Ryan Reign (New York Ruthless #4)(49)

“What secret?” Liam asks and I see the color drain from Shane’s face. Damn! He really does have a secret.

“He’s lying,” Shane repeats.

“You know that I’m not,” Paul glares at him. “Tell them, Shane. Tell them what you’ve been hiding from them all these years. Or shall I tell them the real reason their daddy hated their guts?”

“Fuck you!” Shane spits but his brothers look between him and Paul.

I look between them too, wondering what the hell is going on here.

“Why did he hate us, Shane?” Mikey asks.

“It’s not the time!”

“It fucking is,” Liam barks and Shane shakes his head in annoyance.

“Go on, tell them who their real daddy is, Shane!” Paul chuckles.

“What?” Conor blinks in confusion. “What the fuck is he talking about, Shane?”

They are not going to let this go and I watch the perverse satisfaction on Paul’s face as he watches the unbreakable bond of the Ryan brothers fracturing before his eyes.

“He’s talking about the twins.” Shane’s Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows hard. “Patrick wasn’t their real father.”

“So who is?” Mikey asks.

“He is,” Shane looks up at Paul who is grinning maniacally at them.

“Surprise, boys!” he shouts. “Daddy’s home!”

“Fuck, no!” Mikey shouts as Liam puts his head in his hands. “Why the fuck… Shane…?” He keeps asking half questions as the revelation ripples through them like a current of electricity that is threatening to spark and cause a fire.

“Why the fuck didn’t you tell us?” Liam snarls at him.

I look back at Paul and the smile on his face makes my heart twist in agony. I turn my body slightly and point my gun at Shane. “What else have you lied about, Shane?”

He blinks at me in shock as he stares down the barrel of the gun. “Nothing, Jessie.”

“Why the hell would I believe you now?”

“Jessie!” he frowns.

“You knew who the Wolf was all along! You’ve been planning to hand me over to him all this time.”

“No,” he shakes his head as Conor, Liam and Mikey look at him with suspicion now. The seed has been planted and it is growing at a dangerous speed.

“Why would we be here if we were going to do that?” he shakes his head.

“I don’t think your brothers knew,” I look between him and Paul. “I think you two have been planning this all along, but now you’ve decided you don’t want to give me up after all.”

“Yes,” Paul agrees while Shane stares at me.

Paul still has the remote held up in his hand, his finger hovering over the button and I realize if he is going to buy this, I am going to have to lay my heart wide open. I need to speak my truth because it is the only thing that is going to convince him.

I point my gun at Shane and I look into his eyes. My hand trembles but my voice doesn’t.

“I despise you! I hate you more than I have ever hated anyone in my life.” I hear his brothers’ gasps at the venom in my voice, but I block them out and keep my eyes fixed on Shane. “I know that you think that I love you, but you are deluded. I could never love you. You make me sick. My skin crawls when you are anywhere near me. When I think about the times you have touched my body, I want to tear off my own skin!” The tears are running down my face now as I spit out all of the hatred and venom that I have been storing for years.

“If you ever touch me again, I would die from the agony of having to endure it. You disgust me!” I shriek and he just stares at me and takes it all.

But then I see it, from the corner of my eye, what I’ve been waiting for. Paul drops his hand to his side as he enjoys the show. Me turning on his nephews is what his delusional mind had been hoping for. I hate guns, but I have a perfect fucking aim.

I spin and squeeze the trigger and Paul Ryan drops to the floor before he even had time to realize that I’d moved. My only regret is that he didn’t see it coming. The remote he was holding clatters to the floor and I walk over to his body. He took a bullet straight between the eyes, but I have tried to kill this ghost before. This time, there will be no doubt in my mind that he is gone. I unload the remaining five bullets into his body, which jerks as each sliver of metal tears through it. And with each shot fired, the tears fall down my face faster and harder. When the chamber is empty, I keep pulling the trigger as I stare at his lifeless body, until I feel strong arms around me.

“He’s gone, sweetheart,” Shane whispers in my ear.

I turn in his arms and cling to him. “I wasn’t talking to you,” I sob.

“I know,” he soothes as he hugs me tightly to him. “I know.”



After Conor checks I’m okay, reprimands me for sneaking out of bed, and then hugs me tighter than I have ever been hugged before, he and Shane tell me to go with the twins while they stay behind to take care of things, which I know is code for disposing of Paul’s dead body. Seemingly unable to even look at their oldest brother after recent revelations, the twins don’t argue and together the three of us walk out to the Audi they drove here in, leaving the beat up Land Rover for Shane and Conor.

Liam sits in the back with me with an arm wrapped around me as Mikey drives us back to the house. We are all quiet. There is so much to say that it seems like there is no good place to start.