Page 110 of Wallflower

Something new thrashes within me, giving birth to an unforeseen rage. Heat radiates from my skin as I divert my gaze to Maximus. He watches me intently, trying to get a read on the emotions threatening to surface.

I cannot give him that power. He can’t know I care for her in a way I know not how to describe.

“Is this how you honour your deals?” I snarl, hoping Rose will stir at the sound of my voice.

She doesn’t.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“I assure you, it’s not,” Mr. Smythe replies through a sickening smile.

“Then, please enlighten me as to what thefuckis going on here.”

Come on flower, wake up.

“Just a little chat about how we don’t go wandering around in places we aren’t supposed to.”

Give me something, baby. Anything. A twitch. A blink. A tear.

“This seems a little drastic for snooping, wouldn’t you say?” I counter.

“Snooping? Yes. Escape attempts? No. Unfortunately, I feel the punishment fits the crime.”

I take a step forward. Maximus’s eyes alight from within. I can’t stop myself, the unrelenting need to ensure her heartbeat drags me another step.

The man in front of Rose tucks his dick away, intercepting me. His blue eyes are a wildfire of hate, blazing toward me. I don’t know who the fuck he is, though his features strike a chord in my brain. I've met this forgettable fuck before, and he’s about to get beat into next week if he doesn’t step out of my way.

“Move,” I growl.

He doesn’t budge an inch. “I don’t take orders fromyou,” he glowers.

The man behind my woman steps back, doing up his cargo shorts. A flicker of recognition flits through my brain. Something deep, dark, and long since buried.

“Bradley?”

“Do I fucking know you?” he grits out, fingers digging further into the neck of my flower. He’s clearly clocked me as a threat. He’s right to. I’m three seconds away from losing my shit. However, the past barrels into me like an eighteen wheeler, holding me back.

He wouldn’t know me. Not with this face. Not even before the surgery. Puberty drastically changed my features, taking me from a gangly boy to this monster who now wants to murder my baby brother for touching what’s mine—hurting what’s fucking mine.

“You should, it’s not everyday you get accused of kidnapping in a grocery store parking lot.” My eyes flick around the room. Maximus and Richmond remain calm, neither has moved an inch since I entered.

“Shit,” mutters the blue-eyed one.

Seems my hunch was right. They are the ones I encountered that first day. I don’t know how I missed it then, that the fucker with the lip tattoo was my kin. But years of no contact are bound to change a few things.

Rose doesn’t stir. That fire inside of her snuffed out by the four in this room.

I’m too late.

Do I seek retribution? Or fandango my way into a new fucking deal, a better one?

Maximus pipes up, “Interesting.”

“Why is that fucking interesting?” I snap.

“No one informed me there was a bystander to that interaction.”

“What does it matter?”