I knew you’d leave. Both of you. The second you got a chance to take off with Rogue, I knew you’d be outa Sunset Cove off into some dirt poor life where you had nothing and no one to protect you.”
“I would have had her,” I threw back. “And I would have had my brothers, including Maverick. He despises me because of you.”
Luther’s shoulders tensed at those words and I knew I’d hurt him and I fucking relished it. “Alright, I fucked up. I know I fucked up. But I’m trying to fix it now. I let your girl in the Crew, I showed her leniency, I-”
“It’s ten years too late!” I bellowed. “Do you know what Shawn did to her? Do you have any idea what she’s been through because she had nowhere to go and had to rely on that motherfucker just so she had a roof over her head?”
“I’m sorry, alright?” he barked, his eyes pinned on the road.
“It’s not good enough,” I said bitterly. “I’ll never forgive you for it. For all of this. It’s your fault we’re in this mess.”
“Come on, son,” he tried, his tone softening a little. “There’s gotta be something I can do to make this right.”
“There isn’t,” I said coldly. “Unless you can turn back time and take us all back to the day you drove Rogue out of town and pardon her of her so-called crimes against the Crew, there is nothing you can do.”
He reached over to lay a hand on my shoulder and I jerked it off, looking away from him out the window. He was an asshole, and I made a vow to myself and my family that I would dig out the pieces of him that I’d embodied and destroy them.
“Sometimes hard decisions have to be made. You banished Chase, so you must know-” he started and I cut over him sharply.
“That was different. He betrayed us. He betrayed Rogue. And if you’re not getting the message yet, that’s where my lines are drawn. When it comes to crossing her, I will show no mercy. And that includes you.”
“So this is my punishment, huh?” he muttered. “You’re gonna freeze me out for the rest of my life?”
“It’s what you deserve,” I growled and he nodded, pressing his tongue into his cheek and taking a turning onto the cliff roads.
Silence descended again as we travelled up the winding trail, eventually pulling up at the peak where Shawn had declared war on the Cove. Maverick was already there, laying on the hood of an old green Chevy with a baseball cap pulled low over his face. His chest was bare as he sunned himself, but as casual as he looked, a revolver was gripped in his hand and I was sure he knew we were here. I’d had Rogue call him to meet us, knowing he’d never agree if I asked. But for her, apparently he’d do anything.
“What’s the occasion?” he called as we strode towards him. “It’s not Thanksgiving already, is it? Or someone’s birthday? Shame I didn’t bring any cake, I guess you’ll just have to have a feast on my bullets.” The gun twitched in his grip and I slapped a hand to my dad’s chest to stop him from approaching my psychotic brother. Luther shook his head at me, knocking my hand away and kept walking, making my jaw grit as I followed.
If my dad thought Maverick was beyond shooting him then he should have taken a closer look at the scar on my neck that my adopted brother had put there. He wanted us dead, and after what I’d just found out about his time in prison, I was surprised he hadn’t fired a couple of those bullets at Luther already.
“I’m only here because Rogue’s gonna suck my cock in payment later,” Maverick taunted, sitting up at last and twisting his baseball cap around so it sat backwards on his head.
I swallowed the growl in my throat at those words, focusing on why we were here as he sprung off the hood of the car, cocking his head and glancing between us with a sneer on his lips. “Why are you looking at me like that, assholes?”
A ball tightened in my throat as I stared at him and my dad gave me a look that prompted me to answer. I guessed he thought it might be better coming from me, but I hardly fucking thought so.
“Rogue told us what happened to you in