Page 8 of Ruthless

“No way. That’s a mistake.” Every muscle in my body tightens the longer I stare at Isaac’s picture. As a flash of heat spreads across my chest, a knot coils in my stomach. I puff out my chest and glare at my older brother. My fingers tingle with the urge to punch a hole in the nearest wall. “Ithasto be a fucking mistake.”

Asher isn’t surprised by my reaction. I think he planned for it, hence why we’re hiding out in his living room away from the girls. “There’s no mistake. That’s our next job.”

I don’t back down as I hold Asher’s stare. “The guy was in my unit for years. You walk through hell with someone, and you know exactly who they are. I’m telling you, there’s no way he’s selling us out. He went through the same bullshit as me. He’s a good man and an even better soldier. The last thing he would ever do is turn his back on our country and start feeding intel to the enemy.”

“You know how this works, man. It doesn’t matter what we think, only what they can prove. They want him brought in, and if it isn’t us, it’ll be somebody else. Somebody who doesn’t care who he is.” Asher’s direct and to the point, as always. “What I want to know is will you be able to handle it when the time comes to do the job and bring him in? Or will we have to leave you behind?”

My gaze shifts from him to Axel, not liking any of this one fucking bit, but I don’t have any other choice. At least if I’m there, I can control some of the situation to keep it from turning into a shit show. “When do we leave?”

“A few days. A week max. We need time to plan the job and bring him in without a fight. Like you said, he won’t come quietly. The more intel I can gather, the smoother it will all go. I hacked into his bank account, but there are no large deposits that would raise any red flags. Tonight, I’m gonna hack the feed on the cameras around his house and the places he frequents to nail down his routine and find our window of opportunity.” Asher shifts Lily higher in his arms and jerks his chin toward my little brother.

Axel hands me another folder that’s much thicker than the previous one. This time there’s nothing but a bunch of photos inside. Some are of a beach house, and the rest are of Isaac and a woman. The couple is shown at a restaurant, a club, and walking along the shore while holding hands.

“These were taken the other day in Key West. Your boy’s been living it up down there with that hot piece.” His chin dips to the photos I’m holding.

“Where the hell is he getting all of this money?” I toss the envelope on the counter as my mind struggles to connect the dots.

“That’s the million-dollar question, isn’t it, brother? As far as anyone else can tell, he’s living on his disability.” Asher tilts his head to the side and cocks an eyebrow at me.

I play with the tip of my beard as I absorb all of this. This keeps getting worse with the more information they shove at me. With all this evidence stacked against him, it’s impossible to deny what’s right in front of me. My gut tells me there’s more to it, and we’re missing a bigger piece of this puzzle.

Lily fusses in Asher’s arms, signaling she’s as done with this bullshit of a conversation as I am. He attempts to bounce her, but it only makes things worse. Her cries become louder as tears spill down her cheeks and her tiny face turns red.

“I’m out. I need to find Charlee.” Asher pushes off the counter and heads for the front door but stops halfway to face me again with one hand rubbing over Lily’s back. His eyes dart to the floor before coming back up to me, and the pain I see there is one I haven’t seen in two years since he was released from prison and found Charlee. “I am happy for you, brother. Just be smart about it is all I’m saying.” He jerks his chin my way before disappearing out the door, leaving me wondering if I just imagined it.

“You ready for all of that?” Axel cocks his head in the direction Asher just left as he leans against the counter next to me and crosses his arms across his chest.

“Ready for what?” I know he’s got a point to this conversation, but my brain is preoccupied with other shit right now, so he’ll need to spell it out for me.

“You know.” He shrugs and kicks at a spot on the wooden floor. “Changing diapers and all the other shit that comes with it?”

I let his words sink in and, for the first time, voice what I’ve been thinking since I found out Kennedy was pregnant. “No, I’m not. But, it doesn’t matter. It’s done, and ready or not, I’ll deal with it.”

“You’ll deal with it?” He arches an eyebrow as the corners of his eyes crease. “You realize we’re talking about your kid, who will probably scream and make noise? It’s not some puppy that you can return and say sorry it didn’t work out.”

“I know that, dickhead.” I rub the tips of my fingers together and focus on my breathing. It almost pisses me off how well my little brother knows me, but I’m not gonna give his concerns any credit. That’ll make it real, and I’m not ready to face it.

“Just checking, big brother.” Axel punches me in the shoulder as his face loses all humor. “In all seriousness, you know that we have your back—with everything?”

“Yeah, man. I do, and thanks.”

I knew my brothers would come around to all of this eventually, but hearing them both say it settles down the small part of me that wasn’t so sure.

He nods and rubs his thumb along his bottom lip. That’s his biggest tell that he’s about to say something I’m not gonna like. “And at some point, you’ll need to fill Ash in onallof it.”

“He knows enough.” There’s no doubt that my brother used his computer skills to hack into my file and find out what he could about my past. Most of it will be blacked out, but there’s just enough to give him a slight clue what happened.

“Be better if he heard it all from you and not have to search for it behind your back. Besides, you and I both know that he won’t find any of the important details by searching. It has to come from you.”

“He has enough going on. He doesn’t need to add any of my past shit onto his plate.”

The last thing I want to do is burden my brother with my demons. Asher harbors enough guilt about being locked up and refusing to let us visit him in prison. No good will come from sharing things he had no control over. That shit is gonna stay dead and buried where it belongs.

“I just think he’d get his head out of his ass more if he knew everything.” Axel presses his point. But I’m not ready and not sure I want my brother to know that about me.

“Get off my back, Ax,” I snap at him as the veins in my neck throb. The thought of Asher looking at me like the piece of shit I feel I am most days is enough to push me over the edge. He’d never let me around Lily ever again. “You only know what happened because the hospital called you, and I was too drugged out of my mind to keep my mouth shut.”

“I know that, but Z—” He shakes his head at me.

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