Chapter 8

CALEB

Eli stared at Dad, a cruel smile fucking up his face as he told him how he'd been killing off our family.

All I could do was stand there, frozen as the man I loved spat pure hatred at him.

Though it explained why he loathed us and why he'd hated me from the start.

Every disgusting word that dropped from Eli's mouth wound its way through my body like barbed wire, sinking into my flesh. If I struggled, it bit harder, a sharp band around my chest, stealing my breath as Eli confessed the truth.

Uncle Wyatt's face was shredded to pieces when they found him. So many bones were broken in his body that they weren't sure what he died of at first. And yet, the coroner wrote it off as a fucking bar fight. Exactly like Bruno's death going down as a prison suicide.

My legs were basically stuck to the ground as I watched the man I'd been fucking, the man I thought I loved, tell Dad it was all a lie.

By the time Dad called me out, I was wheezing. I only stepped forward because Ben shoved me.

Hands shaking, I could barely contain the fucking rage burning at the scene in front of me.

"What the fuck is going on?" I said quietly, "Eli, what the hell did you do?"

Staying ten feet away from them both, I was still trying to wrap my head around everything I'd just heard while looking at the fucking mess in front of me. Two bloody skulls dripping over the concrete, and Eli, smack bang in the middle, his chest heaving as his rasping filled the background.

I'd heard the whole conversation, exactly like Dad wanted me to, and I could feel him watching me with gleaming eyes. He was testing me again, just like he said. It was another chance to prove I was ready to lead.

I flicked my gaze to Dad, and then back to the fucker that dared called himself my bodyguard. He wasn't my lover, or my fuck buddy, or any words that implied we even gave a shit about each other, no matter how fucking sweetly he sang my name when I was inside him.

Meeeting Eli's gaze, I almost flinched at the pure fucking fury that slammed into me. It wasn't just anger, or hate. If Eli wasn't tied up, I'd already be dead.

I studied him, as if just looking at him would help me understand what the fuck was happening. And he had the fucking nerve to twitch his lips at me like he was smiling even though he stank of blood.

"He's been spying on us this whole time," Dad said. "Reporting back to his little friends at the FBI about all about our shipments and product, and even our dealers on the ground."

My mind blanked as the words sunk in and I tried to wrap my head around it.

Even though Dad had been laying into him about gathering intel, I wanted to hear Eli's side first.

But still, there was no way he could be FBI. We'd been fucking for so long, and I knew Eli had been torturing people for information. It was why Dad sent him and two of his best guys to Carlos in the first place, because there was someone refusing to talk. No FBI agent would ever do shit like that.

I was telling my heart to calm the fuck down, but it just kept going, pounding away in my ears like a freight train.

Who was Eli's wife? Wyatt had killed people all the time, and most of them he didn't report to Dad about. Was there a chance Dad remembered?

How the fuck was Eli a rat when he let me double down on him so much my cock was permanently etched in his ass? After three weeks of fucking I was sliding into him like we were perfect puzzle pieces, and it was all fake?

"You mean he's been using us?" I said, staring at Eli, who stared right back.

Me. He's been using me.

"Every step of the way," my dad practically growled. "It was all a set-up to get himself here." He moved towards Eli, gun in hand.

"You think killing our family is going to stop us?" Dad snarled as he slapped Eli across the face with the back of his hand. His head snapped to the right, and he didn't make a sound. "We have connections all over the East fucking coast. It doesn't matter how many of us you kill, we'll never stop coming after fuckers like you." He crashed his fist into Eli's cheek again, blood spraying from his mouth, and I was sure his jaw must be fucked.

The Eli I knew, the one who would fight me in the ring until we were both bleeding and breathless, who would swear and spit on me as I fucked him, who craved my cock; he was gone.

"Caleb, come here," Dad said icily. I couldn't see his face, but I could hear his smile. He had some kind of fucked up plan.

Eli lifted his head, flinching, running his tongue over his cracked-as-fuck teeth. He looked like fucking mince. His face was so ruined I could only catch traces of him through all the scratches and blood running.

