Chapter 58
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
boston
I’m chatting with Saltzy and the boys, expertly avoiding her so that I don’t lose my mind and do something stupid like try to get her attention.
I’ve put as much distance between us as possible, ensuring nobody will pick up on the tension, trying my hardest not to hurt her at the same time. I’ll hurt myself over and over instead.
But then Forker calls my name.
I turn, but it’s not Fork storming toward me at all.
I’ve seen that look. Many times. I’ve backed up that look, laughed in the background as it led to broken bones and teeth spat onto the ice. It’s not funny now. I’m not fucking laughing. I’m tough, but Forker is unstable, and he’s aiming that look my way for the first time in my life.
He knows.
My whole body goes cold.
He doesn’t see anyone else anymore. They’ve evaporated into the background.
The world around us is blurred and unimportant.
Those blue eyes have found their target, and he never fucking misses.
He also never loses, not when this guy takes over.
I’m fighting a losing battle, even if I dared to hit him back—which I won’t.
“Boston,” he says, and it doesn’t even sound like him. He sounds possessed, like he’s no longer in control of himself. “Are you…?”
“Fork,” I say carefully, slowly placing my glass of whiskey on the table. I need to calm him down, but have no clue how to make that happen. I need to get him out of this bar before this escalates.
He blinks, but there’s nothing going on behind his eyes. He angles his head, like he’s piecing things together with each step he takes in my direction. “Are you…sleeping with my sister?”
Reno chokes on his drink, spewing beer across the high-top table at my back.
I bite back a groan of frustration. I should have owned this months ago.
Then, it was over, and I didn’t see a point in doing it anymore.
There was nothing left to tell. It’s done.
This is the worst possible way he could have found out, especially since I don’t even have her anymore—she’s lost to me, running away like she should.
“Forker,” I say quietly, ignoring the prying eyes of our teammates. I raise my hands, armed with apologies, not excuses. Saltzy is watching carefully nearby, and he’ll lose his shit if this comes to punches. “Let me explain.”
Something snaps then. Those three words were all the explanation that he needed.
In one swift movement, Forker lunges forward, grabs me by my shirt and tugs me to him.
He headbutts me with so much force that I’m not sure where I’m bleeding from, but I know there is blood everywhere.
I fly backward into the table behind us, landing on the pitchers of beer and drinks, tossing glass all over the laps of Reno and the rookies.
I feel hands on me, trying to help me, but Forker is faster.
I’m up again, but not by my own doing. Forker yanks me to him by the fabric of my shirt, eyes ferocious and terrifying.
“Brothers, huh?” he spits in my face, and I can’t even argue. I have to let him feel what he has to feel—work through this the way he knows how. “That’s my sister! That makes her your family, too. Your duty is to fucking look out for her the way anyone on this team would!”
I was.
I promise, I was.
“You’re a fucking waste,” he seethes, pulling back. He punches me hard in the jaw. I think he got my ear too. It’s ringing as I fall backward, but he keeps me upright. My vision is blurring. “No loyalty. Never had any, have you?”
This hurts. The blows from his hand and his words.
“Forker!” someone is screaming. The voice is loud, deep, and furious. “Fork! Stop!”
My eyes roll forward to meet his. I am no coward. I’ll let him have this conversation, regardless of how badly it kills me.
“Is that why your mommy and daddy picked the drugs over you, Boss?” he says, laughing a dry laugh. It hits me where he knows it will, right in the heart. The only weapon that stood a chance. The blade pierces me, but it’s by my own hand. I did this.
“That’s enough!” That’s Lowesy.
Forker can’t hear anyone around us.
“I’m going to fucking kill you,” he hisses, and he’s punching me again. This time, he isn’t stopping. I do everything I can to protect myself without hitting him. I won’t. Not now. Not ever. Regardless of what he said, I am his brother. I won’t hit my own.
“That’s enough!”
I’m on the ground now, glass piercing my back.
I groan, rolling onto my side, forcing my eyes open to make sure I’m not dead.
I spit out a glob of blood. My team is surrounding us, and one look above me has me wanting to fucking die.
Declan is holding Forker back, and there’s no way that he could do that on his own if Forker really wanted to hurt me.
The look on Fork’s face is devastated, shattered, and… I betrayed him.
That’s not the worst of it.
Ariana stands between us, her blonde ponytail swishing behind her as she screams bloody murder at her brother who is finally—finally—looking elsewhere.
His eyes are glued to her, face red and fists clenched.
