Page 96 of Beast: Part Two

“We got you,” Hawk says. “You and our brother. No matter what. We got you.”

“Forever,” Lucien adds.

We held Albany just like that until she was able to stand on her own. I don’t know how much time passed. But by the time we climbed back in those SUV’s I was determined to set things right.

chapter Twenty-five

Plans

Beast

We’d been back at the ghost house a few hours after the funeral. Everyone was in their own space.

Summer was trying to keep Gabe occupied. He went into a shell after the funeral. Not even Emory and the dogs could get him to come out of it.

I was in the dining room sitting at the table staring at the wall. My mind was blank but full at the same time. I was trying to turn over in my head how I was going to leave and finish this fight alone.

“Plotting your escape?” Maksim asks, drawing my attention to him.

I had no idea he had walked in. He was leaning up against the doorframe with a water bottle in his hands.

“I’m not escaping.”

He shrugs before pushing away from the door. “Do you know I am only three months older than you?”

I don’t respond. Maksim and I have yet to talk about anything personal about ourselves. Not sure why he thinks it appropriate now.

“I never really felt close to my siblings. I loved them, but there was always a disconnect. The first time I spoke to you on the phone, I felt as if I was speaking to someone I’d known all my life. Do you want to know why?”

Leaning back in my chair, I run my hand down my face. “No.”

He laughs as he takes a seat across from me. “It’s because we are more alike than you know. I know I would’ve questioned myself if I had seen my father shot dead in front of me. I would have tried to figure out what I could have done differently. And in the end, I would’ve been so blinded by guilt that I wouldn’t be able to think straight. Might have even considered a suicide mission.”

Maksim’s eyes narrow at me. I clench my teeth together, not liking how well he just read my thoughts.

“Someone has to pay,” I grit out.

“And it better fucking not be you.”

I turn to the doorway to find Hawk, Lucien, Zel, and Many watching me. Looking away from them, I stare back at the wall.

“It’s my fault. I should have taken the shot. If I had, Priest would still be here. I don’t get to survive when he didn’t.”

“And so you’ll leave Gabe to feel like us?” Zel asks, walking further into the dining room. “That’s bullshit, Beast, and you know it.”

“I can’t look at them,” I say slamming my hand down on the table.

“Who?” Hawk asks.

“Albany and Charlie. I can’t face them knowing what I did?”

“And what did you do?”

We all turn to the sound of Albany’s voice. She hikes her brow at me.

“I’m not in the mood for a pity party, Beast. I’m going to say this one time and one time only: you did nothing wrong. You taking the shot at Corbyn or not wouldn’t have prevented that bitch from shooting Nathaniel. Before you even showed up at the function, that was the plan. They lured you and Nathaniel to that parking lot for that reason. It’s why he came back. It was a setup from the start.”

We all looked away, feeling guilty.

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