Page 105 of Stolen Rebel

Something drives me to slap his smug face. “It’s Rowan. And you don’t get to decide where I belong.” I tilt my head. “Your world is better? Drugging me? Isolating me? Telling me lies? And all because you believe Liam killed your sister.”

His smile falters. There it is. The truth he never shared with me.

“I don’t know what you think you know, Brian, but Liam had nothing to do with Aisling’s death.”

Brian’s eyes harden, turning cold. Darragh shifts to my right. Liam still hasn’t moved. He’s letting me lead, and it makes me love him a little more.

“I never lied,” Brian snaps. “And lover boy there had my sister run off the road.” He turns his glare to Liam. “Product was moving that night, cars where they shouldn’t have been. You think I didn’t put it together?”

Liam’s jaw tightens, but he stays quiet.

“I had proof, enough to know exactly who was to blame. You took my sister away from me. You didn’t have a sister to take, so I stole the next best thing.” He drags his tongue over his top lip as he sweeps his gaze over me.

As a woman, I know what’s coming next. He’s going to use the fact that we slept together to annoy Liam. And he’ll probably get a broken nose for his trouble.

I can see that train coming a mile off, but considering I want to break his nose myself, I’m not coming to his aid.

“She was definitely worth taking.” Brian’s sneer makes my skin crawl. “The beating I arranged wasn’t supposed to kill you.” His voice is ice cold. “It was supposed to be a reminder of everything you lost. That every time you looked in the mirror, you’d see a scar, a reminder that the woman you loved betrayed you, and you’d hate her for it.”

Liam steps forward slowly. “Go on.” His voice is freakishly even. I’ve never seen him so controlled, so lethal. “Tell her how that night really went. Tell her the fucking truth.”

Brian’s breathing changes. It’s shallower, faster. “My sister was killed in an accident.” He jerks his chin at Liam. “Accident. That’s what you told the Gards to say. That’s what the paper said. But your piece of shit mafia boyfriend is to blame. She was caught in the crossfire of some turf war with those McCarthys.” His lips twitch. “At least those fuckers knew how to run a mafia.”

“Careful.” Darragh offers the first warning. The tension in the air ratchets up a little higher at Darragh’s family loyalty surging to the surface.

Liam doesn’t react outwardly. But I feel the air change around us. Sharpening.

“Is that how you get your kicks, Mad Dog? Killing off high school students with their whole lives ahead of them?” Grief laces his tone. “Pregnant high school students.”

Brian locks his gaze on me. “Bet he didn’t tell you that, did he? Didn’t tell you that he knocked up my sister while he was with you. That the last word she ever spoke was his name. Not mine. Not Ma’s or Da’s. His.”

His statement is a thunderbolt to my chest. It can’t be true. I shoot my attention to Liam. His stunned expression tells me everything I need to know.

“I hardly knew your sister.” Liam shakes his head. “If she was pregnant, then it had nothing to do with me. Nor did the car crash she died in. You can believe what you like, but I know the fucking truth.”

It’s easy to sound genuine when you’re telling the truth.

In Brian’s silence, five years rearrange themselves in my head. All the guilt he planted in me. All the hatred he fed me. All the nights I lay believing Liam was the one who needed protecting, the one I needed to run from.

Brian took my time, my love, my identity. Something deep inside me stills.

“You let me hate myself for everything I saw,” I whisper, blinking back tears I refuse to let fall.

Brian holds my gaze like he thinks I might be his ally. He’s dead wrong. “He would have destroyed you like he destroyed Aisling.”

“You destroyed me.” I shove my finger at his face.

“And now, I’ll destroy them.” His gaze flashes to Liam then back to me. “It doesn’t matter what happens to me. They can’t stop what’s coming. I’ve got it all set up. He can’t outrun what’s coming.”

Darragh chuckles. “Good Lord, man. You really do live in a dream world, don’t you? Thinking my brother defiled your teenage sister, had her run off the road. And now you believe that your insurance policy is still in place, when the reality is, it’s nothing but ash.” His grin broadens. “This is what happens when an amateur deals with a professional.”

Brian’s supreme confidence stutters. “You’re lying. It’s all you Mahoneys know how to do.”

“I mean, you can believe that if you want.” Darragh pretends to study his hands, then meets Brian’s gaze. “It isn’t true, but go ahead and believe it. You’ve spent years believing lies, so why change now.”

Brian keeps talking, keeps spinning his conspiracy theories, keeps trying to convince me he’s the victim, but when he doesn’t get the reaction he hoped for, he turns to talking about my naked body, taunting Liam until the noise gets unbearable.

“For fuck’s sake.” My nerves are shredded. I drag a hand down my face, but it does little to ease the spike in my heart rate. “Do you hear him?” I’m not sure who I’m asking, but no one fucking answers. “He’s not going to stop.” I gesture a hand at the prisoner who’s still trying to rant over me.