“Yes. A problem. Those FBI agents that came to talk to you, well, they know that Brent's death wasn't a suicide.” There's a sharp inhale from my brother, followed quickly by a coughing fit. I grab a glass of water from the table next to the carnations and offer it to him, but he waves me away.
“How do you know it's not?” he asks, that overprotective streak in his voice making me roll my eyes. “Lyric, this whole situation, it has nothing to do with you.”
“Only that's not true,” I say, glancing at the door again, up at the corner where the security camera crouches like a bulbous eye. I doubt there's any audio to go along with the picture, but I want to be careful here anyway. I look back down at Sully as he reaches up the fingers of his left hand and slides them through his perfect, shiny hair. That's my family in a nutshell: hospitalized and in pain but still put together, groomed, perfect. It kind of … irritates me, but I can't say why. It just does. “They know Brent was killed because of your dealings with Mile Wide MC.”
“My … what?” Sully chokes, his green eyes cartoonish as they widen in shock. “How … what …” My brother just stops talking, at a loss for words for what's probably the first time in his life. His pale skin gets even paler as the blood drains from his face.
“I know you and Brent were working with a man named Clayton Moore, that you tried to shakedown the Alpha Wolves,” deep breath here, “that Royal McBride beat you with a hammer because of it.”
“Jesus Christ, Lyric,” Sully sputters, doing his best to sit up and grunting in pain as he jostles his fractured right arm. His gaze drills into my face, dots of perspiration beading his forehead. He might be kind of a dick—and an absolute idiot at times—but my brother loves me. I can see that in his face, in the tightening of his jaw, the fear that flickers across his expression as he looks at me. “You need to back off, stay away from all of this.” He swallows hard, clearly concerned for me. “If you try to butt into this … this crap that Brent and I started, you could end up like me. Like him.”
“Sully—”
“No. Lyric, this isn't the time to be a rebel. Go home and read a book or something, pretend that none of this ever happened.” I grit my teeth at his imperious tone, sucking in a deep breath to calm my nerves, the fluorescent lights contributing to what's already setting up to be a massive headache.
“I'm dating Royal McBride.”
I don't mean to say the words. Seriously. They just pop out, hanging in the air like a cartoon bubble attached to my lips. Crap. That's not what I came here to say … or how I meant to say it. But I guess it's out there now, so I roll with it.
“Somehow, the FBI's gotten it into their heads that I might know something about Brent's death. You can see why that might me a problem for me.”
“You're …” Sully stares at me in abject shock, his mouth hanging wide, his eyes practically bulging out of his head. “You're sleeping with that … that thug?”
“Well, I'd hardly call him a thug,” I sniff. “And anyway, I said dating, not sleeping with. You presume much, Sully.”
His turn to snort at me as he shakes his head in disbelief.
“A man like that doesn't just date, Lyric. If you're some kind of item with him, then there's sex involved.” He wrinkles up his nose like the prospect of his little sister being anything but a vestal virgin freaks him the hell out. “And … after you found out he did this to me? You're still seeing the guy?” A pause. “Did you see him today?”
I purse my lips and keep my arms crossed over my chest.
“You're lucky you didn't end up like Brent, Sully. This beating was a blessing in disguise.” My brother continues to gawp at me, rubbing at his hair and turning that shiny perfect fall of brunette into a tangled mess with his worrying. “Anyway, you're missing the point of this conversation. The FBI is looking at me, okay? That's an issue that needs to be cleared up.”
“Mom's going to have a heart attack when she finds out,” Sully murmurs, eyes glazing over as he tries desperately to process this information. “Dad will … this could ruin Dad's career. My career. Yours.” Green eyes flick up to my face, like mirrors of my own, darkening with a sudden surge of emotion. “How could you be so stupid?”
I purse my lips tight as Sully finally notices the cuts on my face, visible without the heaps of makeup I was wearing earlier.
“What the … did he do that to you?” he roars, sitting up suddenly, looking several inches taller all of a sudden. “And … what happened to your hair?”