CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Fallon
THE FLASH ON THE BACK OF THE PHONE MADE ME REEL. A phone I realized—by the case covered in brightly colored candy—was mine. My heart thundered against my ribs.
“What are you doing, Evan?” My voice sounded like I’d smoked a pack of cigarettes and chased them with a bottle of tequila.
He lowered the device, powering it off and shoving it into his pocket. “Always with the questions. ‘What are you doing? Why are you doing this?’ And then the begging. ‘Please don’t kill me.’ So boring. So predictable.”
My brain spun in circles, trying to pull the pieces together in a way that made sense. But no matter how hard I tried, it didn’t. Evan was almost a decade younger than Kye. He couldn’t have been involved in the same fight ring. Maybe he’d had an older brother or father who was?
Evan grinned, a smile that showed all his teeth in an almost manic way. “I see those wheels turning, but you’re not asking the right questions.”
Renee made a sound—either protest or warning. I wasn’t sure which.
Evan moved in a flash, pulling out a gun and leveling it at her head. “Shut up, bitch. I’ve had to listen to your screaming for the past two days. I’m done. I wanted you here for poetic justice, but your dead body can be just as effective.”
Renee started trembling, and her jeans darkened where she’d clearly wet herself.
Evan’s face contorted in disgust. “Seriously? You’re pathetic. Almost as pathetic as Kye, assuming I wouldn’t find the security code for his alarm system in the same damn place he keeps all his passwords in his office.”
Dread pooled. That was how he’d gotten in. Kye locked his office, but Evan had always had a set of keys.
“What questions should I be asking?” I rasped, trying to pull the attention back to me and rein in Evan as much as possible.
He shifted slowly, turning in my direction and holstering his weapon. It was then that I saw the knife on his other hip. My mouth went dry as I thought about the people who’d been killed. Stabbed. Likely with that blade.
“You should be asking what Kyler did to deserve this, Fallon.”
My breaths came a little quicker, but I shoved the anger and fear down. Time. It was the only thing I could possibly buy us. “What did he do?”
Evan’s hazel eyes narrowed on me. “He sure as hell didn’t appreciate me. I did everything for him.”
My mind spun as I tried to see things from Evan’s perspective. What had Kye not appreciated? “Everything you do for him at Haven?”
Evan scoffed. “That wouldn’t hurt. A little thank you now and then. But I’m talking about the real work. I’ve done everything to look out for him. Everything to keep him safe.”
A sick feeling swirled inside me as Evan spoke, but I tried to focus and look for advantages. I tested my bindings for what felt like the millionth time. No give. I shook the chair slightly, but it was surprisingly sturdy, given its age.
He started to pace, running a hand through his hair. “When that piece of shit Oren started messing with Kye and Jericho, I dealt with it.”
“You killed him,” I said, my voice trembling.
“Yes, I fucking killed him. Because you sometimes have to do the hard work to protect the people you love. Kye could take a lesson from me. It looks like he’s gone soft.”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from saying something stupid, and the metallic tang of blood filled my mouth. “You were trying to protect him?”
“Yes, I fucking was,” Evan snarled, redness creeping into his cheeks. “That piece of shit said others still wanted Kye back. They wanted him as a full member of the MC again. Thought it would give them clout with the name Kye had built for himself.”
“Kye never would’ve been a part of that,” I said, trying to slow my racing heart.
“I wasn’t taking that chance. Wasn’t going to lose him to those lowlife thugs.”
There was something about that. Lose him. As if Kye somehow belonged to Evan. I couldn’t figure out how or why. Evan had used the word love. Was he in love with Kye? It didn’t quite track.
“I even protected you. Made sure I tailed you after work in case any of those fucking Reapers tried to mess with who he cares about the most.”
“You were on the motorcycle. You shot up that truck.” The realizations came one after the other.
“That dipshit almost hit you. I was protecting you.” Evan’s pacing picked up speed.
“I wouldn’t let them hurt him. Hurt what’s his.
I was gonna protect him like he protected me.
I left him the notes, telling him what I was doing.
Showing him I was looking out. I asked who else needed to go, but he wouldn’t answer. ”
There. That piece of the puzzle helped. “You had to look out for him,” I surmised.
Evan’s steps halted, and then he whirled on me. “But he didn’t deserve it. So much good has happened to him, and he shouldn’t have any of it.”
The panic was back, the fear, but I did everything I could to shove it down. “Why?”
“Why?” Evan demanded. “You’ve seen him lately. Where’s his goddamned loyalty? I’ve always had his back. And now? He wants nothing to do with me. He’s too busy with his new fucking family to remember his old one.”
I struggled to pull together the threads of Evan’s argument, but it wasn’t logical. “You feel like Kye hasn’t had time for you lately?”
The ridiculousness of my statement wasn’t lost on me. Killing people. Attacking me. All because he wasn’t getting the attention he thought he deserved?
A muscle in Evan’s jaw fluttered wildly.
“He threw me aside for his new family. I was so damn excited about Kye giving me a new job, thinking he believed in me. But he just wanted to spend time with those girls Renee spat out. With you. He didn’t give a damn about me anymore.
” He slammed an open palm over his heart.
“I’m his family. Me. I’m the only one who really knows. ”
“Of course, he’s your family. Kye loves you—”
“He doesn’t fucking love me. He doesn’t care about me. I thought he was different. I thought he proved it when he took me in after I tagged his shop. But he’s just like our dad. Selfish. Greedy. Destructive. Only cares about his goddamned self.”
Everything around me slowed. I felt every beat of my heart. The two-part cadence over and over as blood roared in my ears.
“He’s just like our dad.”
“Your dad?” I croaked.
“Our fucking dad,” Evan snarled. And then his chin started to tremble as his eyes filled.
“I just wanted him to love me like a brother should. Came to find him when home got to be too much. But he had everything, and I just got so damn mad. I started spray-painting all over his precious tattoo studio. And then he fooled me. I thought he cared. Took me under his wing. Thought he wanted me in his life. But he just replaced me. New sisters. New wife.”
“Evan,” I whispered. “Kye’s your brother?”
His gaze cut to me, all signs of the tears gone.
“Rex Blackwood is my dad. Or he was. Kye’s my half-brother.
Should’ve been, anyway.” Evan slid the knife from his belt.
“Now, he’s nothing to me. And he’s going to feel that pain.
The same way I did. How it guts you when you lose everything you thought you had. ”