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Say my vows like an actor on a stage. Take my rightful place as captain. Make my hit.
I’m giving myself chills.
I, too, have a flair for dramatics when pushed against a wall.
Liam’s questions burn in my mind, asking me why becoming captain is essential to menow.
What held me back from telling Liam the whole truth of the why and why now was that revealing the answer would make me look like a complete and total ass.
If Liam is unwilling to take a risk for me, how can I tell him the hard truth?
The person I’m so in dire need of protecting is someone I’ve never even met.
If I were wired differently, I’d bury my head in the sand—better yet, in Ophelia’s magical pussy—and forget everything else going on in the world, but that’s not me. There is only family in this world, chosen or blood, and I ride or die with family.
With one exception.
My mother.
She destroyed me as a child and made me unable to trust another woman. Without full trust, there cannot be genuine love—not real love, anyway. This is why I’m damaged goods, unlovable, and unable to love, and thus will never be made captain of this family.
Someone, please, do me a favor and cue the orchestra of tiny violins. I need a pity party. Right now.
I think of the night everything changed…
We were lying by the pool, drinking. A casual night where Liam actually let loose and laughed. Emilia poured me another whiskey. Staring into my eyes, she playfully begged, “Let me make you an online dating profile. Come on. It’ll be fun. Youneed to wash theChanelof Bianca off you.” My boss’s wife blinked twice, smiled adorably, and said, “Pretty please?”
And I said yes.
Neither of us had any idea where it would lead.
Leah catfished me. Eros handed me that folder. I found out something about my old life that changed my current one.
I knew I had to go back home. And I was entirely pissed off at Leah. Why not steal the woman’s daughter who catfished me as part of my plan to become captain?
Heaving a sigh, I tell myself NOT to drag my hand through my hair. Instead, I rub the stress from the back of my neck, thinking of that navy blue file pulled together by Eros Calvani.
Eros, a fellow recruit from my initiation year, and current head of Bachman Security’s Italy branch, was the one to complete the investigation of my “catfishing incident.” God, I hate the term catfishing, but I don’t know what else to call it. Catfishing makes me feel like I’m floundering. Or that I’m a pussy.
Either way, I’m an idiot who got taken for a ride.
I asked Eros if he could keep any of the information he found to himself. There’s an extra layer of loyalty between initiates when you go through the hell we did together to prove we were worthy of joining, so of course, he had my back. If I think being called Harry is terrible, imagine all the brothers knowing I got catfished.
When he handed me the file, the cool paper smooth against my fingers, he locked eyes with me. “There’s something in here that you’ll need to sit down while you read.”
I remember staring at him, asking, “What?”
“Trust me,” he said, his eyes still focused on mine. At that moment, another brother came up to join us, and the conversation ended.
Later, when I was in the privacy and solace of my own home, I opened that file.
I found out I have a brother.
Well, a half-brother, but to me, that means everything. Growing up with a dead father and a psychotic mother, I longed for a brother. And now I have one.
And he must be protected from my mother. I can’t let her fuck him up like she did me.
This is why it’s so essential to become captain NOW. This is why, when Leah catfished me, I used the dastardly situation to my benefit, creating a revenge scheme to get a bride. This is why convincing Liam I was settled enough to become captain was so important.