Page 72 of Bossy Ex's Brother

I stared at him blankly as the words pounded in my ears. Blood started rising, and a part of me wanted to kill Brandon. A huge part of me.

But I didn’t have time to waste confronting him. If I killed him, he wouldn’t be able to explain what he said, and I wouldn’t be able to fix it.

“What did you say?” I demanded.

He swallowed, his face lined with regret. “I’m so sorry, man,” he started. “She made me think she already knew—”

“What the fuck did you say, Brandon?” I repeated.

He winced. And then, as he relayed the story, the pounding I felt turned into a full-blown screaming in my ears.

I immediately turned around and walked out of the club.

My motorcycle was sitting pretty in the parking lot where I had left it, and I hastily hopped on it before hightailing as fast as I could to Jane’s house.

As the wind slapped my face, I tried not to think of the worst-case scenario. I tried to look at it positively. I knew she would find out eventually. Actually, given my reputation on the streets, I didn’t understand how I kept it from her for this long. I meant to explain it to her eventually—probably after I bound her legally to me—but to hear it from someone else…She must be thinking the worst.

It is the worst,a sardonic voice mocked.You’re the head of a crime syndicate. How much worse can it get?

I was going to tell her everything, I decided, about how I got into it in the first place and the fact that I wanted to get out. If she asked, I would give her every dirty detail and bare my soul open for her.

The only thing I wasn’t doing was letting her go.

I couldn’t do that one. She was mine from now till thy kingdom come. She’d bulldozed her way into my life and taken over, making me obsessed with her. There was no way I was letting her go now.

I love her.

I would do whatever it took to save this thing between us because I wasn’t letting her go.

When I got to her home, I began by ringing the doorbell like a madman. No one answered. I was getting twitchy and ready to pick her lock or something when Emmett pulled open the door, looking surprised to see me there.

“Hey, Luca,” he said. “My sister’s not here. Are you here to babysit?”

“Where is she?” I asked. When she left, I figured that she was heading home to pack her bags and maybe flee out of town. Butshe wouldn’t leave her siblings behind, not even to save her life. I knew that much.

“She’s with Felix,” he said. “I think they went to find Bethany because that was what Felix said.”

I frowned. “Is Bethany missing?”

Emmett shrugged. “She was supposed to come home hours ago to watch us, but she never made it back. But that’s Beth for you. Sometimes, she just doesn’t show up at places where she’s supposed to be.”

Yeah, I knew all about that. And I’d had a long talk with the girl about it and believed that it would be solved. I didn’t know she would be back to her shenanigans so soon.

“Any idea where they went?” I asked, and Emmett shook his head.

I turned around to leave when I saw something familiar coming down the street.

Someonefamiliar, walking up slowly and holding his side gingerly like he was in pain.

It was Felix.

“Felix.” I strode toward him. He froze in step as I did, and his eyes widened in alarm. He looked like he wanted to run away, but he didn’t quite have the energy.

He knew, too, about me being in the mob. He likely knew before Jane did, and maybe he was the one to tell her.

I couldn’t be mad at the kid for trying to protect his sister. “Where is she?”

Felix hesitated, and I sighed. “Look, I’m not going to hurt her, okay? I don’t want to involve her in any of this bullshit. I just want to talk to her.”

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