Chapter 27 – Alec
ALEC
Her date is leaving.
My shoulders loosen, tension draining out of me as I watch him head for the exit. Alone. But before I can fully relax, fully appreciate the relief of knowing she’s not going home with him, the office door slams open.
And before I know it, I'm being lifted out of my chair by my neck and thrown against the wall.
“What the fuck did you do?” Sebastian shouts. He isn’t small, by any means, but I’m still surprised by his strength as he wraps a hand against my throat and smashes my head back into the wall.
“Take your fucking hands off me,” I command, voice lethally calm. “You’re out of line.”
He presses me against the wall harder. “She’s with him because of you!” he snarls. “She’s dating because of you.”
“She’s dating?” Ashton asks, sounding devastated.
“You let me think it was my fault,” Sebastian says.
I watch the rage on his face slowly morph into betrayal.
“You let me believe the only woman I’ve formed any kind of connection with since…
” He stops, expression hardening. “You let me think I was the one who ruined this. For all of us.” His grip tightens. “When you knew it was you all along.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Ashton demands. “What the hell happened out there?”
“You.” Sebastian turns on him, seething. “Don’t even fucking start with me, brother. You’re as bad as he is!”
“Both of you, take a breath, collect yourselves,” I order, trying to regain some control.
It doesn’t work. Sebastian’s hand grips a little tighter, and my vision starts to tunnel.
That’s enough.
I reach up and grab his wrist, twisting it, and before he can react, I’ve lifted him by the shirt, reversing our positions and slamming him into the wall.
“You don’t get to touch me,” I tell him. He glares down at me, lip curled. “If you ever put your hands on me like that again, I’ll—”
Click.
My entire body goes rigid as something hard presses against the base of my skull. Something that feels suspiciously like the barrel of a gun.
“Let him go,” Viper tells me, voice a low growl.
Fuck.
A slow smile spreads over Sebastian’s face. Glowering at him, I suck in a shaky breath through my nose. “Tell him to drop the gun and back off,” I order.
Sebastian’s grin widens. “Make me,” he purrs.
“Jesus fucking Christ,” Ashton mutters. In my peripheral vision, I can see him pacing, hands threaded in his hair.
“Viper…” I start.
“Let. Him. Go.” Viper punctuates each word by pushing the gun harder against me.
Fine. I drop my hold on Sebastian, slowly raising my hands until the gun disappears, and I feel him shift away from me.
“Someone tell me what the fuck is happening!” Ashton shouts.
Sebastian glares at me, murder in his eyes. “Sydney’s dating. Moving on.” He spits the words at me. “Because she found out all about Sterling’s marriage. Isn’t that right?”
I don’t say a word, don’t bother defending myself. They know now. There’s no more hiding it.
“You’re fucking kidding me.” Ashton looks between the two of us, panicked. “What did you tell her?”
“She found out on her own,” I admit.
“Found his ring, and a picture of her,” Sebastian says. He turns to Ash. “Can you blame her for hating us?”
“No.” Ashton shakes his head, again and again. “No, no, no. You explained it to her, right? You, you…” He shoves a hand through his hair, mussing it. “You told her about Annika, you explained it all to her, right?”
“I tried,” I admit in a broken voice.
“What do you mean you tried?” Ashton’s shout echoes in the small room.
“She wouldn’t stay and listen!” I say. “I tried!”
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Ashton chants, pulling at his hair. “Why the hell didn’t you tell us?”
“Because he’s a fucking liar,” Sebastian spits out. He looks like he might take a swing at me, hands flexing.
“We could have talked to her about it,” Ashton says, his voice frantic. “We could have been making this better!”
“Don’t you fucking start,” Sebastian snaps at him. “You already made everything worse! When were you going to tell us you’ve been meeting up with Annika? Don’t fucking deny it, she saw you two together! You fucking traitor!”
“Back up.” I glare at Ash. “What the hell is he talking about?”
“Okay.” Ashton takes a deep breath and holds his palms out to face me. “Don’t be mad.”
I’m not mad, I’m fucking furious. “Talk. Now.”
“We needed information!” Ashton tries to explain. “To find out what Dante was planning! And I knew she could help! She’s always known, hasn’t she? What was going on behind the scenes?”
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” I fume, storming over to him. “You’re going rogue and making decisions like that without running it by us first?”
“I knew you’d shut me down! Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, right? You taught me that.”
It’s true. That was our motto, working under Dante, making the calls we knew he’d never agree to. Learning how to run an empire on our own.
“I’m not Dante,” I tell him, speaking through clenched teeth. “We make these calls together or not at all.”
Ashton shakes his head, refusing to see reason.
“You wouldn’t agree to it. Either of you.
And I don’t regret it, I don’t regret contacting her.
She confirmed it. Dante’s back, and he’s out for blood.
Annika says he’s using Sydney as a distraction.
” He inhales slowly, glancing quickly at his brother, then back to me.
“There’s more. I think we were wrong about her.
I don’t think she sold us out. She was—”
My phone rings, the sharp sound interrupting him.
“What?” I snap into it when I answer.
A crackle. Then, “Sir, we thought you should know there’s been an incident.”
“Spit it out.” I don’t have time for this. I don’t have time for any of this bullshit right now.
There’s a pause on the other end of the line. “We just found a bomb on the premises. We’re requesting permission to evacuate Oscuro, immediately.”
Such a small thing to cause so much chaos. Tiny enough to fit into a backpack left near the rear door of the club, outside in the alley. Small, but powerful enough that it could have taken down the entire building.
Had we not hired the extra security, they might not have caught it in time.
I stay on the phone with Oscuro’s security team as Earl drives me home, listening to every update, knowing the board will find a way to blame me for this. None of my brothers join me. None of them will even look at me when they leave.
It doesn’t matter. All I can think about is her.
Sydney was there tonight. Sydney could have been in the club when that bomb went off, if we hadn’t found it.
This is more than a nuisance. More than pulling a liquor license, more than siphoning off our income, more than going after our businesses.
This is war.