Chapter 62
PIERCE
Ihad just grabbed the barrel of the gun and pointed it to the side before he fired.
Pain shot through my head as a loud ringing drowned out everything.
Jameson came at me again, eyes wild, his fists raised. I took the hits. As much as my little brother was a fuckup, the man knew how to throw a punch.
This wasn’t about money anymore.
It wasn’t about our legacy.
It wasn’t about our name.
The only thing I gave a fuck about was the fear in Madison’s eyes. The way he tore at her clothes and the things he was about to do to the woman I loved.
Lightning struck, and a window on the far side of the room shattered, and as Jameson looked to see what happened, I had my chance. One hit straight to the gut to make him double over, and then another to the jaw to throw him off me. I rolled over on top of him, and I didn’t stop.
Greyson pulled me off him. “If you kill him, you go down for murder. Then who’s going to protect Madison?”
I spat and struggled against Greyson’s arms while Jameson got to his feet.
His shirt was soaked with blood and more leaked from a cut in his brow and from the corner of his mouth as he stared at me, grinning, his teeth bathed in red.
“This is your fault. This has always been your fucking fault. You stole everything from me. I was supposed to be the oldest. I was supposed to be first. You took my inheritance, the family business, all the money and then you took my woman.”
“I fucking earned it,” I yelled back. “It was supposed to be ours, but you were too busy being lazy and entitled to work for it—like I did. And Madison—Madison is mine. She has always been mine. She was never yours.”
I shrugged Greyson off and took a step back. “Get him out of my sight.” Our father’s last words to Jameson, exactly.
Jameson tore free of Greyson's grip before the words were fully out of my mouth.
He screamed and lunged at me.
I tried to move, but Jameson expected it and knocked me behind the desk.
I could hear Greyson and Jameson struggling. But I was done. My brother was never going to stop. He would keep coming at us even if he was in prison, until he had succeeded in killing me which would leave Madison vulnerable. I swore never to let that happen again.
I reached into the drawer, pulled out the revolver and pointed it at Jameson.
He laughed. “What are you going to do…kill me? What will to happen to the precious family name and fortune then?”
Jameson shifted his weight—just enough—and I adjusted my aim.
He couldn’t know that I didn’t give a damn about any of that anymore.
This wasn’t about the Worthington name or fortune. Caring too much had led to a life filled with the constant hunger for more while never feeling sated. A soulless vacuum of empty ambition. I wanted more from life now. More meaning. More emotion. More life.
I owed Madison for that…for everything. It was through her that I now had a chance at leading a life of purpose and not just acquisition. A life filled with love.
But first, I had to protect her from my brother’s twisted ambition.
Because I knew my brother was as stubbornly fucked up and flawed as I used to be.
He’d never get over this failure.
“Didn’t you hear?” I pulled back the hammer with my thumb. “My brother is already dead. He died in a car accident. I know—I was at the funeral.”
Jameson’s grin didn’t break. But his eyes went still. “You bastard, you planned this. You planned all of it.”
“I learned from the master. Whether you believe it or not, at first, I was going to let you live. Then you threatened the woman I love.”
He laughed. “Love. What a fucking joke.”
“Skylar would have loved you.”
“The love of a whore cheaply bought. Just like your precious Madison.”
I slowly shook my head as I tightened my grasp on the gun. “Careful, brother. This is your only warning to watch how you speak about her.”
His jaw worked. For one beat, the rage slipped. What was underneath was worse. The face of the boy I grew up next to, the one who used to cheat at races before everything between us went to rot.
Then he sneered. “Or you’ll what?”
For what we were…for what we could have been…I tried one last time to reason with him, with the brother he could be if he wanted. “I didn’t ask to come first.”
“But you did. You always did. Father made sure of that. You had his full attention. It was you he was proud of. You who could do no wrong in his eyes. You were always his only heir.”
“You were there beside me.”
“I was behind you. Always behind you. Do you know what that does to a man? Thirty years of standing in your shadow?”
“Don’t blame me for Father’s failings. I always treated you like an equal.”
“We were never equal,” he shouted as spittle formed in the corners of his mouth. “I was supposed to be first. It was all supposed to be mine.”
“Not anymore.”
He bared his teeth. “It’s not over yet, brother. You don’t have the balls to kill me. The moment you realize that I’m going to put a bullet in you. And then I’m going to fuck that whore you call a bride and then ki—
I took the shot.
He collapsed, and I stood over him while blood—our shared blood—poured out.
He tried to get up, tried to fight it.
I put my foot on his chest, holding him down. I stared down into eyes so much like my own. “I warned you. It didn’t have to be this way.”
“You would have never given up the money. The legacy.” His voice was raspy as the blood pooling under him spread.
“If you had come to me. If you had walked in and said you wanted out. Wanted your own name, your own company, your own life built on something that was actually yours. I would have handed it over and never looked back.”
He stared up at me. His mouth opened. Closed.
I didn’t look away. I made myself hold it. Those eyes that were mirrors of my own. Thirty years of the same face looking back at me from a stranger.
His chest shuddered as he forced out the words. “Fuck you and your whore wife.”
"It was never about the money," I said. My voice came out quiet. Even. "I would have worked it out with you. But then you touched what was mine."
I raised the gun.
With that, I put a final bullet between his eyes and watched as the life faded from him.
Madison launched herself into my arms.
“It’s over,” I whispered against her hair. “Just like I promised.”