Page 71 of The Afterthought

"He texted me too. Apparently, we are to meet him in your torture shed. It must be something big because he sent everyone away from the garage. I got a text from Noah, one of the newer crew members. He said that Knox doesn't want anyone going anywhere near the property."

"Why would he do that? He's never kept anything hidden from the rest of the crew before."

"That's why I called you to make sure you were going in too. Something big must have gone down with the new buyers or something. I thought everything went smoothly, but maybe they had an issue with the product."

"That doesn't make any sense. I talked with Knox about it, and they were extremely impressed with how we handled things. They wanted to do another exchange sooner than we originally planned."

"I don't know, man. I can't think of anything else that would prompt this kind of reaction." He sighs.

"I guess we will find out when we get there."

"Can you swing by the house and pick me up? I let Wrenly use my car today."

"Yeah, be waiting outside. I'll be there in a few minutes. We need to get there as soon as possible to try and figure out what's going on," I tell him with a weary undertone. He hangs up before I can say another word.

I pull up to his house less than five minutes later. Just like I asked, he's waiting outside. His hair is pulled up into a high ponytail with a bow clipped on it. When he gets into the car, he looks over at me, trying to figure out why I'm staring at him.

"Did you forget something?" I try my best to keep a straight face.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"Have you not looked in a mirror today?" The urge to laugh in his face is too much. I feel bad, but the fact that he has no clue makes this even better.

He pulls the mirror down, and his hand immediately goes to his hair to pull the bow off. He doesn't say a word as he pushes open the door and disappears into the house for a minute. When he comes back out, he just looks at me.

"Are we going or not?" he questions.

"I mean, yeah. What was that about?"

"Wrenly thinks it's so damn cute to fuck with me when I sleep." He rolls his eyes as I put the car in drive. "To be fair, we've been in the middle of a prank war."

"Sometimes, I really wonder about you," I tell him.

When we pull up, it's completely empty, just like Kai said it would be. It's an odd sight. I don't ever remember a time when everyone was told to stay away before. Whatever is going on has to be serious.

We step out of the car and make our way around the back of the garage to where the shed sits in the trees. A strange feeling of danger settles in my gut. Something about this isn't right, but I ignore that feeling and pull open the door. Kai and I step inside and freeze in our tracks at the sight in front of us.

Directly in the center of the room is Knox, the head of the Crimson Rose, tied to a chair at gunpoint with tape over his mouth and a half-swollen face. Before we can even react, I look to my left and find a gun to my head. I glance to my right at Kai and notice there is a guy on his side with a gun to his head in the same manner. He can't be more than nineteen. It's Andrea's now ex-boyfriend. It all makes sense now. He was running with us and feeding the sheriff and Cobras information.

This little fucking snake has been with us for months. I do my best to recall when the drugs started going missing, and when our drops started getting hit. The timelines match up perfectly. He just signed his fucking death warrant.

I calmly survey the room, surprised that there aren't any other men here besides the three of them. I could probably take them all myself, but the gun Alec is holding to Knox's head gives me pause. A stupid fucking grin is spread wide across his face.

"The fuck do you think you're doing?" I say to him, narrowing my eyes.

"I'm doing what I should have done a long ass time ago." Alec gestures to one of the two chairs set up next to Knox. ”Sit down, brother. It's time for a little family reunion."

I cringe at his words. Alec is not, and will never be, my brother. "You don't have a right to call me that."

"The whore of a mother we both shared says differently. Now, sit the fuck down before I blow out his brains." The barrel of his gun pushes against Knox’s temple.

"Don't fucking talk about her like that. You didn't even know her!" Anger wells up in me.

His father is the reason our mother is dead. She had an affair with his father, got pregnant with Alec, and then begged our father to take her back. Alec’s father took him from her and raised him alone. He made sure he was raised to be cruel, cold, and calculated.

When our father got sick, our mother stopped in to see Alec and his father and magically had an overdose. The police ruled it accidental. No shock there, but we all know the truth.

Alec, Knox, and I may share a bloodline, but we will never fucking be family. Thankfully, in a twist of fate, Alec's father had his own overdose, which led to Alec taking over the Cobras.

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