Chapter Two

Darius

My forehead is numb from leaning against the window for hours, none of us have spoken a word since we left the house. I know Beck, Saint and Crue are pissed at me. I told them that I wouldn’t let things with me and Leah come between any of us and I fucking broke that promise. I’m so fucking livid at her for what she has done to me! But, I’m also so fucking angry at myself for not piecing together what happened to her on my own, I didn’t even question it when I found her in that bed, I assumed the worse of her.

“You couldn’t have known.” I turn to look at Beck, he keeps his eyes on the road as he shrugs. “You aired that shit out loud.” I shake my head and go back to looking out the window.

“You know Corvin is gonna beat your ass, right?” Irritated by Saint’s stupid ass statement I just flip him off. He scoffs and doesn’t take the hint to shut the fuck up. “Stay quiet all you want but you brought this on yourself. You should have fucking told him!” he shouts.

“I know!” I yell. “I should have done a lot of fucking things, but I didn’t.” My breaths are rushing in and out of me as my annoyance grows.

“Yeah you should have! We are all in the shit because we fucking knew you were fucking his sister and you didn’t have the balls to fucking tell him.” I fucking hate that Saint is right. I’ve landed them all in the shit because I didn’t come clean. “I won’t fucking let this family that we’ve all created be torn apart. You guys are all I have and sister or not, I won’t let pussy come between us.” My first reaction is to turn around and punch him in the mouth for speaking about Leah like that. My second, is to feel immense guilt for putting our makeshift family in jeopardy because I fell in love with the wrong girl.

“I’m sorry,” I say.

“Not as sorry as Gary is right now,” Crue butts in, and within a second the four of us laugh and some of the tension flees from me.

“He’s fucking lucky he’s still breathing,” Beck grits out. I grunt my agreement.

“I really didn’t think you were going to drop the twin bomb on him tonight.”

“I didn’t either, Saint,” I answer. I was supposed to save that nugget for the press release on Monday but it just felt like it would cause more damage saying it tonight.

“Hundred bucks says Victor is on the phone to his lawyers now, trying to do damage control.” I laugh, Crue is bang on the money. Victor Hayes will be trying to get out in front of the mess I caused tonight, but thing is, he has no power anymore. The reason this merger was so important is because the company we merged with is Victor’s. We now own the business that has been in his family for four generations since it was started. Thanks to his gambling problem and shitty investments, we were able to pretty much steal the company out from under him, we just had to make sure he had no idea who was buying it which is why BCD’S didn’t buy it per se, we used a shell company to acquire Sullivan Global and all the hotel chains.

“How the fuck are we going to spin you breaking your brothers arm.” Hearing Saint refer to Gary as my brother makes my stomach churn. I may share blood with that pussy but he isn’t my brother. I have four chosen brothers—well, I hope I still have four.

“Simple, I lost it when I found out my father deserted me and only took my twin instead of the both of us. I was blinded by jealousy that Gary got the life I always wanted while I had to fight to survive because my mother was a junkie and a whore.” Saint whistles and shakes his head.

“Fuck me, dude, you’re one cold motherfucker but also a genius.” I roll my eyes at Saint. We all fall silent. I feel the tension building again and know either Saint or Crue is about to bring the one thing up that I don’t want to think about.

“Brother or not, Corvin is going to kill him for what he did to Leah.” There it is, Crue just voiced the one thing I was trying to avoid.

“No. If anyone is taking that motherfucker out it’s me.” My tone is firm and lets them all know I’m not fucking around. Gary won’t live to see our twenty-first birthday, I’ll make fucking sure of that.

Pulling into the driveway of our cabin, I start to relax. I don’t know what it is about this place but being out here in the woods surrounded by nothing but nature always calms me. This cabin was our first big purchase. We wanted something to call our own, a place where we could one day bring our families together and always keep our bond alive. We made a pact, when one of us has a kid, we spend the Christmas holidays here every year no matter what. I see Corvin’s car and the tension returns, Beck parks behind him and shuts off the engine. Saint and Crue practically leap out. Beck pops the trunk for them to take all our bags inside while we sit here.

“You have to face him eventually,” he says quietly as we watch Saint and Crue lug all the bags inside.

“He’s never going to forgive me.” A whoosh of air escapes Beck.

“Look, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it for you, okay? Tonight he found out one of his best friends is sleeping with his sister. On top of that, he also just learned said best friend’s brother raped his little sister. That is a lot for anybody to fucking digest.” Hearing Beck say that shit out loud makes me feel like even more of a piece of shit. I flinch at the thought of those three words. Beck opens his door but before he can get out I grip his arm, halting his escape.

“Don’t stop him when he comes at me.” Beckett tries to protest but I push on. “He needs this, I’ve known it’s been coming for years, so I’ll take it like a man.”

“Your funeral, brother,” he says as I release my hold on him and get out of the car. I follow Beck up the pathway to the cabin, roll my shoulders and crack my neck side to side, getting myself ready for the beating I’m about to get. The moment I walk through the door I go on high alert expecting Corvin to jump out at me and try to catch me off guard. I keep my wits about me as I follow Beck past the living room and into the kitchen. I freeze at the threshold. Leah stands there with an ice pack against her cheek. I grind my teeth to keep from losing my shit. Saint, Crue and Beckett rally around the lying bitch. She flicks her gaze to me. Her eyes dim as her face morphs into the perfect picture of a guilty person. Unable to stomach the sight of her, I spin on my heels ready to head to my room but instead, I’m met with a fist to the face.

“Fuck!” I snarl as I stumble back a step. I push off the counter and step into Corvin.

“Corvin, stop it!” He and I ignore Leah’s plea, his eyes shine with betrayal and guilt courses through me.

“Stay out of this, Leah, and go to your fucking room,” Corvin grits out between clenched teeth. We stand staring at each other, chest to chest, for a minute not moving a muscle. “Now!” he shouts. A second later, I hear her moving toward us and tense when she brushes past me. Instead of doing as she was told she stops beside us.

“If you want to be mad at someone, be mad at me,” she says tiredly. I fight the urge to roll my eyes and step away from her in case some of her toxicity rubs off on me. “None of this is his fault.” Corvin turns to face her and I manage to draw in a full breath now that I know we aren’t about to fight, yet.

“Let me guess, you managed to convince him to keep fucking you a secret?” he yells. I flinch and she recoils but doesn’t back down. She squares her shoulders, lifts her chin and that’s when I see the bruising on her face.

Fuck!

I knew Gary was a piece of shit but I didn’t think he would fucking punch a woman! The guy is twice her size and from the look of it, she must be in a shit load of fucking pain. I grit my teeth and push those thoughts from my mind. She fucking drugged me, she doesn’t deserve my fucking pity!

“It wasn’t like that, Corv. If you would just let me explain?—”

“Explain what?” he yells, cutting her off. “How you fucking lied to me, Mom and Dad? Or how you lied about why you transferred schools, or what about how you lied about trying to fucking drug us because your fuck buddies twin told you to!” Her bottom lip begins to tremble and her eyes fill with tears. I fucking hate her right now but even I have to admit, Corvin went too far.

“Yes, I did do all of those things,” she says as she fights back her tears. Corvin still doesn’t budge, he stands there tense and vibrating with anger. “I did it because I didn’t want the whole fucking world to see me getting raped!” she screams. Fuck! I turn away unable to look at her, she sounds fucking broken and I can’t handle that shit.