Page 75 of Making Choices

“Yeah,” Nate speaks over Wyatt. He slings an arm over his brother’s shoulders and turns him away from me. “We’ll go catch up with Hunt. Better to be a help than a hindrance right now.”

As he leads his brother toward my front door, Nate shoots me a look that would chill the blood in my veins if I wasn’t boiling under Sander’s never-ending glare. Chin jutted upward, he eyeballs me with a similar level of heat as his oldest brother. “Keep me updated. Cherub makes a move, I wanna know. Venom reappears, I wanna know. And, needless to say, our fuckin’ father dares to show his face, I wanna know straight-a-fucking-way.”

“You’ve got a lot of demands for a bloody teenager.” For the first time since he came barrelling down the stairs like his arse was on fire, Sander lets up on his silent indignation long enough to laugh at my retort. I roll my eyes at him, and he scowls, then bites down on his lip to stop himself from smiling when I continue, “Any further orders, your highness, or are we set for now?”

Wyatt steps out of his younger brother’s shadow to say, “There is one more thing.”

“For you, anythin’,” I tell him, mainly to rile up Nate, but also because Wyatt rarely asks for a thing, so I know whatever he wants is important. “Just name it.”

Nate scoffs. “How come he’s not bein’ mocked?”

“Well, I’m not as needy as you for a start,” Wyatt asserts. Flicking his gaze past me to Sander then back again, he does his best to sound confident as he makes his request, “If Toker’s body is found, me, Sander, and Nate need to be the ones who tell Uncle Duke. Aside from Cherub and Fret, we’re all the family he’ll have left, and he needs to hear the news from us if it comes to that.”

“That makes sense. I’ll try my best to make sure it happens that way,” I reply. My lips quirk into the ghost of a smile before I add. “Don’t think it’s gonna come to that, though.”

“Why?” Nate asks.

“’Cause there’s no way he’s gone.” Thumping my fist to the middle of my chest, I explain. “He’s my brother. I’d feel it if he was done for, just like I’d know with Venom.”

Both boys offer me sceptical glances, shaking their heads as they head for the front door. No sooner has it closed, and Sander converges on me with his fingers curled into fists and a black cloud of rage hanging over his head. I hit him with a narrow-eyed stare that warns him how dangerous it would be for him to start swinging at me. Although I can see that he wants to, he relents at the last second. “Dunno who you think you are, but she’s my twin. Somethin’ happens to her, I should know.”

Tilting my head to the side, I run my eyes over his face. “What’re you talkin’ about? No one’s keepin’ you outta anything. You, Cub, and Hunt are the only ones fully in the know about last night.”

“You didn’t tell me about the baby.”

“Fuck.” I scrub a hand over my unshaven chin as his contention hits me full force. With expert precision, I pull my hair free of its band and allow it to settle around my shoulders. As I’m scraping it back into place at my crown, I perch on the closest barstool. Once I’ve worked my way through my ritual and have secured my hair in its normal bun, I swing around to face Sander. “I’m fuckin’ sorry. Wasn’t deliberate. When I texted my mumma with the news last night, I just assumed she would tell everyone, so they’d know to tread carefully when they saw Cherub. Shoulda known Mumma’d have more discretion than that.”

“I made an absolute dick out of myself when I saw the blood.” He pulls himself up onto the counter next to me and flops on his back with his hands covering his face. The long exhale he makes is filled with exhaustion and despair. It matches everything I’m feeling, so I don’t bother to tell him to get his dirty arse off my kitchen bench. “This is my fault.”

“No, it’s not.”

Another drawn-out puff of air. “Yeah, it is. I told her to trust him. Fuckin’ begged her to let him deal with Alex.”

“By him you mean Venom?”

“Yeah.” With a sound that’s close to a full-blown sob, Sander rolls onto his side. I peel his hands from his face when he makes no move to remove them and instantly regret it. Blotchy faced, with red-rimmed eyes, and a heartbroken expression that stabs me straight in the heart, it’s clear Cherub’s brother is on the verge of losing it. He slowly meets my gaze, chin wobbling as he says, “Cherub warned me. She told me it’d come down to her killin’ Alex before he could kill her, and I laughed at her. Said she was wrong. That Venom would look after her.” He sniffles. I squeeze his forearm. “I fucked up so bad, Slash. Every single fuckin’ evil thing he’s done to her falls on my shoulders. It was bad enough before… with Alex nearly killin’ her… but n-n-now, my stupid advice has cost her the one thing she’s always wanted.”

“You can’t blame yourself for Alex’s depravity. He was munted in the head. Motherfucker was always comin’ back for her—it was only a matter of when. And you weren’t the only one who thought we could outsmart him, we all did.”

“He killed her baby. My niece or nephew. Could’ve been one of each since twins run in the family. Cherub ain’t gonna move past this—Venom’s gonna kill m-e.” Sander’s voice cracks and he screws his eyes shut. Fisting the front of his shirt, I pull him until his upper body is off the counter and his nose is pressed to my chest. It’s awkward, but I hold Sander, tight as I can manage in our current position, as he finally breaks. In a flurry of hiccupped words and sobs, he purges his conscience. “All ’cause I stood up to him for what he did to Cub. All ’cause he’s a fucking psycho who can’t cope with bein’ told no. All ’cause—”

I’ve heard enough. “It’s fuckin’ Brutus’s doing. He’s workin’ with the Maddison clan, workin’ with Joseph. Hell, he was, no doubt, workin’ with fuckin’ Alex until Cherub emptied a clip into him.”

My tirade lasts mere seconds, but Sander somehow manages to morph from a blubbering mess to stone in that time. The look he gives me when I succeed in halting the verbal diarrhoea that’s gushing from my mouth could peel paint. He pushes me away from him and slides off the kitchen counter to his feet. I press my lips together and brace for him to blast me with both barrels. Then, once he’s finished with me, I’ll have to put my balls on the line to atone for my motor mouth by calling my dad, or worse, Venom, to let someone in our circle know that I’ve just spilt my guts to one of Brutus’ kids—one who doesn’t wear a patch and has shown little sign of loathing his father like Cherub and Fret do.

“I’m guessin’ this is club business?” Sander proves that he’s not a stupid as he may sometimes lead the rest of us to believe. “Also, guessin’ I needa keep this shit to myself.”

“Would appreciate if you could keep this to yourself.”

Surprise flickers across his face. “You’re not gonna tell the Shamrocks that I know?”

I shrug. “Not after last night’s drama.”

“What about Venom?”

“Needa know where he is to tell him shit.”

Sander snorts, then he rolls his eyes. “Can’t believe he left her in this state.”

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