Chapter 41
Kane
Friday night, fucking game night. Energy hung over the warehouse, a crowd of people who hadn’t scored tickets hosting a party outside, and extra crew on the doors. It felt like a fucking festival, people cheering with drinks raised whenever cars pulled up with contestants.
Shoving my hands into my pockets, I scowled. I wasn’t here for that shite. A couple of nights ago, I’d told Arran and Tyler that I was out. Arran had given me time to think it over and told me to stay away until now.
He commanded that I had to see him face to face in order to quit. I was no coward. Not for this anyway.
My phone buzzed with a text.
Mila: Are you here?
I thumbed an answer to my sister, telling her I was outside.
She’d asked to see me, so this last visit would kill two birds with one stone.
After I’d cut all ties, I was driving to London where I’d take a contract made of violence and threat.
It felt empty. I didn’t need the money anymore.
But that wasn’t the only appeal: I never had to make a decision based on emotion again.
I leaned against my car and waited, curling my lip as another cheer went up for some arsehole who’d arrived with his shirt off, ready to play. He beat his chest and threw his arms up for more applause. Fucking idiot.
Mila stepped out of Divine’s entrance, the neon pink in her blonde hair and her boyfriend a shadow at her back.
At any other time over the past couple of months, I would have felt regret at doing this. Some part of me cared about my sister, but I’d buried that deep.
She stalked over with her arms folded. Convict gave us space but stayed near enough to be there for her. To my surprise, Tyler morphed from the shadows, copying Convict’s steady gaze on me. Fine. Easier to cut the cord out here if that’s what they wanted.
“Look what the cat dragged in.”
I matched Mila’s stance. “I’m only here to officially quit. Then I’m leaving Deadwater.”
Something I didn’t recognise rippled across her face. Not dismay as I’d half expected. Good. It was better if she didn’t give a damn.
“Is that so?”
“It is. Before I go, I need to tell ye something else. When it comes to the vote, I’ll be siding with your grandmother.”
“You’re voting to shut down Marchant Haulage?”
I confirmed it with a sharp jerk of my head. “Hate me all ye want, but it won’t change my mind.”
Mila exhaled in exasperation. Then she reached out and flicked my forehead.
“Don’t come at me all stone-cold attitude and assume you know how I feel.
You don’t because you’ve never asked. I don’t even know where I stand on the family business anymore.
I was only pushing in one direction for the vote because of you. ”
She raised her eyebrows in challenge, but I only stared. The company had been her life. We’d fought together but for different reasons, and I’d thought hers just as strong.
She kept up a steady glower. “If you do want to know my opinion, I still believe in our grandfather. He was the person who had my back and gave me opportunities I am endlessly grateful for. But his company is a different matter. It might have been his legacy, but there are too many unanswered questions about how it operated and the evils that took place in its name. We haven’t even started getting to the bottom of that, and you come here telling me you’re running away? ”
I locked my jaw, sullen. It was the only way I could handle this conversation.
She wasn’t done. “What happened with Lovelyn?”
A bolt of pain struck through me.
Mila’s focus sharpened. “Talk, because there’s something you need to know. I’m only going to tell you if I hear your side of the story first.”
“We’re nothing to each other.”
“Why?”
“She deserves better than me.”
Outrage filled her eyes. “Are you kidding? You made her happy. That’s what she deserves.”
The fuck it was. “You said yourself you couldn’t imagine how she’d put up with me. Now she doesn’t have to, you’re complaining?”
Her mouth fell open. She closed it, sorrow flickering over her features.
“You took that seriously? I’m sorry. I was teasing you, like siblings are supposed to.
I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I didn’t even know you had any.
” She palmed her neck. “I realise how ridiculous that sounds. Of course you do. God, did I contribute to this mess?”
Some injured part of me inside panged. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does. I fucked up. I’m really sorry for what I said.
I wish we’d been raised together so we had any kind of shared history or insider stories I could lean on now.
You don’t know what it means to me to have a brother.
You’re my family. I’ll put you first any time, and one day we’ll get this sibling thing right, but before then, you need to hear this.
Lovelyn is spiralling. She thinks you don’t care about her. ”
“I—”
Her expression shifted to serious. “Don’t deny it. She’s in trouble, and I know you’ll want to help.”
I shut up because it was true. For days, I’d tried to maintain the wall Lovelyn claimed I’d put between us, but one hint of her being in need and I was a desperate man.
“Out with it.”
Mila’s words landed like bombs. “You need to hear what she’s chosen to do.”