I scoff. “Right, because he’s so out of my league?”
“God, no, that’s not what I meant. You’re out of his, Hadley. You can do way better.”
“This is going nowhere,” I say, sighing. “It doesn’t matter why you did what you did or even that you knew how I felt. It doesn’t matter that it was before I officially got with him. It matters that you both lied to me and planned to keep that up. I might never have found out, and I would have spent a life with a man that had sex with my twin.” I shudder. “It makes me sick to my stomach.”
“Hadley, you’re pregnant, and he made you his ol’ lady. He loves you. He told me he loves you. Please don’t throw it away over this.”
“I can’t see a way around it, Meli. I can’t even look at him, and I don’t want to look at you. I feel so fucking hurt.” As I go to leave, I pause beside her. “Answer me one thing. Does Rosey know everything?” Her guilty expression tells me yes without her having to say a word.
I slap her. It shocks us both as she grips her cheek, and her eyes fill with tears again. I turn, colliding with Mav’s chest. “Somebody explain.”
“Not here,” I mutter, pushing past him and rushing to his office. He follows, and as we go inside, I turn to Meli. “Not you.” I slam the door.
Mav stares, open-mouthed. “You hit her?”
“She deserved it.”
“From the beginning,” he demands.
“Grim slept with her.”
Mav almost chokes. “What?”
“The baby she supposedly lost was his. She terminated the pregnancy while he held her hand.” I wince at the pain of those words as they burn my throat.
Mav drops in his office chair and stares at me in shock. “He wouldn’t,” he eventually mumbles.
“Well, he did, Mav. He slept with my twin and then—” I burst into tears, and he rushes towards me, wrapping me in his arms. “I feel so fucking betrayed,” I sob out. He holds me for a few minutes while I fight to get myself under control.
“This happened before you, after you, or while you were . . .” He releases me and heads back to his seat, pulling out a bottle of vodka and drinking directly from the bottle.
“It happened before me and him, but the lies have continued since. He didn’t plan on telling me. Neither of them did. Our announcement today raised suspicions and I worked it out.” I stare up at the ceiling, groaning aloud. “What a fucking mess.”
“At least no one knows.”
“Except Rosey.” I shrug bitterly. “Seems Rosey gets to know everything these days.”
“Hadley, I’m so sorry,” Mav mutters. “I told him to go for it with you. If I’d have known.”
“Don’t worry, this isn’t your fault.”
“I’ll fucking kill him!”
I shake my head. “He’s your VP. The brothers come first, and you shouldn’t get involved in love disputes,” I say, forcing a smile. “Isn’t that the rules?”
“I’m not sure the rules apply when he’s broken a few himself.”
GRIM
I’m awoken by something hitting me on the head. I sit up, groaning from the aches in my body after sleeping in this damn chair. The first thing I see is a boxing glove flying towards my head. I catch it, frowning, then I see Mav is staring at me and he’s mad. It’s clear by the pulsing vein in his forehead and his clenched jaw. “Let’s go, Romeo.”
“That depends where we’re going,” I say, dread filling me.
“You don’t get to ask questions.”
He leaves the room. I scoop up the other glove from the ground and follow him as we head straight for the basement. Once inside, he locks the door. “Special date with my Pres or time for me to meet Hades?” I ask cautiously.
His fist catches me hard in the stomach and I wince, doubling over and coughing violently. “I said no fucking questions!” he yells. “Tell me why I shouldn’t put a bullet in your skull right now!”
“Do it. I deserve it.”
“Damn right you deserve it. Who even are you? I sure as hell don’t know this version.”
“I don’t have an excuse,” I say, still doubled over. “I’ve always been a dick.”
“Drop the gloves, we don’t need ‘em.”
I chuck them into the corner and straighten up. “We doing this the old-fashioned way?”
“Hit me,” Mav orders.
I shake my head. “No.”
“Hit me, Grim. I can’t lay into you until you do.” I hesitate, and he shoves me backwards. “Hit me,” he growls out.
I groan. “Still a gentleman even after I fucked both your sisters,” I mutter. It’s low, but I won’t hit my President and I know this will have the desired effect.
He growls, shoving me harder this time. I hit the wall, and he brings his fist back but holds it there. “Why?”
“Because I don’t know how to say no. Because I’m a fucked-up piece of shit. Because I could!”
That tips him over the edge. I don’t fight back when he lays into me, taking every punch, choking on my own blood until I’m on the ground. I hear a banging on the door, then he stops, breathless. “Even after everything, she still asked me not to get involved,” he spits out in disgust. “She still fucking defended you.”
Mav unlocks the door, and Hadley rushes in. She gasps at the sight of me. “I told you I wouldn’t kill him, but I made no promises about hurting him,” says Mav coolly before walking out.
Hadley stares at me for a few seconds, a range of emotions passing over her face before she leaves too. That hurts worse than the punches.
Ghost comes in and winces. “Ouch.” Holding out his hand for me to grab, I shout out in pain as he pulls me to stand. “Ribs?” he asks, and I nod. “He always goes for the ribs.”
“Does everyone hate me?” I mutter, limping from the basement.
“Since when do brothers involve themselves in ol’ lady drama? It isn’t our business. I will say, we all love Hads and Meli, and it was a shit thing you did, but then you already know that.”
While Mum sits watching, Mama B cleans me up. She isn’t gentle about it, and I don’t blame her. “Proud of me, Ma?” I ask sarcastically. It’s not her I’m mad at, it’s myself, but she’s an easy target.
She lowers her eyes. “Do you need me to answer that?”
Mama B hits me around the head. “Show some fucking respect in my kitchen.” I try to remember the time she got her balls, because when Eagle was around, she was quiet as a mouse. “Make this right, Grim. I don’t care how you do it, just do it.”
I drag my tired, aching body upstairs to Hadley’s room and knock on the door before going inside. She’s sitting cross-legged on her bed, staring blankly at the wall. “Penny for them,” I whisper.
“Does it hurt?” she asks.
“Yes.”
“Good.”
“Can we talk?”
“I’m going to talk, and you can listen,” she says, pointing for me to sit in the chair, which I do. “I knew there would always be a possibility getting involved with you would end in my heart being broken,” she says, “I never for one minute thought it would be because you had sex with my twin.”