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“You’ve got a lot of homemade sex tapes on here. And I mean a lot!” I drawl. “Hey, Aaron, looks like your boy, Teddy, has a crush on you. There are a lot of close-ups of your ass. Nice tattoo, by the way. Now, do I need to ask if all parties involved consented?”

Theodore gulps.

“Of course they didn’t,” I sigh disappointedly.

“Go check Aaron’s.” Max gives me my orders again.

I pop the phone into my pocket and go to search Aaron’s body for his.

“It’s not on him.”

“Check again.”

“He’s wearing a damn toga, unless he’s hiding it between his ass cheeks it’s not here. Are you hiding it between your ass cheeks? I really don’t want to have to check.”

“Room,” is all he manages to say.

“Room? Bedroom?”

He grunts. Guess I’ll take that as a yes. “Want me to go get it?” I ask Max.

He shakes his head. “No, let’s get this done. After all, neither of these two are going to say anything. Not now that we haveevidence to earn them a one-way ticket to live with their friend James.”

“I won’t say anything!” Theodore quickly says.

I walk back over and stop at my brother’s side. “We know you won’t. But you still bullied our girl. What does spewing hateful words to someone who did nothing wrong earn you?” I pretend to think it over, but I know exactly what he deserves. Seems Max is on the same level. He looks me dead in the eye and smiles as he swings the bat into Theodore’s jaw.

I’m pretty sure some teeth fly out with the blood. “Gross,” I laugh to myself.

Standing over both guys and feeling immensely proud of ourselves, we survey the carnage we just inflicted.

“One word out of either of you and all these videos get leaked to your families, to your coaches, to any future employers, and to the cops.” I hold the phone up. Neither of them seems to be listening.Rude.

“Did you hear my brother, or does he need to repeat himself?” Max barks.

“Yes, we heard,” they answer Max weakly. I’m impressed that either of them can even speak from the gnarly way their jaws are now set.

“If you ever come after Violet or our family again, thenyou. Are. Dead.Understood?” I ask and they give me the same weak yes as they did Max.

“The cops will want to ask you questions about tonight. You’re both to tell them it was a break-in. Some guy in a balaclava beat the shit out of you when you tried to stop him and he left out the back. Again, are we understood?” Max leaves no room for disobedience, and they both agree to tell his story. I’m impressed.

We leave through the back of the pool house, stopping off in the bedrooms on the way to pocket any valuables we can find.We’ll ditch them on the way home, their absence will help cover our asses.

I’m feeling on top of the fucking world. Not just from the adrenaline or the violence, but knowing we have it in us to protect Violet and our babies no matter what.

When we get outside, Max stops me before we make our way to the car.

“You had that all planned out, right? You weren’t really going to let him break your hands?”

“If it came to it, I’d give my life for you and Vi. But yeah, I knew what I was doing. I did almost shit my pants thinking he was gonna hit me at the last second.”

Max smiles at me. Like really fucking smiles. It’s taken so long to get to this point, but I feel like I finally have all of my brother back.

CHAPTER 25

VIOLET

My wedding is finally here.