Chapter 60 Chase
We’ve been moving through the shipping yard for almost a half hour, containers stretching endlessly in every direction.
We’re in a maze of metal. Gravel crunches beneath my shoes, and the air is polluted with dust that burns the inside of my nose.
Every time a container gets cleared, my nerves spike harder.
“Check the containers again,” Brax mutters into his radio, eyes scanning wildly as he moves with precision. Every few minutes, someone reports back—empty, empty, empty.
“Where are you, sweetheart?” I whisper to myself.
A sharp gunshot cracks through the air.
I whip around, my pulse hammering in my ears. Rudy spins beside me, muscles tensing like he’s ready to move before someone says go.
“Who fired?” Brax shouts into the radio. Another shot clangs against metal, echoing off steel panels.
“I said—who the fuck is firing?” Brax charges ahead, gun raised.
The third shot goes off, and it’s close.
Too close.
I shove my fear down and sprint, ignoring the burn in my thighs. My lungs battle for air, but my mind is focused and locked on one thing.
Erin.
We round the corner.
Everything stops.
Brodie has Erin by the neck and is dragging her backward toward a clear path behind him, a gun jammed into her ribs. Her heels scrape through the gravel, dust spraying up around them.
Rudy skids to a stop next to me.
Brodie jabs the gun harder when he sees us, and Rudy lets out a half tortured, half murderous yell that guts me.
I glance around.
Bella isn’t here.
Where the hell did she go?
“Drop the gun, Brodie,” Brax commands, moving past me as he keeps his attention focused on his brother.
Brodie doesn’t flinch.
Erin’s worried eyes find mine.
“I’m here, sweetheart,” I mouth. “I won’t let him hurt you.”
“You’re surrounded. There’s no way out. Drop it, little brother,” Brax says.
“Or what? You’ll drop me?” Brodie sneers. His gaze flicks to the officers forming a protective boundary line behind Brax. He doesn’t show a lick of fear.
“If I have to,” Brax replies, his attention undeterred.
Brodie’s eyes flicker at Brax’s admission. I can’t tell from what exactly.
“Order them to lower their weapons or she gets hurt,” Brodie shouts.
Brax gives the command, and guns hit the ground in a chorus of thuds.
Brodie nudges his chin at Brax’s men. “Now get them to leave.”
Within minutes, the officers are gone. Just the five of us remain—me, Rudy, Brax, Erin and the man I barely recognize as my friend.
“Now yours,” Brodie orders, referring to Brax’s weapon.
“No can do, brother.” Brax’s voice is tough as steel. “Final warning—take your fucking hands off our sister.”
My head whips to Brax. Rudy’s does, too.
Sister?
I don’t have a damn clue what he’s talking about or how to keep up with the information that keeps coming to light.
Brodie smirks, as if this is old news. Erin doesn’t look shocked, either.
What the fuck?
“Why, Brodie?” Brax asks.
“You became a detective. Chase and Jack had hockey. This was my path. Dad’s path was always mine.”
My world tips.
“The Octopus,” I whisper. The name sticks to my tongue like poison. I stand there in disbelief, staring at Brodie, my head shaking. He’s not just working for The Octopus. “You’re family?”
My gaze drags away from Brax and Brodie.
He’s their father?
Then my eyes shift to Erin.
And hers?
“This didn’t have to be your path, Brodie,” Brax sighs.
“You don’t turn your back on your family. I’m not you,” Brodie snaps, venom in his every word. Hatred oozes off him for the man he once admired.
“You abandoned me when you were fifteen,” Brodie goes on. “Caught Dad cheating before Mom died. You walked out. Never came back. You changed your last name to Mom’s—the name we shared—and built your own family. You left me with him. This is the result.”
“I never left you,” Brax fires back. “He made his choice. I made mine. But I never froze you out. You could’ve come to me. I could’ve helped you.”
Brodie laughs, cold and humorless. “I didn’t need help.
Dad told me everything not long after you ran.
Maybe it should’ve scared me,” Brodie continues, eyes shining with hatred.
“But it didn’t. I was fascinated. People feared one name across the world—The Octopus.
Dad hid behind the distillery in plain sight while building an underground empire. He told me I could be a part of it.”
I try to see the four-year-old boy who used to engage in snow battles with me, but he isn’t there.
“It wasn’t enough for me,” Brodie says. “I wanted my own empire. Not to be swallowed by his shadow.”
“Hidden Access,” Brax mutters.
