I’d never before felt betrayed by him, had never had a reason to. My entire life, he’d had my back. He’d been the one to look out for me when we were younger, when our mother was strung out on whatever drug she could get her hands on. He’d been the one who’d taken care of me after she’d died, the one who’d started in with the crew in the first place, just so we could afford a roof over our heads and food on the table.

Never in a million fucking years did I think I’d have a reason to doubt him.

And now I did. Now I knew he’d betrayed me in the biggest way.

I’d memorized the directions Gage had given me, and soon Evie and I pulled up in front of a small brick apartment building. It sat only a few blocks from the campus Madison attended, situated in a neighborhood that was neither upscale nor run-down. Planting my feet on the ground, I turned off the engine of the bike, pulled off my helmet, then twisted to face the building, only one question on my mind …

How long had he known?

I helped Evie get off the bike, then headed up the walkway and into the building toward the apartment. She didn’t say a word as we stood in the hallway in front of the door marked 2C, as I stared at it for a moment before I finally knocked. Before my knuckles could connect with the wood a second time, the door pulled open, Gage on the other side. I hadn’t seen him in months, not since he’d left to follow Madison here. He looked pretty much the same as he always had, except that he’d let his hair grow out a bit. But his stare was still hard and penetrating like it’d always been, his jaw set as he looked from me to Evie, then behind us, taking stock. Always taking stock of the surroundings.

And that was when it hit me. Of course he’d known the whole time. He wouldn’t have had everything in place, everything ready for a retrieval like he had now if he hadn’t planned for exactly that. He’d known. All along, while I’d been grieving, while I’d gotten fully entrenched in the crew because of Evie’s death, he’d known.

His eyes locked with mine, and I saw everything I needed to in them.

Without thinking about it, without taking a second to consider what I was doing, I pulled my arm back and snapped it forward, my fist connecting with his jaw. Through the blood thrumming in my ears, I heard Evie gasp out my name.

Gage turned his head back to face me, his hand going up to rub his jaw as he stared at me. “You done?”

And that just pissed me off even more. Stepping over the threshold, I got right in his face, then shoved him hard. “Fuck no, I’m not done. I have five goddamn years of your lies to get redemption for.”

“Ry, you don’t—”

I didn’t let him finish before I threw another punch, this time my fist connecting with his stomach. He doubled over, letting out a soft grunt, then stood up straight once he’d caught his breath. His eyes met mine once again, his intention clear in the way his arms hung loosely at his sides, his hands unclenched. He wasn’t going to fight back? Fine. He didn’t have to. I had enough fight in me for the both of us.

I went at him again, letting my fists do all the talking. Over my heavy breaths and Gage’s grunts, I heard Evie in the background, trying to get me to stop, pleading with me, but I blocked it out as best as I could, focusing only on the anger and betrayal eating away at me. Anger and betrayal I felt at both of them, but Gage was the only one I could take it out on. The only way I could get this out of me.

I poured every bit of it into him, the years I’d gone thinking Evie was dead, all the paths I’d followed because of that one event—taking my place in the crew because I’d been so full of rage that I hadn’t been able to think straight. I’d been so full of contempt at unanswered justice that I’d wanted to do anything I could to keep these assholes off the streets. The assholes like the one who’d killed Evie.

The crew had been told it’d been a confrontation gone bad. That Evie had gone with them on the boat—the one the crew used as a scare tactic to get shady bastards to talk under the threat of dropping them into Lake Michigan miles upon miles from shore—and everything had gone to shit. Some accountant who was skimming from the top, stealing from Max, had grabbed one of the guys’ guns and shot Evie, multiple times. She’d fallen overboard. They’d never found her body.

Yet even without the body, I’d believed every bit I’d been fed, every morsel of the story because Gage had seemed to believe it, too. But above that, he’d had Evie’s locket. The locket I’d given her, the one she never took off. He had it, broken chain and all.

“Ry,” Gage said, ducking away from a swing. “Riley, Jesus Christ, chill the fuck out.”

“Fuck you.”

“I don’t want to have to fight you, but I will.”

“Then do it already!”

I took another swing, aiming for his kidney, but he dodged it, and then he started fighting back instead of just blocking my hits. His fist connected with my jaw, snapping my head back. His voice filled the space around us between the hits, telling me to stop, to calm down and listen. Both Evie and Madison were trying to break it up—I could hear them in the background, somewhere beyond the pulse thrumming through my ears—but I couldn’t think past the red haze clouding my vision.

I came at him again, but before my fist could connect with his flesh, Evie stepped between us, her eyes hard, her arms outstretched, separating us.

I halted my advance on Gage immediately, not wanting to accidentally hurt her. “Evie, get the fuck out of the way,” I said, wiping the back of my hand across my mouth. It came away wet and smeared with blood, but I still wasn’t done. I didn’t want to stop.

I couldn’t.

“No, I’m not going to get the fuck out of the way. I don’t take orders from you, remember?” She dropped her hand from in front of Gage and turned to me, shoving me hard in the chest. “You’re pissed, I get that. But you’re pissed at me, too. Quit using your brother as a punching bag when this is as much my fault as it is his.”

I clenched my jaw and stared at her, then looked over her shoulder at Gage. His lip was busted, a bruise already forming on his cheekbone, and even with proof of the damage I’d done, he didn’t look pissed at me. Not even then.

And yet I still had this rage, this regret thrumming through my veins, and I didn’t know how to get a handle on it.

I shook off the hand she had resting on my forearm and spun around, stalking out of the apartment and through the halls to the front door.

I needed some space.

Chapter Seven

EVIE

I watched as Riley stormed out the door, closing my eyes as it slammed shut behind him. Taking a deep breath, I tried to piece together the bits of information I knew from having been in contact with Ghost sporadically over the years, as well as what Riley had told me when he’d shown up at my house. All of it added up to one conclusion.

I spun around and stared at Ghost, shaking my head in disbelief. “You never told him?”

He crossed his arms and fixed me with a heavy stare. It was strange looking into his eyes—near replicas of Riley’s yet still so different. Ghost had always had a haunted look to his heavy gaze¸ one Riley’s had never been filled with. Even now, even after thinking I’d been dead this whole time, his didn’t carry the heaviness present in Ghost’s.

“Did he ever show up at your door?” he asked. “Thought that pretty much would’ve already answered the question for you.”

I blew out a breath, closing my eyes and pressing my fingers to my forehead. “Jesus, Ghost, no wonder he’s pissed. You’ve lied to him for five years!”

He uncrossed his arms, one dropping to his side while he held the other in front of him, his finger jabbed in my direction. “You’ve lied to him for five years. I’ve protected him. Do you have any idea what Max would do if he knew what kind of history you two had? If he’d known Riley had any kind of interest at all in this whole thing? I did what I did to keep him safe. No thanks to you.”