prison,” I let the bomb drop, figuring it was best to cut to the chase.
Maverick’s stony expression didn’t flicker, but his eyes did. “Did she now?” he muttered, working over that knowledge. “So you’ve come here to what? Enjoy the look on my face when you told me you knew my darkest fucking secret? Like you didn’t know all this time anyway?” he spat.
“No,” Luther growled passionately. He took a step towards him, but Maverick raised his gun to warn him back and he didn’t go any further.
“She also told us that you thought those guards were Harlequins,” I went on, my skin prickling from what I knew had happened to him and despite the years of hatred between us, I fucking cared about that. Because it changed things, I just didn’t know how.
“Thought they were?” he echoed with a scoff. “I know they were.” His eyes swung onto Luther with seething disgust in his eyes. “You planned to bring me to heel the brutal way, didn’t you, Pa?”
“Those men had nothing to do with me,” Luther said fiercely, his shoulders pressing back. “They weren’t Harlequins.”
“Bullshit,” Maverick snapped predictably.
“Chase found out the truth from Shawn,” I said quickly. “Shawn boasted that he orchestrated it. He was in prison the same time you were. He paid off those men to wear the Harlequin symbol on their flesh and fuck with your head.”
Maverick fell entirely still, his eyes moving from me to Luther then back to me. “What is this?” he demanded. “What are you after?”
“We want you to know the truth, son,” Luther said, his voice full of pain. “And we want you to come home.”
I gave him a look that said I was not in agreement with that second part, but my dad just set his jaw and fixed his gaze on Maverick.
“Nah, you’re up to something,” Maverick growled, glaring at Luther. “You’re always fucking up to something. You’re the Harlequin King. Lord of the fucking rats and now you’ve just come up with a new little idea to try and manipulate me into doing what I’m told.”
“Why would Chase lie?” I pressed. “He has no reason to.”
Maverick wet his lips, looking back at me. “Strange. I thought Chase was dead. You been playing with a Ouija board, Foxy?”
“Oh don’t give me that,” I laughed dryly. “He told us what you did for him and I’m…grateful.” I forced the word out, needing for it to be said even though it was sharp in my throat.
Maverick shrugged. “I didn’t do nothin’.”
“Are you really so stubborn that you won’t even listen to the truth?” Luther interjected, steering the conversation back onto the point of it. “I didn’t send those men. I’d never fucking do that. It was only meant to be a couple of years in juvie. I was gonna get you out, but you wouldn’t even fucking talk to me.”
Maverick’s upper lip curled back. “Fuck you, Luther. I see what you’re doing and it ain’t gonna work.”
“Rick,” I snapped, his old nickname spilling from my lips before I could stop it and he arched a brow at me in surprise. I took a step forward, desperate for…something. I just needed him to know the truth, because as much shit as there was between us and as much as I knew we were never going to be anything but enemies now, I still couldn’t bear the thought of him thinking the Harlequins were responsible for what had happened to him in prison. That he maybe blamed me in some part for it too. Even Luther didn’t deserve that. “Shawn Mackenzie is responsible. It was a revenge plot, and this war is another part of it.”
“I killed his brother,” Luther sighed, like he’d wished he’d stayed his hand so none of this had ever happened.
Maverick looked between us again, his features twisting, revealing something of the hurt inside him that I knew was there. And the old part of me that had once loved him ached. Because he may have been a monster standing before me now, but the person those terrible things had happened to had been a boy. A boy I’d grown up with, who I’d once have done anything for.
“Nope. I’m not buying it.” Maverick’s expression became steely as he spun his revolver on his finger. “Sorry, old man, I’m not a stupid kid anymore. You can’t manipulate me. And even if it was true, it doesn’t change shit.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Luther snarled.
“Nah, what’s ridiculous is that you came all the