Page 131 of Dirty Hearts

“I’m sorry.” I spoke first. Really I wanted to say thanks for saving me, but that felt wrong.

“I suspected him, Claudius. For a while. Right back to Henry. It was the way he and his family were taken. The timing and everything. Someone who knew him had to have known all those details. Same with Marissa. Only a few people knew about the safe house. The dead giveaway for me was him taking Ava. Goliath didn’t know Marissa had a twin, and he for damn certain wouldn’t have known where to find her, unless if someone told him. I just didn’t want to believe it was true. That it was Jude. He was my brother. Close to me, like you and Luc, but clearly, that was just in my mind.”

“I didn’t want to believe it either.” I offered. “Even at the last second, before I shot him.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t say something sooner. Maybe things could be different. Maybe not. Maybe this was how it was supposed to be. A person working both sides like that can never truly survive.”

“What do you want to do?” I was well aware that I no longer had The Four anymore.

“I don’t know.”

“You saved me and you saved my father. I couldn’t have done what you did.”

“We all saw that,” said a voice from behind us.

It was Dante. Gio was with him.

Alex smirked when he looked at them. “Did you now?”

“Yes, and you win hands down. None of us can do what you did.” Gio nodded with a lopsided grin.

“We came to find you, boss,” Dante explained. “Ava told us you went out.”

“It’s a bonus you’re here,” Gio said to Alex.

A still silence drifted between us.

“What now. What happens now?” Dante asked, shuffling his weight. “It all feels weird.”

It did feel weird.

“Maybe if we stick together, the weirdness will go,” Alex suggested. We all looked at him. “But next time, if I give any of you cause to not trust me, you have to ask me.” He looked at Dante when he said that.

“Yeah, message received,” Dante answered.

“Me too,” I added.

“And me.” Gio nodded.

“I’m not Jude. I’m sorry for his betrayal. It’s going to take me awhile to get past it, and to… grieve. But you trust me.”

I felt worse.

“It’s on me,” I told him.

He shook his head. “No, no more of that, Claudius. It’s over. It’s as simple as that. If I’m staying, then I want to move forward and be the badass guys we set out to be. Leave the past in the past.”

It was advice I’d take too. I needed to. Leaving the past behind was something I had to do if only for Ava’s sake. There wasn’t a damn thing I wouldn’t do for her.

Not a damn thing. Finally, she was mine, and I couldn’t wait to spend the rest of my life with her.

“Leave the past in the past,” I reiterated.

“Agreed. And The Four still ride?” Dante asked. He looked at each of us. “There’s four of us. We could still be The Four. We just have our leader in the mix.”

I looked at them all and nodded.

“Yes. I like that.” The Four did still ride.