Page 240 of Broken Daddy

“What is that?” she asked.

“A vow of brotherhood. Something kids do when they’re young and stupid. Basically, the three of us swore to never betray each other. To always be brothers. Then we signed it with our blood. And that bastard, Freddy betrayed us.”

“Do you think I wanted to?”

Hayes swore and moved her behind him as Freddy appeared out of Derick’s bedroom.

“What the fuck are you doing in here? How did you get in here?” Rohan asked. “The trailer door was locked.”

“I have a key. You gave me one years ago, remember?” Freddy asked. “You said that if I ever needed a place to crash, I could come here.”

“Yeah, that was before you fucking betrayed us.”

Freddy looked terrible. His eyes were bloodshot and he was pale with hollowed cheeks. Not that she cared. She certainly didn’t feel sorry for him.

Hayes took a step back, moving her further away from Freddy. But she wanted to be near Rohan. What if Freddy tried to hurt him? After all, he’d killed Marcus.

“What are you doing here, though? Are you living here?” Rohan asked.

Freddy huffed out a humorless laugh. “Ironic, huh? I always thought you were trash, living in a hovel like this. I knew that you wanted my life, my father, my legacy. And now . . . I’m the one living in a hovel, no family, no legacy, no life. And my father hates me.”

“And whose fault is that?” Rohan demanded. “Do you seriously expect me to feel sorry for you?”

“No, no, I guess I don’t. But I had nowhere to go but here. My father wants nothing to do with me. He said I make him look weak. That mybetrayalof the Scorpions is unforgivable. I had to get out. I thought he might kill me if I didn’t.”

“What? Like you killed Marcus?” she asked, moving around Hayes slightly so she could see Freddy better. “What did he do to deserve that? What did Rohan do to deserve you framing him?”

Freddy stared over at her and Hayes reached back to grasp hold of her hip, pushing her more firmly behind him.

“Hush, baby. And stay behind me.”

She had to peer around his arm which was annoying. He didn’t make a very good window.

“Why the hell did you do it, Freddy?” Rohan asked, drawing his attention again. “I thought we were friends. Best friends.” He held up the piece of paper he’d retrieved. “Remember this?”

Freddy snorted. “We made that when we were twelve and thought we were invincible. Back when I thought that one day my father would hand over the reins of the Scorpions to me. But he thinks I’m tooweakto be the leader of the Scorpions.”

“That’s what this was about? Because your father hurt your feelings?” Rohan asked.

“He was talking about handing leadership over to you or Marcus if I didn’t become the sort of man he wanted me to be,” Freddy spat out. “I knew that I would never meet his exacting standards so if I wanted leadership, I’d have to take it. Which meant getting rid of my father. And the two of you.”

“Because we wouldn’t have let you overthrow him,” Rohan whispered. “You were going to kill your own father.”

“Like you haven’t dreamed of taking out your father.” Freddy swayed slightly.

Was he drunk or high? Or had he just not slept or eaten properly lately?

“Because he was an abusive drunk!” Rohan snapped. “And I didn’t do it!”

“Maybe you should have. He fucking deserved it. Heard that he was taken out by the Satan’s Sons. Oh, and that my father sent his men in to decimate their headquarters. Doubt it was because of what happened to your family.” Freddy glanced at her, staring at her cheek. “But he would have used it as an excuse. Now, the Black Scorpions will be powerful and unstoppable.”

“And you’re no longer a part of it,” Rohan said quietly. “Because you killed Marcus and framed me and no one will ever trust you again.”

“No, they won’t. It should have been a foolproof plan. I didn’t plan on killing Marcus that night, but he’d started becoming suspicious of me. He said he would go to you and my father with his suspicions about me. I couldn’t have that. I knew that neither of you would stand with me if I overthrew my father. So I killed Marcus to keep him quiet. And then I thought, why not take you out at the same time? So I sent you that message from his phone, then wiped it and left. I called my contact on the police force and reported the murder as well as telling him that he needed to wipe the message off your phone.”

“Detective Brown,” she said.

“Yeah. Asshole is now blabbing his guts out. Fucking idiot. Stein was no better. I paid him to make sure you went to jail, Rohan, and the fucker goes and hires bodyguards just because of a few threatening letters. He didn’t even check if he was followed to our meeting. And now, I can’t go anywhere. Can’t go home, my father hates me, wants me dead. Shocked he hasn’t done it already. He probably doesn’t have the guts. And now the cops are hunting me too.”