Page 105 of Cruel Lies

"Maybe next time, don’t raise us with a future mark for a sibling."

Nash snorted at Angel’s quip, and I had to hand it to him—that one was good. Father’s face curled into a moue of disapproval as I chuckled along with my eldest brother.

He didn’t stay down long, though, his eyes piercing Angel straight through as he delivered a zinger of his own. "Typically, boys don’t grow up wanting tofucktheir sisters. Can’t say the same for you lot, though, can I?"

He’d managed to silence the three of us in one go, one single insult that nailed the trio of us to the damned cross we’d been dragging for years.

We couldn’t say anything back. Couldn’t deny what was oh-so-obvious. Couldn’t excuse it. All we could do was swallow our pride and wait for him to decide what else he wanted to say.

"I thought that might get your attention." He snapped his fingers and two men jumped at once, moving to his sides with guns drawn. The rest of the room was obviously armed as well, and this was a move to show us we didn’t stand a chance if we thought we could kill him bare-handed like we were.

"What the hell do you want from us? I know it wasn’t just to gloat."

His eyes shot to Nash now, and that cheeky grin of satisfaction turned into a twisted frown of disgust. "Oh, my, so the freakdoesknow how to speak for himself still. I wasn’t sure if those scars affected your ability to make words."

Nash’s hand balled into a fist, but seconds before I assumed I’d have to pull him away from Father to avoid getting shot, he backed down, growling like a beast who was at the end of his chain and just waiting for someone to get close enough to bite.

Father’s phone rang, and he glanced at it before picking up. A single nod, a‘good’spoken into the receiver, and he hung up, his eyes never leaving us.

"I assume you’d all like to know why you’re here. Well, let me explain."

We watched him stand like immobilized hawks, tracking his every movement as he walked around his desk and motioned for us to take a seat. When we all refused, he shrugged and continued circling us, playing his little game as bodyguards one and two trailed just inches behind.

"Last time I invited your brother Rowan here, I told him he’d regret it, as would you, if he didn’t complete that contract. But apparently, he doesn’t take me seriously. None of you do. So I brought you here to show you that no matter what game you think you’re playing with me, I will always win."

His meaty, liver-spotted fist came down on the coffee table as he took his preferred seat before us, fitting right into the gnarled, worn-out leather throne he’d sat in so many years now that it had a permanent imprint in the cushion of his round, arrogant ass.

"I know you don’t think I can hurt you. You don’t think there’s anything I could do now that you’ve foiled my plans to get that bitch’s money. But this was all a test, boys. And you failed. So, to punish you for your utter disloyalty, I’ve decided to take the one thing that matters to you and destroy it."

I knew what he meant the second he stopped speaking. Somewhere along the line, he’d figured out our combined weakness was a greater threat than individual ones. He realized that striking one target and wounding all three of us would be easierthan waving vague threats over our heads one by one, forcing us to play our desires against each other.

I’d been so blinded by my mental breakdown and intense questioning of myself that I didn’t realize he’d subverted all my best-laid plans. My heart stopped beating, and for a moment, I thought I might die.

And then I flipped my phone open and made a phone call I wasn’t sure I wanted answered.

When someone picked up on the other end, I lost all my calm, controlled demeanor, and the whole room was witness to my fear.

I knew the others knew, too. Their expressions matched my own.

"Sport? Sport, I?—"

"Sorry," the man on the other end of the phone said with a slight chuckle in his voice. "Sport’s dead. He crossed the wrong people, and we had to take him out." His laugh was more pronounced now, and I felt like I recognized that voice from somewhere, but I couldn’t quite place it with my mind in pieces. "But don’t worry. We’ll takegood careof Miss Daniels for you."

The line went dead, and with it, all the hope I had clung to since she left the safety of the asylum.

I turned on my father, everything in me urging me to leave, though all I wanted to do was wrap my bare hands around his neck and strangle him until there was no more breath in his lungs.

"If you hurt her?—"

"Oh, I think we’re past that, son. I daresay she’s probably bleeding out in front of that stupid mechanic shop where she works by now. But if you hurry, you might get to tell her goodbye."

As the three of us rushed from the house, his parting shot echoed behind us, a reminder of the damage we’d done by not standing up to the man who ruined lives sooner.

"If I can’t have what I want, neither can you."

FORTY-FOUR

HARPER

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