Betrayal at the Pier

When the traitor opened fire, Jules McKenna threw herself between me and the bullet. She grabbed the shooter, dragged him off the pier with her, and the two of them went down together. Neither one came back up. The day her body was pulled from the water, I knelt until the gravel bit into my knees. I swore that whoever was behind it would pay in blood. Three years later, I hung the heads of the ten men left from that syndicate outside my front gate, a warning to anyone who might get ideas. People respected me. They feared me. They called me the ruthless tyrant of Hallahan City, a man who'd kill without blinking. On the anniversary of Jules's death, I bought myself a bottle of poison and carried it down to the pier where she'd died. I was about to drink it when a wedding boat pulled in. I spotted my own men climbing aboard, so I followed, quiet and unseen. I never expected what I'd find. Standing on the deck in a bride's gown was Jules, my fiancée I'd believed dead for years, and beside her was Nicolas Bernstein, the one sworn brother I cared for the most. The two of them were locked in a deep kiss while everyone around them cheered. I froze where I stood. Carter Robinson, who'd followed me for twelve years, spotted me first, and the color drained from his face. "Boss... don't do anything rash. Jules is pregnant." Travis Kress, who'd watched me grow up since I was a boy, stepped in front of Nicolas to talk me down. "Max, I'm the one who called Jules and Nicolas back. It's because you're so controlling that they had to fake their deaths just to get away from you. "You're the head of the harbor now. For my sake, just let them have this." I looked at my own men, every one of them standing between me and the two people on that deck, and I said nothing. A second later, I put a bullet through the engine. The boat went dead in the water. "Anyone who betrays me only gets one way out. Jump into the sea, or die by my hand. Who wants to go first?" Chapter 1 I snapped my gun up and leveled it at Jules McKenna and Nicolas Bernstein. A second later, a dozen guns cocked behind me, their barrels pressed to the back of my skull. "Boss, you can't force someone to love you." I swept my eyes over every face there. My nose started to sting, the way it does right before you cry. The scar across the web of my thumb, ridged like a centipede's legs, was from the day I fought to pull Tyler Barrymore out of our enemies' hands, and the gun's chamber blew apart in my grip. The bruise running from my shoulder down my arm was from the three days I'd spent trapped in a casino trying to get Carter Robinson out. I'd been beaten half to death before it was over. But now, every one of them stood against me. Ace Munroe and Ruby Sandler were just two more familiar faces in that crowd. I'd saved their lives, put money in their pockets, and every one of them had once sworn to serve me for life. I wiped the tears from my face and swept my eyes over them, refusing to back down. "Why?" I demanded. "I have never once wronged a single one of you." For five years, they'd watched me tear across the city expanding my territory like a man punishing himself, watched me hurt myself every night, grieving Jules. And not one of them had bothered to throw me the mercy of telling me she was alive. "That's enough." Jules sighed and pushed through the crowd toward me. "It's my wedding day. I don't want to fight with you." Her eyes were cold and empty. She looked at me like I was a stranger. "No explanation?" I stepped toward her, my eyes locked on Nicolas, standing just behind her shoulder. "Five years of lying to me, and that's all you have to say?" Jules spun back around and pressed the cold barrel of a gun to my forehead. Our eyes met, and I started to laugh. "Is this your answer, then?" A second later, she turned the gun on herself and fired into her own shoulder. Smoke curled between us. She smiled at me, cold and thin. "That's for the bullet I took for you. We're even now." Blood ran between her fingers. Her face went white with pain. Nicolas lunged toward her. "Jules, why would you do that?" He grabbed the gun from her and pressed it to his own shoulder. "I'm the one who wronged him. Let me pay it back!" Jules kicked the gun out of his hand and pulled him behind her, shielding him with her whole body. "This has nothing to do with you!" She turned back to me, her eyes full of hatred. "We were only engaged. We were never married. You were so possessive, so controlling, that I couldn't even find a way to break up with you. Faking my own death was the only way I could get rid of you." My nails dug into my palms. I'd always believed Jules and I had fallen in love at first sight, two equals coming together. The night we got engaged, she told me she'd stay by my side for the rest of her life. I'd believed her completely. When I thought she'd died, I'd even wanted to die with her. And now I knew it had all been a lie. Nicolas held her tight, his eyes red as he looked over at me. "Max, I'm sorry. But I really do love Jules." He was