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We stepped into the kitchen, and the table was full. Levi at one end with Kye, Huck, Trinity on the far side. Trev, who I hadn’t seen here before, was on the other side with Blaise, Maddy, and a high chair with an adorable blond boy shoving blueberries in his mouth.
“We started without you. Levi refused to wait,” Trinity said apologetically.
“Yeah, because once they start fu—”
“Levi! Words,” Maddy interrupted him, and then she smiled up at me.
Levi shrugged. “Once theyyou know, it could be hours before they come out of that room.”
I looked up at Gage, unsure. Would he say anything? Or was this how it was done? Had this not been painful for him? He’d been lied to by someone he trusted. Even if it had been what Gage needed at the time.
“Well?” Blaise asked, turning to Gage.
“Like I said, she didn’t need to be tested,” Gage replied, then started to walk us toward the table.
I didn’t move.
“What are you talking about?” I demanded.
Gage turned back to me and tugged on my hand hard enough to pull me to him. “Loyalty, baby. He had to test your loyalty. You’re different now, but he needed to be positive.”
“Yeah, because once, we couldn’t trust you with shit,” Levi said, causing Gage to scowl at him.
I shook my head, more confused than ever. “Wait … what? He told me all that to see if I’d be loyal to the family?”
Gage nodded.
“I’m, uh, stating the obvious here, but I wasn’t loyal. I told you.”
Gage smirked as he nodded his head. “Yeah, you did. About tore my heart out, seeing you so upset though. That part I hadn’t been prepared for.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” I said, getting annoyed. “And if all of that was some made-up story …” I stopped talking, feeling my temper start to stir.
“It was the truth. All of it,” Gage assured me. “I wouldn’t fuck with your head like that, baby.”
“But you knew already, didn’t you?”
He nodded.
“And I told Blaise’s so-called secret, which means I was not loyal to him.”
Blaise cleared his throat and stood up. “Not exactly the way I see it,” he said. “Real loyalty requires love. We are bringing you in after a past that might make many members question our decision. You don’t love me.” He smirked. “Why would you be loyal to me? But if you loved Gage, then your loyalty would be strong enough. You proved it by being loyal to him, and Gageis family.”
I hadn’t looked at it that way. It was smart. A little complicated, but it made sense.
“I made the mistake once of lying to Madeline to protect her. In the end, I almost lost her. I wasn’t loyal to her, and it could have destroyed us both. But I came clean. Suffered through watching her fall apart over something I never wanted her to know.”
“And we lived happily ever after,” Maddy finished for him.
Staring up at Gage, I frowned. “How long have you known?”
“A week,” he replied.
“And you weren’t upset?”
There was male laughter from the table.
Gage shot them a scowl, then turned back to me. “Yes, baby, I was upset.”
