Page 82 of Split You Open

I’m flung sideways down onto the metal bed. I gasp, the sound ragged. It takes a second but I force myself to sit back up. I spit a wad of blood onto the floor before slowly looking back up at Wes.

“This isn’t about a kiss,” Wes snarls. “This is about ownership. It’s about you and what you want.”

“You’re wrong,” I snarl back. “This has always been about Blair!”

Wes’s fist meets my face again. The force of his hit throws me back this time. Fury unfolds in my chest as I bring my head forward to meet his glare.

“Go ahead,” Wes says, his voice icy cold. “Lie again.”

“I’m not lying,” I growl between clenched teeth. “I’ve done everything in my power to make sure Blair would have everything her heart desired right here under this roof, including you all.”

Rhett laughs coldly. “Sure, Ledger. You planned this all down to a T. The outcome seems to be going well for you.”

“This wasn’t for me.”

I expect Wes’s punch this time and brace myself for impact. Except there’s no preparing for a punch from a man Wes’s size.

The world grows dark, and for a second I think I’m about to pass out. A few deep breaths later, though, I’m still conscious. When I lift my head again, Wes is there in my face.

“I can do this all night if you want, so go ahead—keep lying.” Wes straightens.

“Fine! Maybe you’re right—some of the motivation behind this was selfish.” My voice grows louder as rage unfurrows in my chest. “But you have no idea what it’s like being denied the one thing you want more than anything else in the entire fucking world! I saw an opportunity to change things and I fucking took it.”

Everyone but Blair glares at me.

Her cold gaze is the worst. It’s like she’s scrutinizing a bug, not a man. Not her godfather.

“It was for the both of us,” I promise vehemently. “I did what I had to do to set things in motion. I hired the least qualified asshole to go after Anchor and Blair to scare them. I knew Blair would come here if she and Anchor believed their identities were compromised. They were supposed to kill Earwig and that would’ve been the end of it.”

Rhett lets out a deep snarl. “That plan went to shit, didn’t it?”

“To put it simply, yeah,” I bit out. “I didn’t expect Earwig to reach out for help. It’s not common in our line of work.”

“Except it is,” Wes counters. “You said Anchor would call you in to help from time to time.”

Shit. Maybe it is more common than I thought.

With a sigh, I nod. “Yeah, I guess that’s true.”

“Of course, the person who Earwig reached out to just had to be someone with the means to follow through on some fucking grudge against Blair’s dad,” Rhett drawls. “Great job there, Ledger. Real fucking clever.”

“I don’t get it,” Santi pipes up. “You say this was for Blair but it just seems erratic.”

Rather than acknowledge him, I face Blair.

My godchild is the only thing in this world that makes sense. Blair is the beginning and end of it all and there’s nothing more important than her.

“I visited you year after year after you graduated from college. I saw you, Blair. I saw how alone you were. The life you were living before arriving at Gnarly Pines was hollow. You were living a lie and it was eating at you. That half-life you were trying to scrounge together was pathetic. I ripped your world apart only to give you a better one.”

Blair leaps to her feet with a gasp of fury.

“Excuse me?” The endless void in her eyes dissolves as anger surges forward. “Bring him out,” She hisses between clenched teeth.

Wes grabs me by the front of my shirt and yanks me forward. I don’t get a chance to get my feet under me before he throws me to the ground just outside the cage.

Blair crouches down so that we’re eye level as I sit up on my knees.

“How dare you destroy everything that I worked for!” she seethes. Her shoulders rise and fall as she breathes heavily. “Do you know what life was like after I parted ways with Dad? It was literal hell. I was living in a world that I was never allowed to be a part of before and it took so fucking long to find my footing.”