Bury Me with Lies (Twin Lies #2) - S.M. Soto Page 0,42
It’s not any bullshit secrets you think we’re keeping. It’s her. And it’s you. I wish she would’ve fucking died in that car with Vincent. Maybe then things would be—” I’ve done well at keeping my cool, but all that vanished the second Mackenzie’s name fell from his lips.
Clamping my hand around his throat, I slam him into the wall, cutting him off midsentence. He chokes, his face turning an odd shade of purple at the force. I’ve done this plenty of times before, held Trent’s entire life in the palm of my hand, but this is the first time my grip has ever been this unrelenting. If I squeeze any harder, I’ll crush his windpipe and kill him.
It’s tempting. So very tempting.
“Try me, Trent,” I goad. “I’ve been waiting for you to fuck up just one time, so I can finally put you in your place. Don’t forget who you’re speaking to. Don’t forget who fucking made you. Who picked all your sorry asses up from the floor—who gave you everything when you had nothing? Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness, Ainsworth, because I’ll fucking end you with no remorse.”
“We’re s-supposed to b-be brothers-s,” he chokes out, his eyes bulging from lack of oxygen.
“Brothers don’t try to fuck each other’s bitches,” I grit, tossing him away from me. “Clean yourself up. You look like a fucking mess.” I turn to the rest of the guys, my gaze colliding with Vincent.
His face is vacant, much like it always is. He’s the only one who hasn’t said a word, and under the circumstances, I thought for sure he’d be the first one to hobble to his feet and let me know just how pissed he is that everything has gotten out of hand, but instead, he sits there, quietly, like he’s plotting. If that isn’t a red flag, I don’t know what is.
“How’s the family?”
He works his jaw back and forth. With that simple question, he knows I know. I may not know everything, but he knows without a shadow of a doubt I don’t believe anything he’s told me. “Still pieces of shit,” he finally says.
I smirk. “Doesn’t surprise me. The apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree, now does it?”
His nostrils flare, and he purses his lips, just dying to snap at me, but that’s one thing about my relationship with Vincent. We don’t always agree on everything, but we also never fight. He respects me and my family, and the things we’ve done for him over the years. You never bite the hand that feeds you.
“All right. Enough,” Noah says, stepping into the center of the room, growing tired of our mess. “Now that all that macho bullshit is out of the way, we have some serious shit to figure out. Even though Baz has spun the narrative of the accident in your guys’ favor, it doesn’t mean that whoever is looking into that fucking case isn’t after something. Could be justice, revenge—whatever the hell it is, it’s a problem. For all of us. So…” He sighs, pausing to drill his gaze into each of us. “That means, if they’re going to uncover something I don’t know about, or Sebastian doesn’t know about, say it, or die a slow death when Baz lets you get thrown to the wolves.”
Silence descends.
We all share a look. Trent, of course, is the first one to break.
“All right. Fine. That summer wasn’t when it started. It started that night.”
My gut clenches.
“You remember, don’t you, Baz?” Zach asks, digging the knife in.
I do.
I can’t forget it. Even if I tried.
“You knew,” I grit out, the second Dan steps into my office. I called him over under the pretense I needed his help with something, but really, I was ready to chew his ass out. It feels like everything is crumbling around me since I learned the truth. I don’t know who I can trust anymore. My upper lip curls as I work to control my anger. I so desperately want to take it out on Dan or the rest of the guys.
He keeps that same impassive expression on his face, the one I’ve grown accustomed to over the years. “I did.” There’s a displeased tilt to his lips, as though he despises a part of himself for keeping such a secret from me.
“And you didn’t think to fucking tell me who she was? Or why she was here, creeping her way into my goddamn life?”