Page 100 of Devilish Ink

“I didn’t know he was your brother at first,” I said, seizing upon his stunned silence. “I don’t know if things would be different if I had. But I do know that I can’t change how I feel about him now. This isn’t just some fling. He isn’t just some fuck. And neither am I. He loves me, too.”

Rian just stared at me. His voice was hollow as he said, “And that’s supposed to be better?”

“It’s the truth.”

Rian stared at me like I was a stranger. Like he didn’t know me. Like he’d never known me.

“You could love a man like that overme?” he asked, his voice seeming to shrink. As if he were already getting farther and farther away from me. “Knowing who he is? What he let happen to me? You couldlovea monster?”

“Rian, you don’t know everything,” I said. He just needed to know the truth. If he did, then maybe there was a chance at burying this bitter seed. “I want to explain.”

“Explain?” Rian said, high-pitched and strained. “Explain, Ry? I was fuckingthere.”

“You don’t know it all though,” I tried.

Liam had wanted to be the one to tell him. But I had to be the one. And hope he’d forgive me for spilling his secrets.

Rian had to know. I had to make him see. Once he understood, it’d all be okay.

“You don’t know what your father said to Liam. What he—”

“‘Da told me he’d kill you if I intervened’,” he said in a mocking voice. “‘Da told me I was saving you by standing by and watching you get bruised and bloodied. Da promised if I brought you a blanket in the barn, he’d leave you out there till youreallydied this time.’”

It was my turn to be stunned. “Liam talked to you?”

“Clearly he talked to you too, Ry,” Rian spat out. “But you seemed to have fallen for it a bit more than I did.”

“Rian—”

“Unless…” He started breathing heavily once more. “Unless you helped him come up with it. This tidy little tale. This oh, so convenient lie. Did you two put your heads together last night? Did you convince yourself this was your best shot at brushing a lifetime of pain under the rug? Did you fuck to celebrate your brilliant fucking story, Ry?”

He was screaming again. I stood there, cold down to the marrow of my bones.

Liam had told him. And it didn’t make any difference.

“You—you didn’t believe him?” I muttered.

I don’t know whether Rian heard me or not. It didn’t seem like it would have made much of a difference either way. He was back under the control of blind rage. Not hearing reason. Not seeing me or anyone else. Not feeling anything but pulsing, throbbing heat.

Liam was right. His brother didn’t believe him.

“All the times I was there for you,” Rian ranted, storming back and forth in front of the fireplace. “All the times I had your back. And all you had to do was say no to one dick. One fucking dick, Ry!”

“You should have believed him,” I said, suddenly so nauseous I couldn’t care whether my voice got to him or not.

“I was always there for you,” Rian continued to shout. “Always fucking there for you and you dothisto me!”

Not always.

With another growl, Rian looked away. His head fell. Chin to chest. His breathing remained ragged. Enraged.

“It’s me or him,” he said so softly I could hardly hear him.

I clutched at my chest as my heart felt like it was seizing. “What?”

Rian kept his gaze fixed on the floor as he said, no more loudly than before, “It’s you and me, Ry…or it’s you and him. I won’t stick around if you choose my brother.”

His words were like a knife to my stomach.

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