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He looked down at it like he hadn’t noticed it before. Yanking his jacket off, he wrapped it around his busted knuckles and pulled his keys out with his other hand. “This washer. Knight will prove it.”
I got in my truck and drove home in silence, going through a thousand scenarios in my head. No matter what, the ending was always the same. There was no Aggie. If she was a spy, she was gone, and for good reason. If she wasn’t a spy, she was gone, because of our actions and words. And she’d be gone for good reason, if I was being honest. What we’d done to her wasn’t anything I’d ever be proud of. No matter what Knight’s proof was.
Sick of my thoughts, I turned the radio on and was immediately blasted with sad country songs about lost love. Punching the power button, I turned it back off and rolled my windows down.
Pulling through the gate at the house, I struggled not to think about Aggie being thrown out of the house. I drove up to the main house and didn’t even get to park before I saw the next problem of the day. I opened my door and could hear Jamie shouting at Knight and Zander from a football field away.
“Pull it up on your fucking security system and watch it. It’s the least you could do. Watch what you put her through.” Jamie spotted me and he came at me, chef’s hat in hand. “You! I thought you were better than these two, at least, with your cowboy hat andma’ambullshit. You’re just as fucked up as your brothers. You all deserve each other. Growing old together in this fucking tomb of a house and dying with no one around that you haven’t paid to be there. Fuck all three of you. I quit.”
I stood stock still, staring after a man I’d known for years after having him rip me a new one. I looked over at Knight and Zander and blew out a deep sigh. The sound of Jamie burning rubber as he left would’ve been the icing on the cake if the front door of the house hadn’t opened at the exact moment, with Olivia hurrying out with her bags.
She took one look at us and held up her hands. “I’m sorry, but I can’t work with that child. She hasn’t stopped screaming since you tossed out the last nanny.”
I lifted my hand in a slow wave as she raced out of the driveway after Jamie. Something snapped in my head and I started laughing. The whole thing was so fucked up that I didn’t know what else to do. “Let’s go see if anyone else wants to quit, I guess.”
Zander thrust his hands in his hair and groaned. “She did it. We’re right. Maybe it was harsh, but we were right.”
I kept laughing. “Doesn’t even matter, does it? She’s gone, we’re assholes, and everyone hates us.”
Gracie’s screams filled the house and we found her on the stairs, watching the front door. When she saw us, she wrapped her arms around herself and turned away. Her screaming at least quieted down a bit.
Mary hurried into the entryway and spotted us. Her worry instantly turned to anger. “Good. You’re home. I have a previous engagement to attend tonight.”
Knight groaned loudly. “Great! Good! Are you quitting, too?”
Narrowing her eyes at him, she walked closer and pointed her finger at each of us. “I have known you boys for a long time. I’ve known you as rowdy boys and then as troubled men, but I have never questioned your character before today. I’m so disappointed in each of you that it hurts. I’m no quitter, though. I’ll be back in the morning, but I don’t know what you’ll do for breakfast. Hopefully, eat crow.”
I walked over and sat next to Gracie on the stairs. When I held my hand out to her, she shoved it away and scooted away from me. I nodded to myself, because why not add my niece hating me to the top of the shit pile?
“Gracie, can we talk?” Zander came closer and knelt in front of her. “I want-”
“I hate you! I hate all of you! I wish Mommy and Daddy were here! I don’t want to live with you anymore! I want to go with Aggie!” Gracie stood up and raced up the stairs, leaving the three of us gutted.
Zander sank down next to me and dropped his head between his knees. “Fuck.”
Knight sat on the other side of Zander and slumped against the railing. “I think I hate us, too.”
43
***Zander***
Mybrainrevoltedatwhat I was looking at, sending mixed signals to rage and run at the same time. Playing across Knight’s computer screen was the security footage of our security team removing Aggie. They’d been rough with her. I knew from our time together how much her body could take before it bruised and I knew that she probably had hand shaped bruises on her arms. I’d requested it. I’d made the call that led to those bruises, bruises not left from desperation for her during sex, but during violence.
“Turn it off.” I jerkily turned away. “Just turn it the fuck off, Knight.”
“Jamie should’ve hit us.” Knight shut his laptop and swore. “I want those guys fired. I want Olivia reported to her company. Most of all, I want our asses kicked.”
“Did you find anything?” I already knew. Deep down, I knew he wouldn’t find evidence of Aggie’s betrayal.
“No.”
Kyrin laughed as he stood up and tossed his hat down on the table. “So, tell me, brothers. Did we get played by Aggie? Or did we get played by Monroe Blake?”
My headache was becoming a migraine. “I don’t know.”
“Someone tried to hack the system. Someone gave that information to Blake.” Knight rubbed the back of his neck and groaned. “It was either Aggie or someone in our office, someone on the inside. There’s no way to get what Blake got without an inside connection. Someone would’ve had to connect on the executive floor.”
“Would Aggie have had the time to get that information while performing that test?” I swore as my phone vibrated in my pocket and pulled it out. “It’s security. Yeah?”
