step closer, right into the little space Sydney has left. My muscled chest bumps into her and forces her backward.
“Get in the fucking office,” I say in a low, dangerous rumble.
As tough as she tries to act, I smell the fear on her. She holds her head high, stays locked into my hard glare, then reveals her hand by glancing at the others. Nobody reacts; no one’s coming to save her. Everybody’s as shocked and disgusted as I am.
Accepting her fate, she nods, and turns to follow orders.
I track her every step of the way, like a predator closing in on its prey. We leave the stunned silence of the patio and move through the dark hall inside the saloon that leads to the office. It takes me a moment before I realize we’re being followed—Cash and Bush have come along.
“Get out,” I command.
“You need back up…” Cash says evenly. “To make sure you don’t do something you regret.”
“The only one with regret should be the bitch that double-crossed us.”
Cash throws a harsh look at Sydney. “I don’t disagree. But now’s not the time to act recklessly. We don’t know who she’s been in contact with.”
“Exactly what I plan on finding out.” I flip my pocketknife open, my cold eyes set on Sydney.
She wears her fear openly now, backed up against the desk, her body tense. Her chest heaves in rapid, startled breaths.
