Page 152 of The Thief
"I didn't love her. Not really. She was someone who was a friend, someone I cared about, someone I considered like family. She was available. But you? You were my friend. My brother. If you'd asked for help..."
"I couldn't risk it. I couldn't trust that you'd choose friendship over whatever you felt for her."
"So instead you chose betrayal over trust."
"I chose survival over sentiment."
"And look how that worked out for you."
Jason's quiet for a long moment, processing what I've told him. When he speaks, his voice is smaller, uncertain.
"You really would have helped?"
"Yeah. I would have."
"Even knowing it meant losing her?"
"Even knowing that. Because that's what family does. We help each other, even when it costs us something we want."
Tears mix with the blood on Jason's face. "Christ, Freddie. What have I done?"
"You've gotten good men killed. You've betrayed everything we stand for. You've chosen money over family."
"I chose love over loyalty."
"No," Maverick says, moving closer with the knife. "You chose revenge over reason. Ava's dead because her husband was a psychopath, not because we killed his father. Trace would have snapped eventually, with or without our help. Hell, the fucker faked his own death. Even his father thought he was dead. He’s a fucking psychopath."
"You don't know that."
"I know the man's been hospitalized three times for psychiatric episodes. I know he's completely disconnected from reality. And I know you've been enabling his delusions instead of seeing them for what they are."
Jason's face crumbles. "She was pregnant with my child."
"And Trace killed them both. Not us. Him."
"But if we hadn't?—"
"If, if, if. You can play that game forever. The fact is, Trace Harrington is a madman who murdered his pregnant wife. And you've been helping him plan the deaths of innocent people."
"They're not innocent."
"Henry's granddaughter is. She never did anything to you, she never hurt anyone you cared about. But you were willing to hand her over to be tortured and killed."
"I was following orders."
"Bullshit. You were choosing revenge over everything that ever mattered to you."
"Jer's dead because you gave Trace real-time intelligence about our meeting location," Maverick hisses.
Each accusation hits Jason like a physical blow. He's crying now, ugly sobs that echo off the warehouse walls.
"I never meant for Jer to die."
"But he did. Because of choices you made."
"I was trying to make them pay for what they did to Ava."
"What we did was nothing. What Trace did was murder his pregnant wife because he's a paranoid psychopath who can't tell reality from delusion."
