Chapter Eight #4
Even Revel winces. The words hit hard enough that I physically go still.
Not because I’m ashamed, I mean sure, some shit happened, but I didn’t fuck anyone. Should I have told them? Yeah, maybe, but I didn’t really feel like it was my place to.
How can they be mad at me for not telling the guys who I am, when they haven’t even told our dad about me?
My voice comes out cold. “You do not get to talk to me like that.”
Talon takes a step toward me. “No? Then tell me what exactly I do get to say while my secret sister hooks up with half the men I race beside.”
There it is.
Not just anger, but protectiveness.
Sure, it’s ugly, reluctant, and buried under about eight layers of resentment, but it's there all the same. And the second I hear it, something in me shifts.
Because he doesn’t want to care, and yet he does.
I catch the exact second he realizes I heard it too, and his jaw locks even tighter.
I keep my voice level. “You know what, Talon, you don’t have to like me. But you don’t get to shame me either.”
For one second, I really think he’s about to keep going.
Then Sayshen steps between us.
“Enough.”
Talon lets out one sharp, furious laugh. “Yeah? Still think this was such a brilliant idea?” His eyes slice toward Sayshen. “She’s been here five fucking minutes and already managed to stir up shit in the ranks.”
“Yeah?” Sayshen fires back. “And what exactly did you think was gonna happen when you kept pretending she wasn’t real?”
Oh.
Wow.
We are doing family trauma before lunch.
Draygon looks from one brother to the other like he’s trying to figure out whether this is a team issue, a family issue, or a run-for-cover issue.
Reign picks exactly that moment to walk in, with Lena beside him. They stop dead in the doorway.
Reign takes in the room in one glance—the tense body language, with me standing in Bay Three with a wrench in my hand like a goblin who caused all of it.
Then Lena sees me, and lights up.
“Oh my God, Echo!”
Before anyone can stop her, Lena breaks away from Reign and comes straight at me like I’m the best surprise she’s had all week.
She throws her arms around me, and I catch her automatically, startled into a laugh, and behind her, every male head in the room swings toward Reign like he personally orchestrated this entire disaster.
Reign lifts both hands. “Don’t look at me. I’ve got no clue what’s going on. As far as I know, they’re just mutual friends.”
Lena pulls back, beaming. “What are you doing here?”
“Currently?” I say. “Absolutely destroying the emotional stability of this garage.”
Draygon stares at her. “Wait. You know her too?”
Lena blinks at him, then glances at Sayshen like she’s checking whether she’s allowed to answer. He gives her a tight nod.
“Yeah,” she says. “All of us girls do. We met her for lunch last week. Sorry,” she adds with a little shrug. “I was sworn to secrecy.”
Reign drags a hand over his face. “Right. So this is somehow worse than I thought.”
Thorne mutters, “Brilliant. Just bloody brilliant.”
That’s when Andre walks back out.
He doesn’t even have to ask at first. One look around the garage and it’s obvious he knows something’s up. Not the details, maybe, but definitely enough to clock that whatever the hell this is has officially derailed the morning.
His eyes move over all of us and his expression goes flat.
“What the fuck is this?”
Nobody answers.
Because honestly, where would anyone even start?
Surprise sister. Secret lunch. Bar bathroom. Motel threesome. Hurt feelings, and a team meltdown.
Yeah, no.
He cuts a glance toward the open bay doors, then back at us. “Whatever this is, it’s done in my garage.”
The whole room goes still.
His voice drops lower. Worse. “You wanna tear each other apart, do it on your own time. Not in here.”
Andre jerks his chin toward the prep area. “Suit up, I want you all on the track in ten,”
None moves.
That’s when he barks, “What are you all magically fucking deaf now? Suit up.” That does it.
Reign is first to break, which somehow feels right. He catches Lena’s hand and starts steering her backward toward the side of the garage, muttering, “Right away coach,”
Lena, of course, is still craning her neck like she’s watching the best reality show of her life. “Can I at least—”
“No,” Reign says immediately.
“But—”
“Absolutely not, celona mou,”
She throws me an apologetic look over her shoulder that says we’re talking later, and I already know I’m screwed.
Draygon lets out a slow breath through his nose, still staring at me. Not angry exactly. More like deeply offended and somehow more interested because of it, which feels very on-brand for him.
“This isn’t over,” he says.
Andre doesn’t even look at him. “Did I say keep talking, Draygon?”
Draygon’s mouth shuts as Andre turns and heads back to the office.
Wolfe lowers his head for half a second like he’s hiding a smile, which only makes Thorne look more irritated.
Talon grabs his gloves off the bench so hard the leather snaps and Sayshen rubs a hand over the back of his neck and mutters, “Well. That went well.”
I look at him. “You have a truly insane definition of ‘well.’”
He grins, quick and crooked. “Nobody died.”
“Yet.”
Thorne lingers for one beat too long. Not enough for anyone else to really notice, maybe, but I do. He drags a hand over his buzzed head, jaw tight, bright blue eyes flicking toward me and then away so fast it almost feels like it didn’t happen.
Almost, and just like that, he’s gone too.
Sayshen heads over to his bay, turning to look at me one last time.
“You diagnosed it,” he says, jerking his chin toward the bike in Bay Three. “Now fix it.”
I glance at the bike, then back toward the bay doors where the rest of them are heading out toward the track, then back at Sayshen.
“Right,” I say. “No pressure.”
He folds his arms. “Pressure’s part of the job, lil sis.” and then he walks off too, like he didn’t just experience the world’s messiest emotional pileup within his own team.
The garage goes quieter after that. Not silent. Never fucking silent. Just quieter in a way that lets the morning settle back into itself. Tools. Music. The low hum of fluorescent lights overhead. The sound of the first bikes lining up outside.
I let out a breath and look down at the half-open bike in front of me.
Well.
Guess I’m doing this.
Apparently the morning’s gone from walk into the lion’s den to trigger emotional warfare between three hot idiots and your reluctant brother to prove you deserve to be here before lunch.
Business as usual, really.