Page 97 of Madd Love

Even that feels like a question.

“Did you break your own wrist? Did you crack your own rib?” he clarifies.

“No.” I exhale the word. No. I don’t believe that I could do those things. “If I did, then how did I also manage to cut into my flesh with a broken wrist? And on sedatives. They make me so tired.”

“Then you aren’t safe. Do you get that? Someone hurt you.” He sighs. “And we’d put money on that someone being your brother.”

“Alec?”

“Your bones were literally broken… because you’re with us… Fuck, I thought Rogue would have explained more of this situation to you by now. He’s going to be furious.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I take off my glasses and pinch the bridge of my nose. Dots dance in front of my eyes. They make me feel woozy but I try to concentrate on what Rebel is telling me. “What has Alec got to do with it?”

“A lot.” He huffs out another frustrated breath. “You were helping me take him down when you got hurt.”

“What?” My stomach turns violently on itself.

“We were trying to get a confession,” Rebel says.

“Ease up there.” Adira charges across the room at Rebel with his hands up. “There’s a reason she doesn’t know everything. The doctor said that she might not be able to deal. That it could be too traumatic."

Alec, he… oh my God, it feels like I’m suffocating. He broke my wrist? He was the one who left me with breaks and bruises? Rogue had said he thought Alec hurt me, but I didn’t think… it didn’t sink in this is what he meant. That Alec literally came after me because I was with Rogue.

“She needs to be aware,” Rebel tells Adira.

“It’s a work in progress,” Adira roars. “You’re pushing her too hard.”

“My brother is being framed for murder because of her family,” Rebel roars back. “And if she knows something—”

I bring a shaky hand up to my forehead. I can’t seem to keep my thoughts from spinning out. What kind of brother hurts his own flesh and blood like that? But then Nicole is obsessed with destroying my relationship with Rogue too. She would rather ruin my life than allow me to live it by my own rules. And Alec has always loved torturing me.

“How are you doing, Love?” Riot wraps his hand around my arm and lugs me out of the room while Rebel and Adira continue shouting at each other. “Come on, let’s go somewhere more quiet.”

He takes me into my bedroom and just manages to shut the door before I collapse into his brotherly embrace. Rogue’s family is so tight knit. So accepting. It brings more tears to my eyes.

“We’ll get it sorted.” He doesn’t let go even though my mascara is running onto his shirt. “Got a few snot bubbles in you too? Want to blow them on my shirt?”

“That’s gross.” But the tears stop. I blink them back and wipe under my eyes with my fingers. “I probably look like a raccoon, huh?”

“Rogue once had a raccoon in his bed.” Riot squeezes my shoulders. “The damn thing found a pair of women’s panties tucked down the side of the mattress and scurried around the apartment, wearing them like a frilly pink pirate hat.”

I giggle a hiccup. I wouldn’t have thought anything could relieve the tension under these circumstances. Especially anything to do with Rogue’s bed-hopping ways.

But that was before me. Before we fell in love.

“Probably shouldn’t have told you that story, huh?” He leans in to whisper, “Just don’t tell him that I told you when he gets home. It’s bad enough dumb and dumber weren’t talking to each other for so long.”

“Thank you.” I drop onto the end of the bed. I’m emotionally and physically drained. Still reeling from what I’ve learned tonight.

“Do you think it was my brother?” I pick at the cuticles around my nails. “That he hurt me.”

Riot takes a lighter out of his pocket—the kind with a metal lid—and starts playing with it. “I think I’ve never known anyone to hate my family quite like yours does. And I know what he did to Rochelle.”

His gaze burns with hate.

“Right. I’m sorry.”

“You have nothing to apologize for.” The way he flicks the lighter lid open and closed is full of rage. Click, click. Click, click. Click… click. “You’re a good person, Ivy Love.”

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