She didn’t move at the sound of my voice, and I stood from my crouched position, then walked over to her, my hand settling on the bare skin where her shoulder met her neck. She flinched away from me.
“Hey,” I said, my voice softer than it had been, my thumb brushing back and forth against her collarbone. “It’s just me. It’s okay. He’s out cold.”
Finally, her eyes met mine before they flitted down again to Frankie. She nodded then, swallowing and straightening her shoulders. “I’ll go get my stuff.”
She ascended the steps as I stood in shock at the complete one-eighty she’d done. I didn’t know what had finally gotten through to her—if the thought of more guys like Frankie coming had been the thing to finally snap her out of her defiance or what—but I wasn’t complaining.
While Evie was upstairs, I grabbed my phone and dialed Gage.
“What’s the status?” he answered without pleasantries.
“We’ve got a problem.”
There was a pause, then, “You didn’t get to her?”
“No, I did. But we have company. He slipped in about twenty minutes after I got here.”
“Who?”
I took a breath and blew it out slowly. “Frankie.”
Gage growled a string of curses. “I never should’ve let that fucker go.”
“You know if it hadn’t been him, Max would’ve sent someone else.”
“Why the hell is he back working this now? You said he was scarce after what went down with Madison in the cabin, right?”
“Yeah, I haven’t seen him for months. I was wondering what would bring him back, too. Why this?”
“We’ll have to look into it when you’re both to safety. For now, what do you need there?”
“He’s unconscious, so I’m going to need a pickup and a drop. I don’t want to use one of Evie’s cars to do it, and I just have my bike.”
“I can have someone to the house within half an hour. Just get the fuck out of there. Who knows if others are on their way.”
I glanced up as Evie came down the stairs, a small bag slung over her shoulder. She darted her eyes down to Frankie, then she lifted her gaze, her posture stiff as she walked straight toward me. Mask firmly back in place. Into the phone, I said, “We’re leaving now. Should be to you in a couple hours.”
“Good. See you then.”
I pocketed my phone, then looked at her. “Get what you need?”
She gave a single decisive nod. “Ready.”
Tilting my head toward the back door, I said, “Go wait for me. I’ll be there in a second.”
Narrowing her eyes, she studied me, the irritation pouring off her in waves. I was waiting for her to spew a string of curses my way, but instead she finally relented and walked toward the kitchen. I glanced around, finding an old envelope on the desk off to the side and grabbed it, ripping off a section of it. Uncapping a pen with my teeth, I quickly scribbled a note on the piece of paper, then stuffed it into Frankie’s pocket.
Telling them to try harder next time was akin to waving a red flag in front of a bull, but I was pissed, high on an adrenaline rush, and I wanted to give them the finger in whatever way I could. Sending one of Max’s guys back to him, unconscious, with a taunting note wasn’t quite as physical as I’d have liked my message to be, but it would have to suffice.
I walked over to Evie, putting my hand on the small of her back and leading her out the side door. She glanced back over her shoulder at Frankie. “You’re leaving him in there?”
Shaking my head, I said, “I’ve called for cleanup. He’ll be gone within the hour.”
I felt her body relax under my fingers still pressed against her back. That simple movement caused my mind to go all kinds of places it had absolutely no fucking business going, a film strip of memories flipping through my head from when Evie and I had been together. The first time I saw her, her attitude drawing me in as much as her looks had. Then the first job we ran together, when we’d both been so wound up after, we’d had our first kiss—our first way more than kiss—in a seedy alley, pressed against a harsh brick wall. I could still hear the breathy sounds she made when she was turned on, could still feel the clench of her fingers gripping my arm, urging me for more.
I could still remember the taste of her lips.
Clenching my jaw, I pushed the memories away and guided her down the driveway and around the corner to where I’d parked my bike.
Once we were close to it, she halted in her tracks, her eyes narrowing as she looked at it, then back at me. “I’m not sure how you thought you were going to drag me out of here unwillingly with this thing.” She inclined her head toward the motorcycle.
