Page 81 of Accidentally Forever

Until today.

When Detective Grayson called, letting me know that they’d found something, I made the twins promise to stay at home and only allowed Gray to come because of his personal connection to Nolan. He needed to see this through more than I did. He’s bristling at my side, one of his legs bouncing uncontrollably as he tries and fails to contain his emotions. I reach over and squeeze his thigh. “Breathe, Gray.” I glance up at Detective Grayson across the table. “Now, tell me again what I’m looking at, detective.”

“Noah, please. Jesus, Puma. You’re always so formal. Look, I’ve been trying to crack them for weeks and for a while, I thought we were just going to have to work with whatever bullshit we could drag up. Until the warrant for Nolan’s house pushed through. We found a few things.” Noah flips through a few pages and then points to a slew of pictures.

At first, I have no idea what I’m looking at and then it all makes sense. Nolan wasn’t just a jealous asshole, threatening to ruin our livelihood. Well, he was that but so much more and now I need answers. “Tell me I can fucking talk to him.”

Noah grins. “Why do you think I called you down here? Look, don’t touch him. Don’t even look at him funny. My job is on the line here but I pulled a few strings to work this shift alone. They needed everyone on a case in the city, anyways. So, it’s us three and that poor sucker for a bit.”

Gray cuts in. “Just like that? He’s going to give us all the answers?”

The detective shakes his head, standing up and gesturing for us to follow him. “Not in the slightest. I already got my answers two days ago. Currently sitting in a report on my chief’s desk and it goeswaydeeper than everything we thought. However, I thought you might enjoy him telling it to your face.”

He takes us through a small corridor, down a few steps, the hallway opening up to a long room with several bars along the back wall. My face scrunches up, Noah laughing as he points to the far cell. “It’s not pretty but that’s what the city gets when they give us this stupid cottage looking house for a second station.”

Nolan peeks his head out, his dark eyes meeting mine through the bars. “Came to gloat, hmm? I’m going to jail and all that bullshit. I’m disheveled, haven’t had a good moisturizer in days. Laugh all you want boys. This is as good as it gets.”

Something about how clipped his words are give me pause. There’s something else here and it isn’t just jealousy. “What was the reason, Nolan?” I growl out, resisting the urge to step closer and grip the bars. I want to strangle that man’s neck but it can’t happen.

“You two, all of you really. Thought you were so smart and you still can’t figure it out? It’s about balance. You’ve had everything handed to you. I just thought it was time you felt a little pain. The plan was perfect. All the pieces were in place. Then that fucking Beta had to go and ruin everything.”

Beta? I blink, confused for a split second, before it clicks. Violet. She must’ve caught on, done something to throw a wrench in his scheme. And that’s what’s pissing him off. I glance at Noah as he nods, letting me know that Nolan’s telling the truth. “That’s what this is about?” I hiss. “You tried to destroy us because you think we’ve had it too good? You call thatbalance?” This doesn’t make sense. There’s no reason someone like Nolan would throw everything away for a game like this. It’s too easy.

Nolan leans closer, his voice dropping as he presses his face against the bars. “You don’t get it, do you? It’s not about what you have. It’s about what I don’t. People like you—your pack—you don’t understand what it’s like to scrape by. To see people hand you respect just because of your name. I had to work for everything, Gray. And still, it was never enough. It didn’t matter how much I had in my collection or the size of my house or the Omega I had on my arm.”

I remember the days when I was just starting out, when I took over my family’s fortune and began doing things my way. Nolan and I ran in the same circles but while he fell into the life of a collector, I branched out and became so much more. When the twins and Gray became part of the pack, everything exploded into the masterpiece operation we now have. Never in a million years did I think that Nolan saw that as competition or an issue.

He had always been cordial, helpful, and he liked Gray—even used to make comments about the Alpha before Gray officially accepted my bite. “Filtering bullshit into the art world was never going to give you the status you craved. Because you couldn’t claim it. Sure, you have the riches but there’s no fame that comes from dealing in fakes, Nolan. Where the fuck did you see all this going?”

Nolan sighs, leaning back, his head hitting the stone wall behind him. His gaze settles on Gray, a twisted smile sitting on his lips. It’s almost as if he’s mulling the weight of words, choosing which answer he wants to give. “There’s no point in saying anything to you. I’m sure the papers will blast it to high heaven once the case starts.”

I step forward, slamming my hand against the bars. “And I want to hear it from you. Nolan, you were a business connection, an acquaintance, but more than that a friend. I trusted you. I’m not naïve enough to think that you need to repay those feelings but what you did would not have only ruined my livelihood but my family. Do you see that? Do you even care?” A growl follows, reverberating through the jail room.

Noah clears his throat, raising an eyebrow at me to cut the shit and keep my anger in check. I merely nod at him before turning my attention back to Nolan, waiting for an explanation.

The easy smile on his lips is pissing me the fuck off. “It was easy. Populating the market, making a fortune, bringing in people who wanted to make money too. But then you all showed up and made it impossible. Impossible for me to be the one everyone turned to for their recommendations.” Nolan lets out a heavy sigh. “You ripped the rug right from under me with your fancy suits and pack life that everyone wanted to delve into. It made sense to step up the game.”

I frown, counting back the years when we first met, when everything really started. “Wait. Are you telling me that you built everything around this? That it was never real? Nolan…”

He lets out a sharp laugh, managing a shrug. “Puma, only you would be so goddamn stupid as to think that everyone gets their wealth so legally. I’d look through all those past sales your parents did and their parents did to garner all that money. I assure you it’s not all above the table.”

I know for a fact that everything was above the table because it’s one of the few things they drilled into me. It’s one of theonlythings my father made me promise him every goddamn day of my life—that my business measures would always be pure regardless of the world around me. And I’ve stuck to it because my family comes first and then the art. It’s why in the last two weeks, I haven’t felt the need to jump right back into all this bullshit.

Not if this is what it’s going to get me.

Gray steps up beside me, his anger radiating through his entire body. “So, this was all just a game to you? Just a need to get your audience back, per se? Why the fuck did you keep hiring me?”

“Keep up an image, I guess. I couldn’t outright fire you because then you’d see me working with someone else and besides, you’re excellent at your job. I needed to be the best and you were just right there for the taking.”

That pisses me off but it irritates Gray more. “So just use me while you tear my family apart. And now you’re in jail after running after some game that still doesn’t make any fucking sense.”

Nolan pushes off the little seat, coming to press himself against the bars. Gray and I step back, not really wanting an altercation that will land us in jail. “I know you think I’m Orion or some part of his empire that he built but that’s only half the truth.”

“And what is the whole truth, Nolan? Stop beating around the fucking bushes.”

He doesn’t answer but I’m done playing games. I just want to go home, turn off the world and focus on my mates. Maybe get a little drunk, dance around, and then fuck some of them unconscious. Or maybe we’ll all watch Violet fuck Sofie. We’ve been asking for it but every time it comes up, Violet says she no longer has to work that hard anymore because Sofie has three cocks to choose from.

And then we find Violet washing off that knotty dildo the next morning with a smirk on her face.

---