“Wherever the fuck I want to be.”
“You’re fucking serious?” Sean asks, and I cut my gaze to him.
“You put everything I’ve worked for, that we’ve worked toward for fifteen years in jeopardy to get your dick wet. So, you tell me, Sean, am I serious?”
“That’s not—”
“You going to lecture me about love, Sean?” In a flash, we’re nose to nose, and I clench my fists tight, my nails digging into my skin to keep from striking my brother. “Because if that’s where you’re going with your line of thought, you don’t know the first fucking thing about it.”
“We do love her,” Dominic speaks up, and it’s like a kick in the chest.
“I don’t give a fuck,” I’m hollow. “Nothing matters to me right now, and you’re going to have to convince me to care again if you want to keep what we built because at this point, I really fucking don’t. I really,” my voice cracks, “I really fucking don’t care.”
“I know you’re hurt, man,” Sean says as I step away, his profile backlit by the headlights closing in as Tyler pulls up and jumps out of his truck, scanning the three of us before his stare lingers on me.
“You too? You too, Tyler?” I rasp out, my heart shredding as I look between the three of them. “After all we’ve been through?” I swallow again and again and slap away the weakness clouding my vision as I look on at Dom, whose eyes fill before he darts them away. “You fucking look at me!” He locks his gaze to mine. “This was for Maman and Papa, Dom. We were so close, brother. Why?” I croak as Dom expels a pained breath, his eyes spilling over.
Tyler steps toward me, and I shake my head, stopping him.
“Tell me, brothers, word for word, how you deceived me for three months. Tell me every single thing you did, every purposeful lie you told, every move you made to betray me this way, to keep me in the dark, and then,” I rasp out, “tell me how you love,” my voice cracks again as my eyes drift to Dom, “tell me you love me.”
Faltering, I cup my face, and Tyler grips my arm, ducking his head beneath it to keep me upright. Tossing my cigarette down, I lift my eyes to my brothers. “I suggest you tie up whatever lingering club business you have and do it quickly because the time doesn’t start until you touchdown in Paris. And don’t worry, I broke it to her gently that you won’t come calling anytime in the future, and if you so much as contact her, we’re done.”
“Tob—”
“I can’t even fucking look at you!” Dom gasps as I push past him and stumble forward. Tyler catches me as my mask slips fully while I bleed out in front of them. Needles thundering in my chest, Tyler manages to get me to the passenger door of his truck and hoists me inside, taking off just before I pass out.
For eight months after, I felt like an outsider in my own club, the only place that ever felt like home. For eight months, the remaining men whom I trusted, whom I loved like brothers, looked the other way when I walked by—disappointed in me, in my actions for sending Dom and Sean away, as if I were the one in the wrong.
And during those eight months, between checking on their welfare and progress in France and keeping close tabs while protecting the woman they deceived me with, I resisted temptation to try to uncover the mystery for myself in what they saw in her. A true to life Helen of Troy capable of breaking apart the kingdom I built with my bare hands.
For eight months, I closed in on her father, making my last moves to ensure the minute my brothers got off the plane, their final act to regain my trust was to aid in bringing Roman down.
I had absolutely no intention of ever laying eyes on her again. But when I could no longer handle being an outcast in the club I built, I went back to the place where it all began—to remember why we started it, to try and forgive them, make peace with their mistake and reclaim the place back as my own.