Page 10 of Reid
Dad’s grumbled question barely penetrated my mind, along with Matt’s guffaw.“Best Friday night we’ve had in a long time, brother.Look at this shit.Maybe I’ll be getting a pretty little daughter-in-law soon too.You don’t get to call dibs on this one.Elias already locked down Sammy.”
If Chance heard his dad, he didn’t react.He didn’t so much as blink as he stared up at the beauty, his eyes intent, waiting for her to put him out of his misery.
Without conscious thought, I stepped forward, bumping into people who were standing shoulder to shoulder to get a better view.Kill him.I was going to kill my cousin.Right here.Right now.Didn’t care that three hundred people were standing around with their phones out.Didn’t give a single fuck that I was going to spill the blood of a man who was not only related to me but had guarded my back for three decades.I didn’t give a damn that I loved him like a brother.
He was touching what was mine like he had every right to.And I wouldn’t let him breathe another minute for making that mistake.
As I got closer, more of the people at the table came into focus.Sammy discreetly pulled her sister-in-law’s chair back from where Everly was sitting, putting distance between Abi and Chance.
The action caused Chance to move closer to Everly, instinctively shifting to protect her.When it came to Sammy, no one ever really knew who her prey would be.He wasn’t going to risk Everly.Movement beside my cousin caused me to lift my eyes from Everly to the woman standing on his right?—
Also Everly?
I blinked, then blinked again.Confused at what I was seeing, I felt like my head was splitting down the middle as I looked back and forth between the woman Chance was on his knees in front of—unknowingly about to die for—and the clone standing beside him.
“What the fuck is going on?”Choking out the question, I rushed forward.My heart was beating the hell out of my chest, the damn thing feeling like it was getting kicked in every direction as I struggled to wrap my mind around everything.
Chance stood slowly, suddenly sensing my mood and putting himself between the girls and me.Around us, every person in the bar tensed, bracing for the impact.I sensed my MC brothers moving closer, waiting to see what would happen.
They approached, knowing how bloody it would be if Chance and I threw down.Hellfire would ensue because there were too many innocents in the line of fire.Chance was dangerous.He and Max couldn’t get along for five full minutes because they were too much alike, the two of them wired like every other Reid male.
And then there was me.Methodic yet unpredictable.Mellow, easygoing, the sane Reid—until I wasn’t.And then I was a storm, a fucking hurricane.Slow to build, quick to destroy, impossible to stop.
I met Chance’s gaze—and I saw it.That switch had been flipped for him like it was for me.Obsession.The kind that drove a person past the point of no return, the kind that rotted a soul from the inside out all too easily if not tended to.Calmed.Nurtured by the one who had infected them.
We’d laughed when Max had become possessed with the madness for Delaney.Joked and pretended we thought it was hilarious that the crazy bastard was capable of feeling anything, but especially something as stupid as love.
Before that, we’d gotten a taste of that intensity when Lyric had appeared out of nowhere, uprooting his life to be close to Mila.After a single night with her.Less than that, a look.A vision of a new future after a single smile.Gian showed us his crazy for Monroe.And Maverick had always been lost to River.That was still something that messed with my head.That Mav had known from childhood who his forever was.He’d never looked at another girl.Never tasted anyone but River.
How the fuck did he know?I’d asked myself that a hundred times, but I’d never understood until I saw Everly.
We didn’t blink at how gone Ryan was over Nova.No one questioned it, but that was around the time I really started to get envious.That was when all the fucking around had stopped being fun and I’d been waiting for my turn.When Jack had found it with Nishia, I’d gotten antsy, hoping I’d find mine soon.
It had burned when Elias found his place with Sammy, not because I felt anything for her.For all of two seconds, I’d tried to tell myself there was something, but it hadn’t sat right.And now I knew why.
I’d been waiting for Everly.
Chance finding his switch-flipper wasn’t something I could blame him for.It was that she could possibly be mine that had the angel of death standing over him.Fuck, from the look in his eyes, the jealousy that flickered in those icy-blue depths, maybe the angel was there to take us both.If he felt even a fraction for the girl behind him as I did for Everly, then I knew he wouldn’t hesitate to gut me to keep her.
Ripping my gaze from his, I looked at the blonde still seated then to the one standing.They were beautiful, no doubt about it.Young.Sweet.Too good for Chance.Definitely too good for me, too.But that didn’t stop the ache deep inside me.Or the madness from festering.Rattling around in my head, scratching at the walls of my sanity to take.What.Was.Mine.
I watched them both closely, searching for some kind of sign that would tell me which of the two girls was my Everly.They looked exactly alike—a literal copy-paste, matching pair.Hair curled the same, makeup identical, outfit from the dress to the shoes a replica.
What kind of fuckery was this?
Not even a hint of recognition was visible on the face of the one seated when she glanced at me.Just a cute frown as she narrowed her eyes on me.That instant pull I’d felt the day before when I first saw Everly wasn’t there.Nothing inside me was drawn to her other than the need to understand why this young woman looked exactly like the girl who already owned me.
Some of the pressure in my chest eased.Chance wanted her, and he could have her.I wasn’t going to kill him over someone who wasn’t Everly.I turned to look at the other girl, and everything inside me strained to get closer.
Mine.
Her lashes fluttered down, but when they lifted again, she blanked her expression.Turned everything off.
Yeah, no, that wasn’t happening.
“You didn’t tell me you were a twin, Ev,” I scolded, brushing past Chance to get to her.
She huffed, crossing her arms over her chest, her nose crinkled ever so slightly in an adorably hot way that made my cock hard in two seconds flat.“Lucky guess.You had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it wrong.”
