Page 41 of Secret Betrayals

“Boys,” I try, voice trembling. “That’s enough—”

No one hears me.

They’re too far gone.

Axel jerks forward like he’s ready to lunge, Nitro barely keeping him back. “Well, explain to me,” he shouts, “how in the fuck—after yourwhore of a mothershows up—my brother ends up in the hospital?!”

His words hit harder than his hands ever could.

Something inside me fractures.

But before I can move, Sebastian surges forward like a bomb about to detonate.

“Man, you gotone more motherfucking timeto call my mamma out her name.ONE. MORE. TIME,” he snarls, fighting against the men holding him back like they’re nothing but tissue paper.

Axel’s face twists into something ugly, venom in every syllable. “If notthat whore,thenwho the fuckwas it? If my brother doesn’t make it out of surgery whole, it’s war.WAR,you hear me?”

He yanks free, pointing at me like I’m the devil himself. I don’t flinch. Idarehim. But before I can say a word, Sebastian explodes.

“I swear on everything I love, this fucking family is full ofdumb motherfuckers!Was anybody listening?! Does that piece of shit ever listen?”

He spins toward Axel’s retreating back, voice raised, wrath barely restrained.

Malikai stands still, calm as a tomb, his words ice-cold. “You motherfuckers aren’t worth it. You never were. Never will be. I thank fuck every day we weren’t raised by you fucking idiots. You’re just as big a piece of shit as our father.”

Axel freezes in place.

Then he turns slowly, murder in his eyes.

But one of his brothers steps in and blocks him again.

My pulse spikes. My jaw clenches.

He got me once, but therewon’tbe a second time.

Iwisha motherfucker would.

“You come at us again,” Sebastian warns, his voice low, his eyes dark and wild. “We’ll fuck your world up. Might not be today. Might not even be tomorrow. But wewill.That’s not a threat. That’s apromise.And we’re real fucking good at keeping those.”

I close my eyes for half a second, trying to slow the tremble in my chest. Trying to calm the storm boiling under my skin.

But the truth is…

He means every word.

And that terrifies me.

Because he gets that fromme.

I blink hard, fighting to focus, but it’s like my body is moving underwater. My voice comes out hoarse, barely there.

“What the actual fuck is going on?” I whisper.

It doesn’t sound like me. Doesn’tfeellike me.

I’m lightheaded. Dizzy. My head throbs where Axel slammed it back into the wall. My thoughts are jumbled. My vision’s hazy. I try to piece it all together, to make sense of the betrayal, the chaos, the rage… But I can’t because Ichecked everythingbefore I left. I made sure the club was stable. There wasnothingthat suggested this level of chaos. No warning.

So how the fuck did we get here?