Page 85 of The Lies That Shatter
I’m not surprised to see the figure in the centre is Liam. Standing to his left is Shane, who Mortimer looks a little shocked to see. I have to admit, when I see who the third figure is, I'm even a little startled. The third man is Finn’s eldest brother, Evan.
I know they don’t see each other much, and Evan has been busy running the Family business in Ireland since Desmond faked his death, so I’m a little taken aback that he would come all the way to London to help with this.
Then again, family is family to the Doughtys. If one is in trouble, everyone is there to help. My heart aches to know that they now see me as family, and they’re willing to risk their lives for me. It’s a love I’ve never known before, but it’s definitely something I want.
“Drop the knife, Whitlock. It’s over,” replies Liam, his voice just as calm, yet stern as he always is.
“It’s not over,” Mortimer growls, pressing the blade hard enough against my throat that it knicks the skin, and a small trickle of blood appears.
Shane growls, but as he takes a step towards me, Evan holds out his arm to stop him. He doesn’t say a word, but the shake of his head tells Shane he needs to hold off. Evan looks over at me, and I can see the apology in his gaze.
For the first time since they burst into the room, my brain catches up with the scene in front of me. I try to push aside the humiliation and despair I feel at them seeing me like this. Even though I know the men aren’t looking at my naked body, I still feel more exposed in front of them than I’d like.
Shane gives me a small, reassuring smile, and it’s enough to help pull my nerves back from the edge. Now they’re here, there’s no way Mortimer will be able to hurt me any more.
“It is over for you. Let her go, and I promise, we will kill you quickly,” Liam growls.
As soon as the words leave Liam’s lips, Whitlock begins to laugh maniacally. His eyes widen, and for the first time, he genuinely looks like he might have lost it. The guys look confused, and that seems to please the nutter even more.
He drags his gaze from Liam, turning towards Shane. Although he seemed a little surprised to see him, there’s something more there too, which makes me wonder if he’s always suspected that Shane is still loyal to Bree. The same thought must cross Shane’s mind, as he pulls his shoulders up, making himself stand a little taller as he juts out his chin defiantly. Looking at him like this, it’s so easy to forget that he’s only twenty-one. He looks just as ruthless as the men beside him.
It’s not until Mortimer looks over at Evan that his eyes truly light up. He’s so distracted looking at Evan, he presses the knife a little further into my neck, and I hiss as the cut gets longer and deeper. A warm trickle of blood oozes down my neck, moving to join the rest that are in various stages of drying over my body.
“I’m very confident that we can come to some sort of an arrangement. You definitely won’t kill me.” Mortimer speaks with such confidence. I can tell it throws the men off guard, though they try to keep their masks in place, so he doesn’t realise.
“There is no arrangement to be made. All the men in the other room are dead or incapacitated. You have three guns pointed at your head. We won’t hesitate to shoot you if we have to. So, put the knife down, and step away from McKenna,” Liam says, his voice stern in a way that leaves no room for negotiation.
Whitlock doesn’t even acknowledge that Liam spoke, he simply keeps his eyes fixed on Evan. I watch as Evan shiftsuncomfortably under the intense stare, though his face remains impassive.
“I would bet everything I own that you won’t kill me. You see, I have something that belongs to you, and if you kill me, you will never get it back.”
Before we even set foot in the rundown building in the middle of fucking nowhere, we had a plan. Like always, we’ve run the plan over and over in our heads, and Kel has run every simulation test he can think of. We have split ourselves into two teams, and each has half the house to search.
We have our objectives; find McKenna, kill Mortimer and Melanie, and gather any extra information that may help to bring down The Aristocracy—though the last part is more bonus content for when the main part of the work is done.
We even manage to agree on our team split with very few arguments. Which basically means, Bree insisted she would be on my team. I think that was so she could keep an eye on me to make sure I don’t go rogue. But that only left one more space onour team, which both Kian and Liam wanted—both stating very obvious reasons why they wanted to stay with Bree.
After a few choice words, and a lot of eye rolling from Bree, she agreed it made more sense for her Head of Security, Kian, to stay and protect her. So she put Liam in a team with Shane and Evan—who arrived just in time.
It’s been a while since I last saw my brother, and he seems to have hardened even more since then. He doesn’t pull me in for a hug the way we used to. He’s simply all business. In fact, he looks like Dad, and that sends a shiver down my spine.
Evan is wearing all black; suit trousers, a button-down shirt, waistcoat, suit jacket, and shoes so shiny I can see my fucking face in them. His jet black hair is short and styled to spike a little, and he has a bit of stubble across his jaw. His eyes are the same green colour as Liam’s, yet they seem darker, more empty.
I’m taken aback for a moment at just how harsh Ev looks. Not at all the funny boy we grew up with. The life Desmond has exposed him to, so much more than the rest of us, has affected him, and he’s a colder man because of it.
As he takes off his jacket and waistcoat, I notice Liam is watching him, too. Evan casts him an empty glance, and Liam visibly winces. Liam has tried for years to get all of us away from Dad’s clutches, but none more so than Ev. We’ve been watching him slowly turn into Dad’s evil clone for years, and Liam takes it as a personal failure that he’s not been able to save him. Not that Evan wants saving. He claims he was made for this life.
Which is why, as soon as he arrives, he jumps straight into the plan. Most of us would get caught up in greetings, dropping into the other room to say hello to the babies, but not Evan. He’s on the outside of our family of his own choosing, so he doesn’t bother with the frivolities of greetings. He simply jumps straight into the plan and helps sort out the weapons.
While I allow myself a moment to hate that my brother is the way he is, right now, I’ve never been more grateful. I feel like I’ve been waiting a lifetime to get the plan going, and as soon as he arrives, nothing is holding us back.
He’s just as determined as we all are to get McKenna back, and I wonder if he feels as guilty as I do for the part he played in this. Without his meddling, Mac wouldn’t have been in any danger in the first place. He helped her to go undercover, so this is just as much his fault as it is mine and Dad’s. Though now doesn’t seem the time for me to point that out, even if I do feel an overwhelming urge to let all my anger out on him.
As we’re standing outside the building, split into our two teams, we take a moment to get our heads on straight. We have the best version of the plan that we could come up with in the little time we had, with limited resources. Kellan is watching over us, and he confirms on each of our communications devices that he can see us, and we give him a sign that we can hear him clearly. We’re ready to go.
This is where the plan goes to shit.
You see, no matter how much we plan, or how many ways we assess the building, the problem is, there’s a lot of rooms that don’t have cameras in them. There are more dead zones than any of us are comfortable with, meaning there are lots of places we can be caught off-guard.