“You wanted to have the drugs running through it,” I say, the words burning on my tongue. “A secret society.”
How could I have been so stupid?
He had told us about the club.
“Dad didn’t like the idea of a member exclusive room in a nightclub. But he gave me some leash. I just had to prove the drugs in a hidden room could be profitable, rather than his traditional ways.”
“If he agreed, why steal drugs from him in the first place?” Rudy asks. “Seems as though it all went south from there.”
“I stole them before he agreed,” Brodie admits. “Didn’t think he’d notice. I wanted to test the market. It was stupid—reckless—but I handled it.”
“You didn’t handle anything,” I yell. “You threatened Laurel. Manipulated her into coming to us.”
Brodie shrugs, unbothered. “Fate.” He talks about it as if it’s a business meeting where people lost financial investments rather than their lives.
“Laurel was the one listening to my call, looking for your brother. Elliot had called her the night I caught her spying. When I saw his face on her phone, I knew I could use her. Make her do what I wanted. Her connection was perfect. Anyone else wouldn’t have worked. She was collateral.”
“And what was Jack?” Rudy asks.
“I never meant for Jack to get hurt. Just wanted to rile Elliot enough to run him out of town. Didn’t know convincing him I slept with his girl would make him snap. He never stood a chance.”
“You son of a bitch!” Rudy screams. “You were there and you left him!”
“Elliot did nothing to you,” I hiss.
And suddenly, everything aligns.
Elliot panicking in the car, behavior feral. The way he tried to escape. Brodie was there in the back seat.
This whole time I blamed The Octopus, the monster who I thought was behind the curtain, but it was Brodie.
His path. His choices. His hands.
“I did what I had to do to silence him,” Brodie says, voice devoid of remorse.
“What do you mean?” Brax asks.
Ice floods my veins.
Brodie stares at me with an unreadable expression.
“You couldn’t have predicted the crash,” I say. “You couldn’t have known that he’d…”
“No,” Brodie agrees. “But after the crash, he was alive.”
The ground cracks beneath me.
“I crawled to him,” he says. “He saw my mark and knew what it meant. Or knew enough, anyway. I couldn’t risk him talking.”
“Brodie...” Erin chokes out.
“You can’t sleep after you feel someone’s last breath,” Brodie murmurs. “But eventually, you learn to be okay with the dark.”
“You killed my brother?” The words come out slow, heavy, and gritty.
“I didn’t have a choice.”
The words hit hard, rattling deep inside me.
My mind races, a storm of anger, disbelief, and grief crashing all at once.
Everything narrows down to one impossible, undeniable truth—he did it.
My stomach twists violently, a surge of raw panic and rage consuming me, and I lunge.
Rudy grabs me, holding me back. I thrash against his arms, desperate to close the distance.
“Chase, no!” Erin yells, her voice plunging into my head just enough to get me to stop.
I’m powerless. There’s nothing I can do in this moment to end this.
“If he hadn’t gone to the stadium, none of this would have happened,” Brodie mutters. “You should have taken him to the airport, instead of begging him to stay.”
“Don’t listen to him, Chase,” Erin cries.
“Shut up, Lucia!” Brodie jams the muzzle into her ribs. Rudy flinches beside me, his grip still on my arms. Erin steadies herself, shaking her head as if to tell me not to make a move again.
“You did this,” I spit out at the man I thought was my friend. “You’re responsible for it all.”
“You should have left it alone,” Brodie yells.
“I tied up every loose end. After Laurel and Dante, I couldn’t afford mistakes.
My club had to be a success, and now…” His arm digs into Erin’s throat as he holds her in place.
She closes her eyes shut, preparing for the end.
“Everything’s ruined. Because of you.” His gaze shifts to Erin. “Because of who you are.”
“I didn’t ask you to find me,” Erin forces out.
“No one regrets that more than me,” Brodie hisses. “Drop the gun, Brax, and I won’t hurt her.”
Without a word, Brax lowers his gun, eyes still trained on Brodie. He kicks it in the opposite direction where Rudy and I happen to be.
Brodie gives us this wicked grin, like he’s won. He lifts his gun, directing it at Brax, taking aim.
“STOP!” yells a feminine voice.
Brodie’s head jolts to the side, looking for the person in question.
Bella stands there, gun raised, fingers trembling on the trigger while mascara streaks down her cheeks.
“Beautiful, Bella,” Brodie sighs. “What are you doing?”
