“I didn’t want it touching you.” Marcus’ fingers twitched. “What I’ve seen, what I had to do… I looked into the rapes and the assaults after Cyn was attacked at eighteen. There’s so fucking many. They keep records of them like trophies of war and share the videos online. You
would have wanted to blow it all open as soon as you knew.” He looked up, meeting Rhys’ eyes head-on. “You couldn’t sit on that poison, when I knew we had to. Wouldn’t see the need to amass the gigs and gigs of data, of evidence. To store it in encrypted sites, to protect it and set up protocols for it to be released so widely, not even the alpha elite could squash it. It would have broken you, and I couldn’t let that happen.”
He let me go, straightening up, a man facing down the execution squad.
“I collected data, recorded video, stored testimony, evidence, phone logs and voice messages and GPS data and private chat room logs. I amassed a massive bank of the filthiest, most degrading fucked-up shit, and I sat on it until we were ready. You’re better than me.” He made a point to look each man in the face. “Because what I did is going be the making or breaking of me. I couldn’t let them have this hold over us, that someone else with the right fucking bloodline would choose to take us out just because they could. I also couldn’t let this shit continue. If I gave the evidence of Cyn’s assault to the police, if I manipulated shit so it went to trial, if he were jailed, that wouldn’t solve the problem. There’s too many other fucking Bensons ready to step forward and take his place…”
His voice trailed away, becoming quieter, more introspective.
“I’ve disseminated much of what I know, so the arrests will start soon. Some will make it to trial, some won’t, but enough will, I’ve ensured that. I had to do what no one else would dare—to make a decisive, well thought out strategic hit against every one of those fucks and make sure at the very least that they’re too scared to pull that shit again, but preferably locked up in a cell with a man called Bubba. And right when they think they can pull on their old boys and girls’ networks, get the judge in their pocket to sweep away the evidence…” His smile was slow and toothy. “I’ll take that from them too.”
“Jesus fuck, you’re an evil genius…” Bren said, little more than a whisper.
And so his smile faltered, a strange humility falling over him as he stared down at his hands, moving a simple gold band around from finger to finger.
“That’s the bit I don’t know,” Marcus said, then straightened up. “Am I your evil genius, or do I disappear without a trace? Initially, that’s why I was such a prick to Cyn, wanting to keep her at a distance, as I knew what I had to do, knowing that if you had her, it wouldn’t hurt so much when I left. But I failed at that, just as I failed her that night.” He shook his head. “All my money and assets have been put in the pack’s name. You don’t need me anymore. You’re safe, the club and everything else is yours. You could spend the rest of your life just wrapped up in each other’s arms, and there’s no one to gainsay you. I did what I had to do and it turned out just as I said and I’m not fucking sorry.”
It was Rhys who broke the silence, peals of rich, warm laughter filling the forest, filling the world, that was how it felt. I got it, sort of. Could Rhys have laughed like that with the knowledge that Marcus hinted at? That was an unanswerable question because he’d left us with no choice.
“You were always a fucking imperious bastard and never more so than when you’re giving us an ultimatum. Keep you as you are or leave you to disappear into the shadows to be, what? Some kinda Batman clone?” Rhys asked.
“Batman was an amateur,” Marcus muttered.
“How about this, you little prick? You don’t make any more decisions for us. I get you’re Megamind or whatever, but you’ll use your powers for good and inform us what is ticking over in that fucking brain of yours and let us make decisions ourselves. You’ve cherry-picked the evidence. How the hell are you going to explain separating Cyn and me not long after I took her as my mate, huh?”
“There’s reasons—” Marcus started to say, but Rhys shot him down.
“Fuck your reasons. Fuck your plans, your fucking bullshit. Fuck all of it. You say you love me, that you wanted to protect me? Well, that damn near killed me. I’m still pissing blood some mornings. I won’t ever go through that, not for any reason in the world. You all reckon I’m the heart of the outfit, well let me tell you what mine tells me. I can’t and won’t be separated from my mates again. Ever. I don’t give a fuck if the world’s gonna explode if we don’t take a few days away from each other. No. Nuh-uh. Not gonna play. I don’t have lofty aims or dreams to save the fucking world. I’ve always, always just wanted you. Every single one of you.”
Quiet settled over the group, and only the sound of trees creaking broke that.
“Which means I vote you stay, you piece of shit, but you are gonna spend a whole lotta time on your knees, begging for our forgiveness. So did you predict that, Boy Wonder?”
“I…”
Watching Marcus struggle to find words was stupidly satisfying, a conspiratorial smile going up around the rest of the group.
“Like fuck, Marcus,” Brendan added. “You think you’re so bad, that only you can cope with shit? You have no fucking idea the crap I’ve done to keep us safe.” His hand strayed to the gun in his pocket. “If a sting was the way forward, I deserved a chance to be in on that. I’m a fuck load better shot than you, and I would have just about come, emptying a bullet into Benson’s skull. Apologies, Orion.”
“No, don’t bother with that. The more I’m finding out…” O shook his head. “I’m glad the Ratcliffe name is dying. Fuck that for a legacy, fuck all of it, but I’d be a hypocrite if I criticised someone with a twisted white knight complex.” He looked over at Marcus, his eyes unable to look away from him, and I could see why. “Thank you. I’m guessing you weren’t prepared for that. Everything they say is true, but fuck. I felt like I was drowning and the whole world I grew up in was dragging me down with it, but it wasn’t just me that was going.”
Orion’s gaze flicked to me, and I knew he saw me and Ari standing there.
“Every day, I woke up aching, for Bren, for Cyn, for Rhys, and even you, Marcus. I thought I was going to lose you, all of you, but I was prepared to make that sacrifice and I would again, every time. Nothing in this fucking world has made sense but this—us.”
We all saw the tears forming in Orion’s eyes and I moved to hold him, but Rhys wrapped an arm around his shoulders and pulled him close, kissing the top of his head.
“Everything I know about the world I grew up in says what you say is true. It’s only displays of power, establishing yourself as a viable threat, that gets through to them, and you’ve done it. We’ve done it. But you’ll never pull this shit again. Ever. I didn’t realise what I was doing to the pack when I was pulling my self-sacrifice bullshit, but I had nothing on you.”
“So what do we do with that power then?” Bren asked.
Marcus’ smile, when it returned, was a familiar feline one.
“I’ve got some ideas.”
Finally, the vote came to me. Everyone’s attention shifted at once, leaving me in the spotlight, but I could take it, take them, I knew that now.
“You’re the deciding vote, Cyn,” Rhys prompted. “It’s your choice ultimately. You’ve had to deal with the most from Marcus. Whatever you decide, we’ll stand by.”