I pulled the small bag from her shoulder and stuck it in the luggage compartment before grabbing her helmet and holding it out to her. “Yeah, I might’ve been bluffing.”
She stared at my outstretched hand, at the helmet I wasn’t sure she remembered—the one that used to be hers—not moving an inch. Her arms were crossed against her chest, her foot tapping a frustrated rhythm on the sidewalk.
“Time’s a wastin’, baby.” And then I gave her the smile that used to get me out of anything with her—the kind of smile that I’d used more times than I could count when I’d gotten hotheaded and went off on someone because he’d looked at her wrong. She hadn’t had a whole lot of patience for that then, but one smile from me, and she’d melted.
She narrowed her eyes and clenched her jaw before snatching the helmet out of my grasp and putting it on. Quickly, she tied her hair back in a ponytail, producing a hair tie from whatever magical place girls kept them, then climbed on behind me. I tried not to think about what it felt like having her so close again, because I sure as shit didn’t want to get lost in the memories of what her body had felt like when a whole lot less clothes were involved. Even with my reluctance, I couldn’t help remembering what it used to feel like when she’d ride with me.
My first bike had been older, junkier—a pile of shit a buddy of mine had pulled out of the junkyard and miraculously gotten running—but it’d been mine, and Evie and I had ridden it around all over the city. This one was newer, sleeker, the product of working job after job for the past five years, but having her on the back felt exactly the same as it always had. Except she wasn’t as close as she’d always been. Before, she’d climb on and wrap her arms around me, her legs tight on the outside of mine and her chest pressed to my back. Now she held herself away, gripping the handle behind her seat, and there was no fucking way we were driving three hours like that.
Starting up the bike, I revved the engine, then turned my head and said over my shoulder, “Better hold on tight. Gonna be a fast ride.”
Chapter Six
The dark sky gave way to midnight blue, then it seemed like all at once it burst into a ball of fire, streaks of red and orange lighting up the sky as the asphalt disappeared under my tires. The weather, though warmer than usual for this time of year, was still biting as we flew down back roads to get to Gage’s place. After my words of caution, Evie had pressed herself up against me as I’d told her to, wrapping her arms around my waist and clutching me tightly. And she hadn’t moved since we’d left a couple hours ago.
But even with that distraction, I couldn’t stop my mind from churning, going over and over and over the last several hours. And as I did, anger and resentment grew within me with each mile we passed, building until it was nearly all I could think about. There was anger and resentment toward Evie and the lies she told … at the fact that while I’d been mourning her, she’d been off living a life of privilege.
But more than that, more than the anger I felt toward Evie, was this overwhelming fury I felt toward my brother. A fury that was burning up my insides. I didn’t have all the pieces to the puzzle yet, but from what I’d been able to fit together, it was clear he’d known about this—about Evie—for a while. The whole time? That, I wasn’t sure, but regardless, he’d known. He’d known and he’d kept it from me, kept his
mouth shut and gone about life as if nothing was unusual. As if the girl I used to love hadn’t been alive the whole fucking time.
I’d never before felt betrayed by him, had never had a reason to. My entire life, he’d had my back. He’d been the one to look out for me when we were younger, when our mother was strung out on whatever drug she could get her hands on. He’d been the one who’d taken care of me after she’d died, the one who’d started in with the crew in the first place, just so we could afford a roof over our heads and food on the table.
Never in a million fucking years did I think I’d have a reason to doubt him.
And now I did. Now I knew he’d betrayed me in the biggest way.
I’d memorized the directions Gage had given me, and soon Evie and I pulled up in front of a small brick apartment building. It sat only a few blocks from the campus Madison attended, situated in a neighborhood that was neither upscale nor run-down. Planting my feet on the ground, I turned off the engine of the bike, pulled off my helmet, then twisted to face the building, only one question on my mind …
How long had he known?