“You were really going to shoot your brother?” Bella whispers, this horrified undertone in her words as she focuses on Brodie.
Brodie scoffs. “Always worried about everyone else. Drop the gun before you hurt yourself, Bella.”
She grips it tighter.
“L-Let her go.”
“Bella, don’t,” Erin wheezes.
“I’d listen to her, beautiful,” Brodie warns.
“Don’t call me that!” Bella cries. “Was any of it real? Did you ever love me? Or was it all lies to build your secret drug club?”
Red emotion glimmers in Brodie’s eyes for a fraction of a second. “It was real,” Brodie answers.
“Was?” She repeats, trying to keep it together.
“Everything was real,” he says. “Until I found out who she was.” He jerks Erin closer. “Until I realized this bitch could take my birthright. The moment I learned that, I knew I’d lose you, too. You’d never choose me over her.”
“But I did choose you,” Bella whispers. “I loved you and went to California with you.”
“You don’t even know the real me.”
“If you loved me, then let Erin go.”
“I can’t, Bella.”
“Yes, you can.” Bella’s voice shakes, but she steps forward. “I know everything now—who you are, what you did, who your father is. Erin won’t take anything from you. Let her go…and I’ll leave with you. We’ll start over.”
“Bella!” Erin cries.
Brodie’s arm tightens around Erin’s neck.
Bella inches closer, gun still aimed at him. “Let. Her. Go.”
“My beautiful Bella, you’d really hurt me?”
“I don’t want to,” she whispers.
Ever so slowly—Brodie loosens his arm. He drops the gun from Erin’s side. The moment she’s free, she bolts straight for me.
Brodie smirks, “Sorry, beautiful, but you’re no killer.”
My stomach drops as he raises the gun at Erin’s back.
Two cracks ricochet, bullets buzzing through the air one after the other. Time slows down. Erin stops running and turns, looking back at the thing that was about to kill her. Brodie staggers and drops to his knees.
His gun slips from his grasp, and he collapses onto the gravel.
Nothing ever hits Erin. Those shots weren’t for her.
She’s safe.
Cops flood in and swarm us, most likely from hearing the shot.
“Don’t shoot!” Brax yells as they point their guns at Bella. She stands there, a statue with her fingers still on the trigger, smoke curling from the barrel.
Erin makes it back over to Brodie and drops beside him, fingers shaking as she checks his pulse. After a long moment, she pulls back in defeat.
He’s gone.
I walk over and sit beside her, dragging her into my lap. My arms wrap around her in a protective vice.
I need to feel her alive.
Her sob shatters me.
“Shh, baby,” I whisper into her hair. “I’m here. It’s over.” Grief hits me square in the jaw, causing a tear that slides down my cheek as I look at Brodie’s still body, blood soaking into his shirt—an end to our nightmare. “It’s all over now.”
A few feet away, Brax approaches Bella, slow and careful. She still hasn’t moved. She’s probably in shock from everything that’s happened. From her shooting and killing her boyfriend before he could take her sister’s life.
“Bella,” he says. “It’s Brax. You’re okay, but I need you to answer this question for me—can you hear me?”
There’s no response.
“Bells, I need you to give me the gun.”
Still nothing.
Fearless, Brax steps directly in front of her, his body looming over hers. Anyone else would cower at his height, but she doesn’t. His left hand covers the top of the gun, gently guiding it to the ground. His other hand comes up and smooths against her cheek.
“Answer me, Wildfire.”
At that, her eyes flick to his.
Her trance breaks, and panic floods all at once.
“Keep looking at me,” Brax murmurs. “Just at me. Let go of the gun, Bella.”
On a gasp, she releases it and stumbles back immediately, hyperventilating.
Brax hands the gun off to one of his guys, then lifts Bella into his arms. He covers her head with his hand, holding her tight against his chest as she fights with herself to calm down.
“I’ve got you, Wildfire,” he murmurs. “Don’t look. It’s okay.”
He moves with careful steps, turning her away as officers cover Brodie’s body. A silent tear trails down his cheek as he watches them. A hundred questions pool in those dark eyes, but he doesn’t utter a single word.
My gaze shifts to his hand cradling Bella’s head, shielding her from the frightening world around us. I’ve only seen him this protective with one other person.
His son.
Guilt shadows his face. The same guilt I saw every day in the mirror after the accidents.
His eyes land on Erin in my arms. Emotion flares in before shattering. Just as quickly, he pieces himself back together and orders, “Get her out of here.”