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Chapter Six

JOSHUA

“You’re done fucking with the Lynde family.” I sit down across from Logan at his desk.

I glance at the picture of him and Bella sitting beside his computer.

It was taken on their wedding day.

She’s smiling like she couldn’t be happier, but he looks like he had to be forced to the aisle, standing stiff as a board, glancing at something just behind the camera.

Looked happier when he was engaged to Skyla.

Not that I give a shit. If he wasn’t my brother, I would’ve killed him a long time ago.

Logan takes a look at the picture before putting it face down. “I’m not going to do that. You know better than anyone this is the chance of a lifetime.”

I kick my heels up on the edge of his desk, looking out the window at the backyard where Bella is tending to the garden. “I don’t care what kind of chance it is. The Lynde family is off the table.”

“You’re only saying that because the little whore got to you.”

My blood boils as my hand drifts to the gun tucked just beneath my jacket in my shoulder holster. “What did you just say?”

I don’t know why it affects me this much that he is badmouthing Skyla, but it does, and I won’t allow him to do it anymore.

Logan eyes me before pushing back from the desk and grabbing the box of files from the corner. He takes it over to the wooden filing cabinet and sets it on top. “I don’t know why you came all the way to my house to tell me to leave them alone. This could’ve been a phone call.”

“A phone call that you would’ve recorded and used against me first chance you had.

Luckily, you do too much illegal shit to record things in your own home, you snake.

” I gesture to the polyester chair once more.

“Now, sit back down and shut up. We have things to talk about, and I don’t want this to take all day. ”

His shoulders tense, hands balling into fists.

“I don’t know why you think you have the authority to try and control my job like this.

The Lyndes are the biggest mafia family on the east coast. They control from Maine all the way down to Florida and over to Ohio and Tennessee. That’s a third of the country, Joshua.”

“I know what they control, and I’m telling you to step the fuck down.”

His eyes nearly bulge out of his head as he stuffs his hands into his joggers. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am.”

“Because the little whore slept with you? Because she put on a show at the club? You know she’s not serious about anything that happened there. She’s just trying to get under your skin and manipulate you. That’s what she does.”

Before I drive a fist through his face or put a bullet in his head, I get to my feet, rounding the desk and stopping to stare out the window.

Bella looks up from her gardening and waves to me, wiping a smudge of dirt across her sweaty forehead before sticking her hands in the dirt once more.

How could she sleep with my brother knowing he was with her best friend?

Logan steps beside me. “The best thing I did was leave that whore.”

Before he can say anything else, I spin and slam my fist into the side of his face, catching him in the eye and sending him stumbling back against the desk.

He groans as his hip collides with the edge.

“What the fuck was that for?”

“Call my wife names again and see what else happens to you.” I stand over him, hands in my pockets.

Logan pulls himself back up to his full height, dropping his hand from his eye and showing off the deep purple bruise forming. “You actually married her?”

“Yes. That would be what wife means.” I pace away from him and over to the box of files sitting on top of the filing cabinet.

Logan barks out a sharp laugh, yanking open the mini fridge beside his desk and pulling out a cold can of beer to press to his eye. “I can’t believe that she was telling the truth.”

“Why wouldn’t she?” I pick up another picture of Logan and Bella, but in this one, he’s smiling big, playing beer pong with his friends when he was younger.

Across the table from him, there isn’t much to be seen, but there is a flash of someone that looks a hell of a lot like Skyla.

This picture must have been taken years ago.

A low bubble of irritation builds in my stomach seeing the torch my brother is still carrying for my wife.

Fake wife.

Still, she’s mine now, and he has no claim over her, even if he’s acting like he does.

The last thing I need is him making life more difficult and getting involved where he doesn’t belong.

Logan scoffs and shakes his head, perching on the edge of his desk. “I knew that she was a bitch, but I didn’t think she would start sleeping with you to make me jealous.”

I rifle through the files, glowering when I see one of the Lyndes at the top of the stack. “What the hell is this?”