I helped Evie get off the bike, then headed up the walkway and into the building toward the apartment. She didn’t say a word as we stood in the hallway in front of the door marked 2C, as I stared at it for a moment before I finally knocked. Before my knuckles could connect with the wood a second time, the door pulled open, Gage on the other side. I hadn’t seen him in months, not since he’d left to follow Madison here. He looked pretty much the same as he always had, except that he’d let his hair grow out a bit. But his stare was still hard and penetrating like it’d always been, his jaw set as he looked from me to Evie, then behind us, taking stock. Always taking stock of the surroundings.
And that was when it hit me. Of course he’d known the whole time. He wouldn’t have had everything in place, everything ready for a retrieval like he had now if he hadn’t planned for exactly that. He’d known. All along, while I’d been grieving, while I’d gotten fully entrenched in the crew because of Evie’s death, he’d known.
His eyes locked with mine, and I saw everything I needed to in them.
Without thinking about it, without taking a second to consider what I was doing, I pulled my arm back and snapped it forward, my fist connecting with his jaw. Through the blood thrumming in my ears, I heard Evie gasp out my name.
Gage turned his head back to face me, his hand going up to rub his jaw as he stared at me. “You done?”
And that just pissed me off even more. Stepping over the threshold, I got right in his face, then shoved him hard. “Fuck no, I’m not done. I have five goddamn years of your lies to get redemption for.”
“Ry, you don’t—”
I didn’t let him finish before I threw another punch, this time my fist connecting with his stomach. He doubled over, letting out a soft grunt, then stood up straight once he’d caught his breath. His eyes met mine once again, his intention clear in the way his arms hung loosely at his sides, his hands unclenched. He wasn’t going to fight back? Fine. He didn’t have to. I had enough fight in me for the both of us.
I went at him again, letting my fists do all the talking. Over my heavy breaths and Gage’s grunts, I heard Evie in the background, trying to get me to stop, pleading with me, but I blocked it out as best as I could, focusing only on the anger and betrayal eating away at me. Anger and betrayal I felt at both of them, but Gage was the only one I could take it out on. The only way I could get this out of me.
I poured every bit of it into him, the years I’d gone thinking Evie was dead, all the paths I’d followed because of that one event—taking my place in the crew because I’d been so full of rage that I hadn’t been able to think straight. I’d been so full of contempt at unanswered justice that I’d wanted to do anything I could to keep these assholes off the streets. The assholes like the one who’d killed Evie.
The crew had been told it’d been a confrontation gone bad. That Evie had gone with them on the boat—the one the crew used as a scare tactic to get shady bastards to talk under the threat of dropping them into Lake Michigan miles upon miles from shore—and everything had gone to shit. Some accountant who was skimming from the top, stealing from Max, had grabbed one of the guys’ guns and shot Evie, multiple times. She’d fallen overboard. They’d never found her body.
Yet even without the body, I’d believed every bit I’d been fed, every morsel of the story because Gage had seemed to believe it, too. But above that, he’d had Evie’s locket. The locket I’d given her, the one she never took off. He had it, broken chain and all.
“Ry,” Gage said, ducking away from a swing. “Riley, Jesus Christ, chill the fuck out.”
“Fuck you.”
“I don’t want to have to fight you, but I will.”
“Then do it already!”
I took another swing, aiming for his kidney, but he dodged it, and then he started fighting back instead of just blocking my hits. His fist connected with my jaw, snapping my head back. His voice filled the space around us between the hits, telling me to stop, to calm down and listen. Both Evie and Madison were trying to break it up—I could hear them in the background, somewhere beyond the pulse thrumming through my ears—but I couldn’t think past the red haze clouding my vision.
I came at him again, but before my fist could connect with his flesh, Evie stepped between us, her eyes hard, her arms outstretched, separating us.
