Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
Lucas
A s Freya crumbles before my eyes, my heart shatters into fragments. I want to make it all better, to take away the pain. I collapse onto my knees in front of her, the sharp fragments of rocks and other debris piercing my skin. She throws herself at me, and I catch her in my arms, bringing her against my chest. As she wraps her arms around my neck, I hold her close, feeling the warmth of her embrace and the weight of her body against mine, reminiscent of my mother cradling me in her lap when I was young.
She clings to me desperately, believing I have the power to make it all go away. I want to, but fuck , this is a low blow. He’s dead, and I have no fucking idea how. Nothing goes on in our town without us knowing about it, but this did. Directly in front of us.
Hazen storms off along the tracks with his phone to his ear, and Gage stares at her brother in disbelief. Freya’s sobs reverberate through her small body, and I run my fingers up and down her back, providing a comforting touch. The air is tainted with the unmistakable scent of decay—a smell I’m used to .
Gage kneels in front of us, gently wiping away the tears that trickle down Freya’s cheeks, but she remains motionless.
“I’m sorry, Freya,” he whispers, and she turns away, shoving her face into my chest.
Footsteps crunch against the ground and Hazen reappears. “We gotta go. Clean-up is on its way,” he says, running a hand over his short, clipped hair.
With a sudden burst of energy, Freya moves out of my embrace and jumps up. I follow her.
“No, you can’t take him. No. Please. I won’t let you take him away,” she yells, standing in front of her brother to block him from us.
Hazen takes a step forward, and she growls. He raises his hands. “I’m just getting him taken to someone I know to examine him. To find out who did this.”
“You did this,” she accuses, pointing directly at us. Her gaze lingers on mine, and a heaviness settles in my chest. “All of you.”
“We didn’t do shit,” I snap, vigorously shaking my head.
She can’t believe that we did. We’ve been looking for him, too. Wanting to find him to get our money back. Why the hell would we kill him?
“It’s your fault. Everything is.”
I want to grab her, to never let her go. To make it all better, to take the pain away. But I can’t. She’s right. This is on us. If not us directly, then The Brotherhood, and we are them.
Car headlights shine, temporarily blinding me. The vehicle screeches to a halt on the other side of the fence, followed by the sharp sound of car doors slamming shut. Two of our men emerge.
Hazen points to Alec’s lifeless body, dangling precariously from the edge of the fence. They come over to our side and Freya turns around.
“No! You can’t take him!” she screams, but they don’t respond. While they are pulling him off the barbed wire, Freya desperately tries to climb up by digging her fingers into the fence.
I look at Gage and Hazen. Gage’s face remains emotionless as he watches her attentively. Does he even have a fucking heart? Hazen curses and swiftly wraps his arm around her waist. Even as she thrashes and screams, Hazen refuses to let go, holding her firmly.
They get Alec’s body down off the fence and quickly place him in the back of the van. As Freya’s foot makes contact with Hazen’s, he stumbles backward, his curses filling the air. Then she’s off. With a swift and agile movement, she effortlessly scales over the fence and gracefully lands on the other side. The van pulls out, and she runs after it.
“Go get the fucking car,” Gage yells at me.
It takes me ten minutes to run, get my car, and pull up on our side of the tracks. By the time I return, Hazen and Gage are back on our side, leaning against the fence. Gage’s head is down, his focus on his phone as he madly types away, and Hazen stares off into the distance.
Hazen slides in the back and Gage into the passenger seat.
“Where is she?” I ask, looking between them, and Gage slams his door shut.
“Just fucking drive. She’s gone, and I’ve got the fucking bite marks to prove it,” he growls out, showing me his wrist.
I snort. “Well, fuck. The girl does have bite.”
“Shut up. I need a drink or something heavier to figure out what the fuck just happened and why we didn’t know about it,” Gage says.
I drive off, going slow and looking out the window in the hopes I’ll catch a glimpse of her.
She just found out her brother is dead, after all this time, and all I want to do is hold her and tell her it’s going to be okay. But is it? If I lost my sister, my world would come crashing down, and I’d have no idea how to rebuild from that.
I want to take Freya’s pain away and replace it with love and hope. For a better time and place. Everyone grieves in different ways, and I have no idea if she will ever be the same again.
In the backseat, Hazen sits in silence, his gaze fixed on the passing scenery. His phone starts ringing, and I catch his eye before he answers it. I don’t need any guesses to know who it is.
“Dominic,” he says, and my fingers tighten around the steering wheel.
There’s only one person in the world who scares me, and it’s Dominic. I hate the power he still has over us and can’t wait for the day he retires—or better yet, dies. Then the noose he has tightened around our necks will be free. We will run The Brotherhood how we want to and won’t be dictated to by him. My father thought differently to Dominic. He wanted different things for The Brotherhood, but it always went Dominic’s way. Now my father is retired, cancer slowly eating away everything from the inside out, and there’s nothing he can do.
Pressing his fingers to the bridge of his nose, Hazen listens attentively to his father. Then he ends the call and slams the phone down on the seat, muttering a string of curses under his breath .
“He knows about Alec’s body and wants us to clean it up.”
“Question is, did he arrange the hit or was it someone else?” Gage asks from next to me.
“Nothing goes on without him knowing about it,” I say, stating the obvious as I look out at the dark, empty road.
Hazen shakes his head. “She won’t trust us now.”
“She never did,” Gage says.