Page 25 of Trouble

“Nah. You’re up early. Or is it late?” I walked to the coffee machine and poured myself amug.

“Mate, you’re sporting a black eye. There’s no way we’re going to pretend that’s not a thing. What the hell happened?” His lips quirked up at the corners. “Did one of your lady friends spot you out with someoneelse?”

I grimaced at the uncomfortable twang in my chest at the thought of Audrey. I determinedly pushed it away. “Some old biddy called me a delinquent and smacked me with her handbag.” I sipped the too-hot coffee and rested against the kitchen counter. “I had itcoming.”

Louis snorted with amusement. “I’m sure you did. Ah, what I wouldn’t have given to seethat.”

“Harsh.” I put my coffee-free hand to my chest in mock-hurt. “And you call yourself mybrother.”

My twin grinned, his eyes twinkling. “Where were you, anyway? New girl, or the little prude who made you limp earlier in theweek?”

“Samegirl.”

Something in my voice must have tipped him off, because his smile faded somewhat and his eyes narrowed. “What’s goingon?”

Bloody twin-bond. Sometimes it was really fucking inconvenient that lying to each other was nearly impossible. “Nothing’s going on. What about you? Hooked up with someone I should have a go at,too?”

I wasn’t expecting the twinge of disgust in my gut at uttering that question, and I hid my frown from Louis by taking another sip of coffee. Since when did the thought of fucking a bird Louis had pulled give me anything other than a mild thrill from knowing she’d never realize she was getting screwed by both ofus?

Fuckinghell.

Louis gave me a long look, and I knew he wasn’t buying my “nothing” claims, but he obviously decided against pushing me. For now. “Well, I figured one of us should probably get some rest before we try and get the Perkinson on board tomorrow, sono.”

I bit the inside of my cheek at the subject change. “We’re really doing this, aren’t we? Setting Dadup.”

“Yeah.” Louis dragged his fingers through his messy, ginger hair, and I knew the pained expression on his face perfectly mirrored my own. “We have to. None of us are safe as long as he’salive.”

“I know,” I said, pushing down the wave of sadness. We’d both felt the sting of William Steel’s leather belt growing up, but I knew our older brothers—especially Jeremy—had run interference, oftentimes taking a beating to save us. As a result, we hadn’t felt as much of his infamous violence on our own bodies as our brothers, and I knew we had a better relationship with our father than they did as a result. But any lingering sense of family bond to him had died when we learned what he’d done to Isaac andJeremy.

Everything for the Familywas the Steel motto, and we’d done so much terrible shit over the years to protect our father’s interests, up to and including killing men who’d betrayed the Family. Justifying it with unwavering loyalty to the Steel name. But it’d all been alie.

The man we called Father had murdered his eldest son and betrayed another, and in doing so, he’d killed any justification we’d clung to in order to do the work he expected of his sons. There was no more Steel Family—not as long as we let a monster ruleus.

12

Liam

“You must forgive me…I find myself mildly skeptical that the mighty William Steel’s favorite sons would waltz into my home and ask my help in assassinating their beloved father… I’m sure you understand.” Brian Perkinson, the patriarch of the Perkinson Family, steepled his fingers as he regarded Louis and I from the other side of his widedesk.

I managed to conceal my grimace with a smirk. We hadn’t exactly “waltzed in.” Getting into Perkinson’s estate for this meeting had been a fuckingMission Impossible-style endeavor, to make absolutely sure no one saw usentering.

“Our father’s reputed to be many things, butbeloved’snever been one of them,” Isaid.

He arched an eyebrow at me. “Perhaps not. But the Steels are quite famous for their motto…Everything for the Family,isn’t it? Now what could possibly have made you two forget that pretty littleproverb?”

Louis and I exchanged glances. It wasn’t easy, saying it out loud to someone outside of the Family. To someone who’d spent the past few months looking for a way to overthrow the Steel empire and likely kill all of us in theprocess.

“He had our brother murdered. Double-crossed another and let him rot in jail. None of us are liking the possibility that we might be next on that list.” Louis’ voice was quiet, but firm. “We still stand by our Family motto, Brian, do not think anything differently. It’s he who’s chosen anotherpath.”

Perkinson whistled low. “Well, I’ll be damned. So that’s what happened with Isaac? I did wonder why William seemed incapable of pulling the right strings to get him off with a slap on the wrist. And the murder…Marcus?”

“No,” Louissaid.

“Jeremy,” I continued, steeling myself against the gut-punch of pain talking about the loss of our oldest brother stilldelivered.

“He covered it up by telling everyone he’d left for the States to deal with some overseas business. Marcus fled the country to avoid a similar fate,” Louisfinished.

Perkinson leaned forward a bit. The interest was clear on his shrewd face. “And you have proof ofthis?”

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