I halted my advance on Gage immediately, not wanting to accidentally hurt her. “Evie, get the fuck out of the way,” I said, wiping the back of my hand across my mouth. It came away wet and smeared with blood, but I still wasn’t done. I didn’t want to stop.
I couldn’t.
“No, I’m not going to get the fuck out of the way. I don’t take orders from you, remember?” She dropped her hand from in front of Gage and turned to me, shoving me hard in the chest. “You’re pissed, I get that. But you’re pissed at me, too. Quit using your brother as a punching bag when this is as much my fault as it is his.”
I clenched my jaw and stared at her, then looked over her shoulder at Gage. His lip was busted, a bruise already forming on his cheekbone, and even with proof of the damage I’d done, he didn’t look pissed at me. Not even then.
And yet I still had this rage, this regret thrumming through my veins, and I didn’t know how to get a handle on it.
I shook off the hand she had resting on my forearm and spun around, stalking out of the apartment and through the halls to the front door.
I needed some space.
Chapter Seven
EVIE
I watched as Riley stormed out the door, closing my eyes as it slammed shut behind him. Taking a deep breath, I tried to piece together the bits of information I knew from having been in contact with Ghost sporadically over the years, as well as what Riley had told me when he’d shown up at my house. All of it added up to one conclusion.
I spun around and stared at Ghost, shaking my head in disbelief. “You never told him?”
He crossed his arms and fixed me with a heavy stare. It was strange looking into his eyes—near replicas of Riley’s yet still so different. Ghost had always had a haunted look to his heavy gaze¸ one Riley’s had never been filled with. Even now, even after thinking I’d been dead this whole time, his didn’t carry the heaviness present in Ghost’s.
“Did he ever show up at your door?” he asked. “Thought that pretty much would’ve already answered the question for you.”
I blew out a breath, closing my eyes and pressing my fingers to my forehead. “Jesus, Ghost, no wonder he’s pissed. You’ve lied to him for five years!”
He uncrossed his arms, one dropping to his side while he held the other in front of him, his finger jabbed in my direction. “You’ve lied to him for five years. I’ve protected him. Do you have any idea what Max would do if he knew what kind of history you two had? If he’d known Riley had any kind of interest at all in this whole thing? I did what I did to kee
p him safe. No thanks to you.”
I furrowed my brow as I stared at him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
His jaw worked back and forth as he clenched his teeth, anger radiating from the set of his shoulders. Finally, he said, “Riley was only ever in the crew because you dragged him down with you.”
My eyes grew wide, my head pulling back in shock. “What? No, you were in the crew well before I was. Riley was there when I came in.”
“He was there, but did you ever see him running any jobs before you pulled him along on your first one?”
I opened my mouth to respond, then snapped it shut, because he was right. It was true that Riley had always been around, but he’d never done any jobs. He’d only been there because Ghost had been there. And then I’d come in and dragged him along to every single job I had, pulling him under with me.
I swallowed, asking quieter, “And after he was told I was dead? Why didn’t he go straight then? From the looks of it, he’s in deeper now than he ever was when I’d been there.”
Ghost took a deep breath, exhaling as a girl entered the room—the same one who’d come rushing in earlier while Riley and Ghost had been fighting. She was tall, her long brown hair swept back in a ponytail, a look of concern filling her eyes as she studied Ghost. Her arms were full of supplies—cotton balls, a bottle of hydrogen peroxide, some first-aid cream, and various other items. Ghost glanced at her, and without her even having to say a word, he followed her to the couch and sat down, relaxing patiently while she wiped a wet cloth over his cuts. I didn’t know who she was, hadn’t even gotten her name yet, but she obviously thought a lot of Ghost. And from the look he gave her as she cleaned him up, it was clear the feeling was mutual.
When she turned away to get a clean cloth, Ghost fixed his stare on me again and answered my earlier question. “He did it for retribution. He wanted justice for your death, and that was the only way he knew how to get it.”
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