Page 35 of Masked Darling

Jagger was beyond furious and his eyes narrowed as he glared at his younger brother. He was pacing now, the muscles in his arms and shoulders flexing under the taut fabric of his shirt. “Do not tell me you asked to join Green Light.”

“Yeah. I don’t have a choice, Jag.”

Jagger gripped his hair in his hands as he tried to calm down. “So, you just waltzed up to them at the Inn and asked like it was nothing? Do you understand how shady that is? They’ve probably already decided you’re up to something.Shit, kid. What were you thinking?”

“Madison isn’t like us. She’s too soft, too good. She’s not going to be able to get out of there by herself and I’m not going to let her rot in their hands.”

Jagger stopped pacing, a laugh that was more scathing than anything escaping his lips. He shook his head as he ran a hand through his dark hair. “So, what? You’re just going to join up, act like you belong, and what?Saveher?” The disbelief in his voice was sharp. “You think they’re going to let you walk out of there once you’ve crossed them? You’re making a huge mistake, Kade. This is going to get you—and her—killed.”

Kade’s lips pressed into a thin line, his anger kicking to get out beneath the surface. “You don’t get it, do you? This has been my whole life,big brother.” Kade sneered at him. “It’s been your whole life, too, which is why you decided to take these fuckers down in the first place. You know what they’re doing to these girls. I can’t not try and do whatever I can to limit the damage they are probably doingright this second.”

“You’re going to be playing right into their hands, Kade. This is exactly how they get what they want. And you’re falling for it.”

Brothers or not, this was getting out of hand.

Kade’s eyes hardened, the frustration in his chest tightening until he could barely breathe. “Don’t act like you didn’t start this whole mess in the first place. You’re the one who started trying to take down the gang and trap them. You know how dangerous this whole situation is, but you kept pushing me to do things I didn’t want to do. And now my girl is gone!”

Jagger’s face turned pale, his hands balling into fists at his sides. For a moment, everything stopped as they glared at one another. Some whooping and shouting turned their attention to the door for a moment before they heard the loud laugh of Sadie as she told someone to stop dancing on the stage. Jagger swallowed hard, and he took a deep breath before speakingquietly. So quietly that Kade thought he might not have heard him right.

“I thought... I thought I could handle it. But now I have to worry about you being on the wrong side and most likely getting killed? To get some girl back you slept with a few times? This is insane.”

Kade stepped around the desk and was on Jagger in a second, gripping him by the collar and slamming him into the door. His gaze locked on the older man, forcing him to meet his eyes as he seethed.

“She’s not just some girl. She’s the only girl that I’ve ever cared about. The only girl who cares about me. She has been there for me the entire time I’ve been back and I have to play their game if I want to get close enough to save her. If I don’t, I’m just going to lose her—and I won’t let that happen. They can do whatever they want to me, but not to her.”

Jagger was quiet for a long moment as Kade held him against the door. He knew he was right. And he knew Jagger knew it. This whole situation had been set into motion the moment they tried to take down the Green Light Gang. Now, there was no stopping it. Kade was in too deep, and Jagger was too tangled up in this mess to just let his brother go at it alone.

“What if it were Sadie?” Kade didn’t hesitate to throw it in his face. “What if I told you she’s just some girl.”

Jagger gripped Kade by the throat and in a moment their positions had changed. Jagger pinned Kade to the door, his other hand coming to meet the one on his neck. Kade gripped Jagger’s wrists as he moved his head back to get some air in his lungs.

“Exactly,” Kade choked out with a smug grin and a cough.

Jagger let go and immediately stepped back, shocked by his reaction. Kade was right. There wasn’t anything Jagger wouldn’tdo to keep Sadie safe. And if that’s what Madison was to Kade… they were going to do whatever needed to be done.

“So, do you have a plan? What is the next step?” Jagger finally asked and perched on the edge of his desk, one boot crossed over the other as he stared at the ground.

Kade stayed by the door, rubbing his throat for a few seconds before he answered.

“I got a letter left in the satchel of my bike this morning.”

“And?”

“And their leader has agreed to let me prove myself.”

Jagger looked up at him then. “Mont?”

“Yeah. You said you just met him?”

Jagger nodded. “Yeah, he’s the one I met with about hosting them here again the other day. He’s… unstable in the most volatile of ways, K. I’m serious.”

Kade shot Jagger a look that clearly showed that he knew that already.

“No, I mean it. It’s actually more fucked up than I thought.”

“How is that possible?”

Jagger pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath to gather his thoughts on how to drop another bomb. But his brother needed to know the extent of it.

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