Page 60 of Bend

Thorne finally looks straight at me, enough offence in his face to burn paint. “So you knew exactly who we all were, yeah?”

I hold his gaze.

“Yes.”

The hurt in his expression flashes before he buries it, and fuck me, that shit hurts more than I expect.

No one speaks.

His eyes move from me to Thorne to Wolfe and back again.

Talon explodes first.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

“I was gonna tell—”

“When?” he bites out. “After sleeping your way through the whole fucking team?”

The garage goes dead silent.

Even Revel winces. The words hit hard enough that I physically go still.

Not because I’m ashamed, I mean sure, some shit happened, but I didn’t fuck anyone. Should I have told them? Yeah, maybe, but I didn’t really feel like it was my place to.

How can they be mad at me for not telling the guys who I am, when they haven’t even told our dad about me?

My voice comes out cold. “You do not get to talk to me like that.”

Talon takes a step toward me. “No? Then tell me what exactly I do get to say while my secret sister hooks up with half the men I race beside.”

There it is.

Not just anger, but protectiveness.

Sure, it’s ugly, reluctant, and buried under about eight layers of resentment, but it's there all the same. And the second I hear it, something in me shifts.

Because he doesn’t want to care, and yet he does.

I catch the exact second he realizes I heard it too, and his jaw locks even tighter.

I keep my voice level. “You know what, Talon, you don’t have to like me. But you don’t get to shame me either.”

For one second, I really think he’s about to keep going.

Then Sayshen steps between us.

“Enough.”

Talon lets out one sharp, furious laugh. “Yeah? Still think this was such a brilliant idea?” His eyes slice toward Sayshen. “She’s been here five fucking minutes and already managed to stir up shit in the ranks.”

“Yeah?” Sayshen fires back. “And what exactly did you think was gonna happen when you kept pretending she wasn’t real?”

Oh.

Wow.

We are doing family trauma before lunch.