A sudden change snapped in Eli as I stepped in next to Dad, a weird switch I almost didn't catch. He'd suddenly gone from looking like a murderer to showing us something I'd never seen on his face before: fear.

"Oh, well, is that what it is, then?" Dad sneered as he picked it up too. "You don't want Caleb knowing about your little adventures?"

Eli choked, a long tendril of dark blood dripping from his lips to splash on his shoes. It wasn't fucking time to think about how hot it was, how I could lick it up and force it back down his throat as I thrust my cock into him and stroked his fucked up skin.

"Answer me!" Dad shouted, his voice bouncing around the loading bays. He lashed out, the slap of his hand on Eli's face faintly echoing around us as Dad reared over him.

Dad was destroying him, and I couldn't do anything about it. I was the only one who should be allowed to touch him, to hurt him, to make him cry out in pain. I didn't want anyone near him but me.

"You don't even recognise me, do you?" Eli spat out through the blood. "You don't have a single fucking clue who I am. You even said my name but it means nothing to you."

"So what? You think you're special? People get killed all the time. It's our business."

"Right," Dad chuckled. "And I still have business here."

Eli burned with the fury he used when he fucked me, and Dad straightened, smirking like he'd already won. "Do enlighten me. Because I'm so curious why that business also includes fucking my son."

There was a second of shock as Dad's works reverberated around the loading bay. And then, as the realization sunk in, the temperature fucking plummeted. Eli choked again and I tried not to react but my jaw fucking dropped. All those times Eli screamed as I thrust my cock into him, no wonder Dad knew.

I'd been on edge about it for so long that part of me had been expecting Dad to do some kind of big reveal in the most dickish way possible. But the eight guys who stood in a wide circle around us were stunned, suddenly looking between the two of us like we were fucking scum. I could literally see it dawning on them as they realised what it meant.

The only son of the family, one of the guys they were meant to be following to death, was fucking another man.

"That was a bonus," Eli rasped, a cruel grin I'd never seen before stretched his face, making dried blood fall from him like red snow. "What with Wyatt murdering my wife and all. I figured I deserved something in return. And Caleb was very accommodating. He-"

Eli was cut off as Dad slammed his fist into his face, hitting his opposite jaw.

I glared at Eli, holding back the shakes threatening to take me over. I wasn't showing anyone how much his confession was tearing me up. All the times he begged me to fuck him, memories of how he fell to his knees to suck my cock so eagerly, or how he would literally spread his ass for me. And he'd had a wife?

I barely knew fuck-all about him, but it felt like he'd punched me in the fucking throat. It sunk so deep into me, even worse than finding out he'd murdered Wyatt, Bruno and Carlos.

"Aren't you angry?" Dad asked me as Eli coughed away. He had a glint in his eye that told me he wanted me to lose my shit. Yeah, I wanted to get some punches in too. Eli had a lot of explaining to do, and I was ready to beat the truth out of him, even though Dad seemed to be doing it for me.

My heart was fucking shattered ice. I couldn't show any emotion. I couldn't let Dad know Eli was so much more than an empty hole for me to use.

I shrugged. "You told us not to let our emotions get the best of us, so that's what I'm doing."

Dad gave a sharp nod. "Good," he said. "Exactly." Even though the tic of his jaw said he wasn't as calm as he was making out to be.

There was a familiar hollow click from beside me as Dad adjusted the gun.

I watched numbly as he checked the clip, making sure there were bullets left, even though he always kept track. Dad didn't fuck up those kinds of things.

I was going to throw up. Even as a kid, I'd been taught not to show fear, so no one could see what was really going on inside me. But I could feel myself going pale. I already knew what was coming next.

Dad didn't have to say anything. He held out the gun and expected me to take it.

"I don't care what happened between you, or why you started fucking in the first place. I don't care that you betrayed us for some ass. It's time for you to prove yourself again as a real member of this family." He pressed the gun into my hand, and I couldn't refuse. "You really want to be head of this family?" He said. "You gotta learn to clean up your mess."