Declan has him by the collarbone, but he would never hurt his sister. Lowesy is protecting me.
Ari holds a broken beer bottle at her side—like she’d ever fucking use it on him. It breaks me a bit, seeing her armed and ready for battle, standing in between me and an atomic bomb.
“It’s over!” she’s screaming, her voice so raw that I wonder how long she’s been yelling. “It’s not his fault, it’s mine. I knew what I was getting myself into. This is my fault, okay?”
“You had to go there, didn’t you?” Forker shouts. “I move you out here. I take care of you. I ask for one thing, Ari—One! Stay away from my team!”
“I love him,” she says, her voice breaking. My heart sinks, eyes fluttering closed. Forker blinks, startled by those words. “I didn’t mean for this to happen, but I pursued him, okay? I did this.”
I cough, brushing glass off my shirt. Hands find me, helping me up. It’s Saltzy, Reno, and Oz. Saltzy’s grip is tight on my shoulder. He isn’t going to let me go. He’s going to guard me and my broken body now, even as he shoots me a look that screams ‘you’re the stupidest man on planet earth.’
I grunt in response, spitting out another mouthful of blood. I’m well aware.
“Go home,” Forker demands. “Now.”
“No,” Ari says, shaking her head. “I’m not leaving you in the same room as him.”
This isn’t her fight. I can take it.
“Fine,” Carter snaps, eyes flashing to me for a quick second. “Then, I’ll take you home.”
He shouldn’t be driving. Not like this.
“Fine.”
Again, his blue eyes find mine over her head.
He steps forward, but Declan’s still on him like a straitjacket.
Carter reaches his sister and slowly pries the beer bottle from her hand, tossing it to the ground.
It shatters, and in the same second, so does she.
Her shoulders shake, but I know she won’t turn and meet my eyes.
She won’t ever look back again. I don’t blame her.
Carter does though, even as he tucks his sister under his arm and passes her to Declan, who automatically guides Ari outside, away from this—away from me.
Saltzy’s hand snaps outward when Carter gets too close, stopping him from reaching me.
Carter smirks, like he’d break his arm if he still wanted this fight. He’s breathing heavily out of his nose, a look of pure disgust on his face.
“Forker,” I say quietly, my voice an apology in itself.
“You’re dead to me,” he says with conviction. He rolls out his shoulders, glancing at the teammates by my side. His eyes flicker back to mine. “Talk to her again and I promise you, I’ll ruin your career.”
“Fork,” I beg.
His nostrils flare, getting in my face. “I expected more from you, brother.”
“I’m sorry,” I say, flinching through the blinding pain.
He scans my face, expression still full of fury. “That doesn’t mean shit coming from you. You are dead to me. You no longer fucking exist. Fuck you, Boston.”
I swallow, my head dropping a bit with the weight of my shame.
I nod, accepting it. There is no way this conversation ends positively.
If I keep talking, I’ll just get hit again.
I might force Ari into a worse spot with her brother, too.
So, I shut up. I accept my death notice, and I let him choose when he wants to rip his glare away from me and storm out of the bar.
The second he’s gone, all eyes slowly turn to me.
I blink through the pain, sure that something is broken and that I’m covered in blood.
I glance across the room toward our booths, where Arden is standing with her phone, arms wrapped tightly around herself, Whitney and Autumn flanking her.
I don’t know if I’ve ever seen her look afraid of him before, but she does right now.
Caulfield slides past her, a pile of jackets in his hands. He walks right toward me, ignoring the rest of the team, and puts a hand on my shoulder. He says nothing, just guides me away from the scene.
“Wait!”
We freeze.
Arden hurries toward us. I brace myself for yet another lashing, but she doesn’t yell or lecture me. She searches my face. “I need to examine you. I can’t…I can’t let you leave without—”
“He’s not fucking staying here like some piece of entertainment,” Saltzy snaps, pushing me forward gently. He shoots her a hard look, one that she doesn’t return. “I’ll get him looked at.”
Her brown eyes slide to me, regret sweeping between the both of us.
“Happy Birthday,” I say weakly.
Her eyes soften, brimming with tears. “I’m sorry.”
Wyatt and Saltzy flank me as we leave the bar, right into Caulfield’s truck. They take me to the hospital, sit with me while I wait, and nobody says a fucking word until I finally decide that this silence is agonizing enough. I need out of my own head.
“What the fuck do I do now?” I grumble.
Wyatt lets out a long breath, placing a sturdy hand on my shoulder.