Page 22 of Cruel Revenge

She’s smiling like she couldn’t be happier, but he looks like he had to be forced to the aisle, standing stiff as a board, glancing at something just behind the camera.

Looked happier when he was engaged to Skyla.

Not that I give a shit. If he wasn’t my brother, I would’ve killed him a long time ago.

Logan takes a look at the picture before putting it face down. “I’m not going to do that. You know better than anyone this is the chance of a lifetime.”

I kick my heels up on the edge of his desk, looking out the window at the backyard where Bella is tending to the garden. “Idon’t care what kind of chance it is. The Lynde family is off the table.”

“You’re only saying that because the little whore got to you.”

My blood boils as my hand drifts to the gun tucked just beneath my jacket in my shoulder holster. “What did you just say?”

I don’t know why it affects me this much that he is badmouthing Skyla, but it does, and I won’t allow him to do it anymore.

Logan eyes me before pushing back from the desk and grabbing the box of files from the corner. He takes it over to the wooden filing cabinet and sets it on top. “I don’t know why you came all the way to my house to tell me to leave them alone. This could’ve been a phone call.”

“A phone call that you would’ve recorded and used against me first chance you had. Luckily, you do too much illegal shit to record things in your own home, you snake.” I gesture to the polyester chair once more. “Now, sit back down and shut up. We have things to talk about, and I don’t want this to take all day.”

His shoulders tense, hands balling into fists. “I don’t know why you think you have the authority to try and control my job like this. The Lyndes are the biggest mafia family on the east coast. They control from Maine all the way down to Florida and over to Ohio and Tennessee. That’s a third of the country, Joshua.”

“I know what they control, and I’m telling you to step the fuck down.”

His eyes nearly bulge out of his head as he stuffs his hands into his joggers. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am.”

“Because the little whore slept with you? Because she put on a show at the club? You know she’s not serious about anything that happened there. She’s just trying to get under your skin and manipulate you. That’s what she does.”

Before I drive a fist through his face or put a bullet in his head, I get to my feet, rounding the desk and stopping to stare out the window.

Bella looks up from her gardening and waves to me, wiping a smudge of dirt across her sweaty forehead before sticking her hands in the dirt once more.

How could she sleep with my brother knowing he was with her best friend?

Logan steps beside me. “The best thing I did was leave that whore.”

Before he can say anything else, I spin and slam my fist into the side of his face, catching him in the eye and sending him stumbling back against the desk.

He groans as his hip collides with the edge.

“What the fuck was that for?”

“Call my wife names again and see what else happens to you.” I stand over him, hands in my pockets.

Logan pulls himself back up to his full height, dropping his hand from his eye and showing off the deep purple bruise forming. “You actually married her?”

“Yes. That would be what wife means.” I pace away from him and over to the box of files sitting on top of the filing cabinet.

Logan barks out a sharp laugh, yanking open the mini fridge beside his desk and pulling out a cold can of beer to press to his eye. “I can’t believe that she was telling the truth.”

“Why wouldn’t she?” I pick up another picture of Logan and Bella, but in this one, he’s smiling big, playing beer pong with his friends when he was younger.

Across the table from him, there isn’t much to be seen, but there is a flash of someone that looks a hell of a lot like Skyla.

This picture must have been taken years ago.

A low bubble of irritation builds in my stomach seeing the torch my brother is still carrying for my wife.

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