“I told you I was going after them at the beginning of this year. Now we have an in.” Logan smirks and nods to the file, still holding the beer to his eye. “That right there is why you’re not going to make me back off.”

I open the folder, clenching my jaw tight when a picture of Skyla stares back at me.

She’s standing on a deck with Gia Esposito, in the middle of winter, the pair of them passing a cigarette back and forth.

The deeper I flip through the file, the more pictures there are from the past year. Only a couple of them are incriminating. The rest follow Skyla from an obsessive point of view.

Pictures of her changing in her room or walking on the beach with a joint dangling from her lips.

“Are you having her followed?”

“I’ve been the one following her for now. She and her family need to pay for all that they’ve done, and if this is the way to make that happen, then this is the way it’s going to be done.”

I toss the folder into the small trash can beside his desk before grabbing the pack of matches from the ashtray on his desk. “This is going to end now. I mean it.”

“You think that just because she’s your wife, I should drop the case?

” Logan snorts and drops down onto the couch in the corner.

“That’s not going to happen. After all she’s put me through, this is finally going to end.

I’m not going to have to deal with it any longer.

She and the rest of her family can rot in prison where they belong. ”

I swipe the match on the striker, letting the flame glow for a second before dropping it on top of the file. “It ends now.”

He springs to his feet, lunging forward. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

It takes two large steps to get between him and the burning folder.

“I don’t know how clear I have to make this for you, but I’m getting tired of trying.

Skyla is my wife. We are married. The last thing I want is for my wife to spend time in prison.

And I would really hate for my business relationship with her family to fall to pieces too. "

Logan’s upper lip curls, hands balling into fists at his side. “You jumped into bed with my fiancée, and now you’re telling me to back down because she’s your wife?”

“I’m telling you to back down because I’m the one keeping this family alive.”

“And the fact that you went out and married the woman I was in love with shouldn’t have anything at all to do with this conversation, should it?”

“It has plenty to do with the situation.” I smirk as I look down at him. “If you had just kept your dick in your pants instead of sleeping with her best friend, she might still be yours. And as for my marriage, it’s really none of your business since you were the one who decided to cheat on Skyla.”

“And that makes it right for you to swoop in and steal her from me?” He gives a dark chuckle before the tip of his tongue slides along his teeth. “I thought I was your brother.”

“You are. But she’s my wife. And she’s always going to come before you. Now, you need to take a look at the life you have, and you need to get fine with it because it’s the one you chose for yourself.”

The kitchen door closes as Logan dives and reaches for the garbage can, pulling out a couple of scorched pictures that are still salvageable.

He glowers at me as he tosses them to the ground and stomps out the flames.

“What’s that burning smell?” Bella steps into the office and looks down at the ground, her easy smile turning pinched as she sees a picture of Skyla. “Her. Of course. What else would you be worried about?”

Logan winces at the venom in her voice. “Bels, it’s not what it looks like.”

“It never is, is it? You always tell me that you’re done with her and you’re finally going to focus on us and then the next thing I know, she’s found a way into our lives yet again.” Bella crosses her arms under her chest. “What is it this time?”

“Skyla and I are married.” I sit on the edge of the desk, getting comfortable so I can enjoy the shitshow that’s about to go down.

Bella rounds on Logan. “You’re upset because she’s married? You have got to be fucking kidding me. You told me when she dumped you that you were done with her. You told me that you never had any actual feelings for her. What the hell was that?”

I chuckle and nod to the garbage can. “You should see all the pictures of her I just burned. Seems like your husband has been spending his free time stalking another woman. Hell, one of those pictures looked like he tracked her down all the way to her house in Vermont.”

If looks could kill, Logan would be six feet under by now.

Bella’s eyes are glassy, but her face is bright red. “That’s where you went on that business trip before Christmas?”

Logan shrugs, snatching the pictures from the floor like an idiot and putting them back on top of the box. “I told you that I’m trying to get her family locked away for good. Part of that means that I have to follow them.”

She storms over to the box and snatches the pictures before he can hide them. “This doesn’t look like trying to get her family put away. This looks like someone who is still in love with his ex.”