Page 116 of Fortress of the Brave

His eyes are just as wide as ours.

“Cameron?” Fynn spits.

“Fuck you!” He’s bloodied and bruised from our assault and has blood running from his mouth and nose.

“You know this fucker?” Darko tugs his elbow a little rougher as he cries out.

Fucking pussy.

“Unfortunately.” Fynn grimaces.

I turn to Fynn. “What the fuck?”

He shakes his head and says, “Get him in the van. We’ll be right behind you.” Darko doesn’t move a muscle and Garrett cocks an eyebrow. “Now!”

Darko nods, and they haul his ass outta there, kicking and screaming.

When Darko’s had enough, we watch as he turns and puts his large, thick arm around Cameron’s neck to place him in a sleeper hold. That shuts him the fuck up.

When they’re gone, I turn to my brother. “Fynn?”

He starts to pace. “I know. I know.”

“Why is Cameron still fucking breathing? I thought you took care of things…years ago.”

The pain is starting to shoot down one side of my body as I hold pressure on the wound.

“I thought I did…kind of.”

“You thought you did,kind of?”

He runs a hand through his hair. “She begged me…”

I can’t believe I’m hearing this. “Who begged you?”

“Sage.”

My eyes almost bug out of my head. “And you take orders from Sage instead of Angelo?”

“No, but…it’s complicated. I thought he drowned.”

I pinch the bridge of my nose. Angelo is not going to be happy about this.

It’s one thing to say you’ll carry out an order, it’s quite another to lie about it.

“So you couldn’t finish the job?”

“Like I said, I thought he would drown…that way I could tell Sage I didn’t kill him…”

Even the look on his face tells me he thinks it’s a lame excuse.

“So? You took pity on that asshole?”

“Fuck no, we beat him…I threw him into the Charles.”

“You didn’t kill him beforehand though.”

“You don’t understand, she begged me not to do it. How was I ever meant to look her in the eye afterwards? I was in a position where I had to choose between my family and the woman I loved…don’t tell me you wouldn’t do the same. I thought he’d drowned, he couldn’t swim. I know it’s pathetic, but I couldn’t look her in the eye and say I killed him. If the river took him, it somehow felt different.”

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