“And if you don’t walk out of this apartment,” Kane growled. “Will that be enough for you?”
“You won’t kill me.” Morgan smiled, completely at ease. “I’ve never touched a hair on anyone’s head, and I never intended to. You may look like a monster, Kane, but you aren’t the monster Big Phil trained you to be … at least, I don’t think you are.”
“He’s not a monster,” Alec cut in, “but I am. I was the one to take Marco’s life, not him.”
Hearing Alec admit he murdered someone crushed me.
“Ah, but that was justified, was it not?” Morgan grinned. “You were horrendously abused because he sold you to people like a pack of cigarettes. I think anyone would say what you did was warranted and then some.”
“Shut the fuck up!” Nico snapped.
Morgan chuckled. “I’m not too sure about you, Nico. I’ve watched your fights over the years, and for a while, I could have sworn you enjoyed hurting other people.”
“You’re wrong,” Damien interjected. “He never hurt any of those fighters more than he had to … He never would have fought anyone if it wasn’t for Marco. None of my brothers would have done any of the things they had to if it wasn’t for him.”
“I think you’re partially to blame,” Morgan said. “Don’t you? I mean, you didn’t kill Trent, but you thought you did. You tried to … You wouldn’t have pulled the trigger otherwise. And all over a girl you knocked up.”
My world crumbled around me.
I froze. “What?”
Morgan focused on me. “That’s one thing I forgot to mention to you. Damien knocked up his girlfriend when he was a kid.”
He sounded like he took pleasure in telling me something that hurt me to hear.
“I thought you were me friend, Morgan.”
“I am,” he stressed. “I’ve opened your eyes to what the brothers really are.”
“They’ve done nothin’ willingly from the sound of it.”
“Agreed, for the most part,” Morgan said. “Except they never told you about their past when all the other girls knew about it. They never told you that you were knocked out the night my brother died and used as a bargaining chip. They never told you because they don’t trust you, angel. They never have, and they never will. Can’t you see that?”
I lifted my hands to my head as it throbbed.
“Shut the fuck up!” Damien snapped, his voice sounding murderous. “Stop playing fucking mind games with her.”
“Mind games?” Morgan repeated. “I’m telling her the truth, which is the least I can do considering you assholes were never going to.”
I felt sick, so I crossed my arms over my stomach.
“Baby,” Damien said, his focus on me and his voice softening. “You know me. You know my family.”
“Do I?” I repeated, looking at the floor. “Do I really, Damien? Because I’ve just learned things about your lives, about my life, that I had no clue about.”
“You have to believe us when we say it was for your own protection, Alannah.”
It was Alec who spoke, but I didn’t react. I kept my gaze on the floor.
“Me protection?” I repeated with a scowl. “Because I’m poor, helpless Alannah who can’t make decisions or fend for ’erself, right?”
“No!” The brothers chorused.
I ignored them.
“I feel sick,” I said, my lower lip wobbling. “I feel like everythin’ has been a huge lie. I don’t know any of you.”
“Lana—”
“Alannah,” I cut Damien off with a bellow. “Stop callin’ me that. You aren’t allowed to call me that anymore. None of you are.”
“Touch her, Carter, and I’ll break your hand.”
It was Kane who spoke, and the tone of his voice terrified me.
“I want you all to leave.”
“No!” Damien snapped after I spoke. “We need to talk about this.”
“Now we need to talk?” I repeated, looking up into his grey eyes where I forced myself to ignore the turmoil in them. “You want to tell me about this mess now, when you’ve had years. Literally fuckin’ years to tell me about somethin’ that I was directly involved in?”
Silence.
“I feel like a fool!” I shouted, my voice breaking. “I feel like a fuckin’ eejit. Did you all laugh at me behind me back because I was so clueless? Did you laugh because you knew I loved you all, and you never cared a fuckin’ bit about me? Did you all get a kick out of it?”
“You’re my sister,” Ryder said, his eyes heavy with sadness. “You watched my sons come into this world. Do you think I’d have allowed that if I didn’t love you?”
I looked away from his daring eyes, unable to form a coherent reply.
“Don’t touch me,” I said when Damien attempted to walk towards me. “Don’t you dare touch me ever again.”
“And that, my friends, sounds like a job well done to me. I’ll take it as my cue to leave.”
Morgan stood up, but none of the brothers moved a muscle.