“Convenient,” Roman scoffs. “I’m sick of your bullshit story. Last chance. Who were you working with? Someone had to have given you that gun. Was it Ariana? Did she get to you during my father’s dinner?”
“What?” I breathe. “No. Are you that fucking messed up that you just assume every last person is out to get you? Ariana wanted nothing during that business dinner except to get her rocks off. She’s a dirty whore, but she’s not fucking stupid. She was pissed when I turned her down, but she sure as fuck wasn’t plotting some fucked-up revenge against you assholes. Besides,” I add, my frustrations getting the best of me, “if I were going to be stupid enough to try and kill Marcus, I would have slit his throat while he slept and then ran for my fucking life. Only an idiot would have shot a gun in your stupid castle. That bitch set me up. She told me to leave. She didn’t want me here, but I told her no. I didn’t want to leave, and after everything that went down with your father and the fucking Miller brothers, I knew I was safer here, but she wasn’t having it.”
“Come on, Shayne,” Roman laughs. “You can do better than that. At least try to make it believable. You expect us to believe that some hooded bitch just came strolling into our home in the middle of the night, not alerting us or even the wolves that she was there. Somehow pulled up a getaway car to the front fucking doors and got a code to get through the entrance. Right.”
“I swear, I’m telling the truth,” I seethe, trying to pull my back up off the table but the pain that shoots through my stomach keeps me grounded. “She snuck into my room and when I tried to wake Marcus, she pulled the gun and told me not to. She said she wanted me out of here, that she didn’t want me to go through the same bullshit you’d done to her. She said you three were hers, so maybe you should be asking yourself how many crazy bitches you’ve been fucking with. This shit ain’t on me, this is all you.”
Levi growls and takes my chin, forcing my gaze to snap back to his. “You better be fucking careful with what you’re insinuating here because it sounds a lot like you’re blaming my brother’s death on us.”
“Maybe I am,” I spit, that same vengeful wrath bubbling deep inside me. “I don’t know who this bitch is but she sure as fuck seemed to know you.”
Levi’s hand drops to my throat, his eyes narrowing with hostility. “What did Ariana offer you to kill us?”
Fucking hell.
My nails dig into his strong arm, desperately trying to pull it away, my breath coming in sharp, shallow pants. “I told you, she had nothing to do with this, though I wouldn’t fucking blame her if she tried.”
“Well, luckily for your fuck up, she’ll never get a chance,” Roman growls.
Levi releases me and I let out an amused laugh. “You think I’m supposed to give a shit what you do to that bitch? I owe her nothing, but you’re only hurting yourself. After all, you’re the one who’s been hanging off her every word since high school. Tell me, I’m curious how she reels in the famous Roman DeAngelis. Does she leash you like a dog? Spank your ass when you’ve been a bad boy?”
Roman’s hand whips toward me so fast that I don’t see the gun until it’s pressed right against my temple, the metal cold against my clammy skin. “No,” Levi rushes out, throwing his hand up and knocking the gun away from my head. “Not until we have answers.”
Roman’s heated gaze doesn’t leave mine and in a flash, he brings the gun back and shoots.
BANG!
My whole body flinches, pain rocking through me from the movement as the bullet sails straight past my head, lodging deep into the wall behind me. “THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU?” I scream, shoving my hands against his chest to force him back, but my body is too weak to move him even an inch. “I TOLD YOU I DIDN’T FUCKING DO IT. The hooded bitch did. I refused to run and she said she would make me. She shot him. Not me. I tried to stop her. I screamed for her not to do it. He saw her. Marcus saw her, I know he did.”
“WELL MARCUS IS FUCKING DEAD,” Roman roars, his voice ringing in my ears louder than the gunshot.
Tears track down my face and I look back at Levi, the desperation pulsing through me like never before. “I … I didn’t … Why can’t you just believe me? I wouldn’t hurt Marcus like that. I didn’t do it. It wasn’t me.”