MasukWow. So much for a warm welcome.I opened my mouth, ready to snap back, ready to tell him exactly how thoroughly he’d ruined everything; my plans, my sleep, my sense of direction, my heart. A dozen sharp retorts crowded my tongue.None of them came out.My gaze snagged on the white bandage wrapped around his ear instead. It looked so wrong on him. Landon was supposed to be indestructible. Seeing proof that he wasn’t made my chest ache in a weird way. Why did I even care?He lied to me. Sold me out to the Antonellis like I was nothing. I should’ve been glad he’d fallen. I should’ve felt vindicated. So why did it still hurt for him?"I heard…" My voice came out thin and frayed. I cleared my throat and tried again. "I heard you got shot."A muscle ticked in his jaw. "Yeah. I got shot. If you’re here to see whether I’m still alive, you’re wasting your time. I am. Now get lost."He started to close the door.My hand shot out without thinking, slapping against the wood to stop it. "Wait."
"You, obviously," Tess said softly."And his brother," Maeve added. "Leo isn’t speaking to him. At all. And then there’s Tyler.""Tyler?" Did they fight? I mean, they had to seeing that Tyler knew about us now. Were the bruises on his knuckles from them fighting? Oh, God. What had I done?"Yeah. Word is Tyler’s done with him too. He cut him off completely. Reaper’s down his best friend." Maeve shook her head. "But the big one is the club. The vote happened this morning.""What vote?""To confirm him as the heir. The future president of the Club." She let out a low whistle. "It wasn’t even close. Ninety percent voted against him. They stripped him the title. He’s out." What? How could that even happen? Landon was the most hardworking member of the club. He’d bled for it, shown up every time, done everything right. He deserved to be the future president.So why would almost everyone vote against him?The question clawed at my chest and no matter how I turned it over in my mind, none of
I froze and looked away, fixing my gaze on the window. The sky outside was dull with clouds that looked like they might never break. It felt fitting somehow, like the world had decided to match the weight sitting in my chest."I know what happened between you," he said after a while.My shoulders tightened. What was I even supposed to say? Congratulations you found out I slept with your best friend? Or maybe, Sorry, I slept with your best friend? Neither felt like the right words. Hell, there were no right words."I failed you," he went on. "I let my best friend take advantage of you right under my nose.""He didn’t—" The words flew out of me on instinct before I could stop them. "It was consensual, Tyler. He might have lied to me, but he didn’t force me to do anything. I made the decisions to do whatever we did myself.""He took advantage," Tyler said gently. "He was the adult in the situation. He was supposed to know better.""I’m also an adult," I muttered, hating how small my voic
Kasey’s POV I had been lying on my bed for three days straight. Seventy-two hours of staring at the same pattern in the ceiling, the same fading poster on my wall, the same door that kept opening and closing with people who didn’t know what to do with me.Tyler had been sitting in the chair near my bed for a while now but hadn't said a word to me. This was the first time he’d come into my room since everything fell apart, and that alone told me how bad things really were.He finally stood up and stepped closer. "Move over," he said quietly. "You’re hogging the whole bed."I didn’t budge. I shifted my shoulder just enough to let him know I heard him, then kept scrolling on my phone.He didn’t go away. A heavy sigh gusted over me. "Fine. We’ll do this the hard way."A hand hooked under my shoulder and rolled me onto my back. I glared up at him. His face was drawn and there were shadows under his eyes. He looked older. He looked like shit."What do you want?""Thirty minutes," he said
His breath trembled like a man on the edge of snapping completely."Get up," he commanded. I didn’t move. Couldn't. My body was a goddamn wreck and I was shaking like a junkie in withdrawal."I said get the fuck up!" Tyler roared, his face twisted into something feral.With a groan that ripped from my gut, I pushed myself up slow, my palms slipping in the warm slick of my own blood. Every muscle screamed and the world was spinning like I'd been spun in a blender.I locked eyes with him—Tyler, my future VP, my ride-or-die brother since we were in diapers. The Iron Serpents MC's unbreakable enforcer. He stepped closer and aimed the gun at my face. "Why didn’t you tell me?" He demanded, his voice cracking like brittle glass under the rage. "Why didn’t you trust me enough to tell me what you were doing behind my fucking back? Sticking your dick in Kasey? My little sister, Landon? You fucked my goddamn baby sister!""I was scared," I said honestly. "Scared shitless of this exact moment.
Tyler stiffened beside me, but he kept his gun up. I didn’t lower mine either, though my grip had started to slip from sweat. Something about the way Malcolm said it made the back of my neck prickle."The fuck is that supposed to mean, you smug piece of shit?" Tyler snarled. "Quit talking shit and get on your fucking knees before I put you down."Malcolm smiled like Tyler was a toddler throwing a tantrum."It means you’re pointing a gun at the wrong man, kid," he said with a huge smile. "You boys never think before you bark. That’s why your Club is falling apart."My jaw clenched. "Why the hell have you been stealing our shipments? Why’d you attack my men? Two of them are dead because of you. So talk, Reeves. Or I swear to God—""Oh, shut up." He cut me off with a lazy raise of his brow.He took a slow step forward, completely ignoring the weapon aimed at his heart. "The shipments? That was just business. A… territorial dispute. Your boys were on my road. They refused to pay the toll.