He let go of the gun, and I fucking relished the fact it was heavier than usual. If I was going to shoot Eli, I wanted this to hurt as much as possible.

"You're the one who invited him into the house." I glowered, meeting him with a dead stare. If Dad hadn't brought Eli to the compound and assigned him as my bodyguard, none of this would be happening. If Eli had stayed in the boxing ring like a good boy, we wouldn't be in this fucked up situation.

It would make it easier to shoot him if I didn't have to worry about looking at his face when I squeezed the trigger.

"And you're the one who fucked him," Dad growled.

He was right. If I wasn't so weak, if Eli didn't make me so fucking weak, I'd never have had to do it.

Everything would be so much easier if Eli was gone. No mixed-up feelings, no desperate need to be inside him, none of those romantic fantasies about him that had me jacking off to him every morning.

He'd be gone, and I wouldn't have to deal with any of that shit again.

"Fuck," I said, only realizing I said it out loud when my voice echoed back to me from the stark walls of the loading bays. Dad smirked as he stepped back. His boots thudded on the concrete, along with the heavy weight of the shock from everyone in the loading bay. My secret had been revealed. Why did Dad think I could still be head of the family when they all knew and would never accept me now? Especially when anyone who was found to be even slightly gay was beaten and kicked out from the family.

Lifting the gun, I sunk my finger on the trigger, preparing for Eli's blood to spray like the two agents on either side of him.

I was going to obliterate him.

My breaths were short and quick, my heart fucking exploding in my chest. Yeah, maybe I'd puke after I did it, but I'd never have to see Eli again, and that would be the best part.

I wouldn't have to look into his heated chocolate brown eyes and hope I saw more there. And I wouldn't have to resist kissing him every second I was with him. And there'd be no reason to press my chest to his back just to pretend I was really holding him because I was too much of a pussy to admit how I felt. Or even deal with how much I fucking loved him because it drove me nuts thinking about how much of myself I'd give him if I let go.

I curled my hand around the grip of the gun.

I'd killed enough people to know what I was doing. I just hadn't killed someone I actually gave a shit about.

With Dad peering on behind me, I swallowed the bile in my throat, growing more and more sick as every second dragged by. I had to do it. This was the best way to get rid of him and secure my place as heir.

My eyes hard, I stood a foot away from Eli. I wanted to be as close as possible so I could watch his fucking skull crack as I shot him and knew I was finally free of him.

He met my eyes, his face stricken as he wheezed away. That cruel sneer had vanished. He shook as he licked his lips and took a quick breath.

It was obvious he was hurt. Like a dying animal, I was doing him a favour. And I had to finish this before there was any more time to think.

My nostrils flared as I l grit my jaw and I pushed away my feelings, focusing on the barbed wire that was still strangling me. Eli had had a wife, he killed my family. What else had he done? Did he really have someone waiting for him he needed to protect? Who even was the person I'd fallen in love with?

I growled as I lifted the gun, my awareness intensely focused on my finger.

Eli's face was swollen already. He straightened up, looking at me with his good eye, his smile disgustingly twisted through broken teeth and lips.

"I never told you that I love you," he rasped, choking on his own blood and ruining my whole world.

The words shuddered through me, my hand trembling as I kept my aim.

How could he say that? How could fucking say that in this situation?

What the fuck was wrong with him?

Blood ran down the lines of his face from the way my dad and his fucking goons had laid into him. It stained his shirt, and his right arm was bent too sharply for it not to be a break.

And he was smiling. Fucking smiling at me.

I'd fucked him raw so many times, spit on him, hit him, crushed his head against the wall, and I did everything I could to hurt him, and yet he loved me?

What kind of fucked up thing was that?

I couldn't do it. I couldn't take those kinds of words just as I was about to kill him.

He could never be that for me. I had to remember that every day. All I wanted was to take over my family, make Dad and Grandad proud. I was going to be the one to take us into even bigger territories, expand our empire and rule like a fucking king. And I couldn't do it when I loved him too.

"I'm sorry," I said, shaking my head as I braced my finger on the trigger and prepared to squeeze.