crying just as easily as he always had, the same way he'd cried the day I pulled him out of the hands of human traffickers. "Nicolas, do you really think you've earned the right to say that to me?" Jules pulled him behind her again. "Actually, I suppose I owe you a thank you." She laughed, as if savoring some private memory. "If you hadn't always had Nicolas keeping tabs on me, I never would have fallen for him. He's gentle. He's considerate. He's a thousand times better than a tyrant like you." My lips trembled. Jules still wasn't finished. "You knelt at my funeral for three days and three nights. Nicolas and I were right there, in the house across the street, the whole time. Watching you cry every single night felt wonderful." My tears spilled over. "Leave. You're holding up the ceremony." She looped her arm through Nicolas's and walked toward the stairs. Behind her, my own men closed ranks, blocking the staircase. Chapter 2 "Boss, just leave." I don't know who moved first. Someone knocked the gun out of my hand and shoved me into the sea. The salt wind turned to rain against my skin, and by the time I dragged myself back to shore, I was soaked through. I swam back to the harbor, looked down at the countless scars crisscrossing my wrists, and dialed the one number I trusted. "Burn the harbor down tonight." By the time the fire tore through the ships, I was standing on the shore, watching Hallahan City's biggest pier burn to ash with my own eyes. The flames hadn't even died down when Carter and Travis came running. "Boss, you blew up the harbor. How are the people who work the docks supposed to make a living now? How could you be so reckless?" Carter jabbed a finger at me. Travis let out a long sigh. "No wonder Jules couldn't stand you. Doing this just breaks everyone's heart!" I looked at the two of them, one who'd grown up alongside me and one who'd watched me grow up. The two people I was closest to in the world, and neither of them was on my side. "Why wouldn't either of you tell me? Five years! You knew exactly how much I was suffering for five straight years!" My voice broke as I demanded an answer. Carter rubbed the tip of his nose. "Boss, but you have the harbor. You have money. You have everything. Nicolas has nothing left but Jules!" He looked genuinely indignant. "If you weren't so controlling, why would Jules ever leave you? You're the problem. Not them." Travis nodded. "Every time Nicolas came to see me, his arms were full of gifts. The year I was sick, he was the one running around taking care of everything. Keeping his and Jules's secret felt like the least we could do to repay him." Carter picked up where he left off. "Nicolas's always been good to me. The year you had me put in the hospital, he was the one who stayed by my side day and night." I stood there, frozen. I couldn't tell if what I felt was shock or nausea. Every single thing they were grateful to Nicolas for, I was the one who'd told him to do it. Nicolas hadn't lifted a finger on his own, and he'd still won over every heart around me. I laughed. "All of that. I was the one who told him to do it." Carter blinked, caught off guard. "So what? A good man is judged by his actions, not by whose idea they were. As far as we're concerned, Nicolas's the one who actually helped us!" Travis gripped my hand, his voice heavy with meaning. "Max, do this for our sake, if nothing else. Let them go. Nicolas looked after Jules for you for five whole years. That wasn't easy for him. And besides, Jules is already pregnant." My mouth opened, but no words came out. Carter pulled an invitation out of his jacket. "Nicolas said the only way anyone in Hallahan City will believe he's not some homewrecker is if you're the one standing up as the officiant." I looked at the invitation, and a strange, total calm settled over me. "Fine. I'll be there." … Three days later, every outlet in Hallahan City was running the story of Jules's wedding. [BACK FROM THE DEAD? NO, THE MCKENNA HEIRESS FAKED HER OWN DEATH TO CHASE TRUE LOVE!] I walked into the church in a black suit. Every eye in the room locked onto me instantly. "The tyrant's here. This wedding just got interesting." "He's not about to start shooting, is he? We'd better stay clear just in case." Jules walked up to me with Nicolas at her side, her voice dripping with mockery. "At least you know what's good for you." She shoved the officiant's script into my hands. It slipped straight through my fingers and hit the floor. "You!" Jules froze at the sight of my red-rimmed eyes. She followed my stare to Nicolas's wedding suit, and the words died in her throat. It was a navy satin suit, the very one Jules had designed herself five years ago and flown overseas to have custom-made. It had been my engagement gift to her. The day we got engaged, I'd knelt down and proposed with an emerald ring I'd won at auction. Now that same flash of green sat on the ring finger of Nicolas's left hand. My face darkened. The last thread of hope in my chest tore apart completely. Jules cleared her throat. "The ceremony's starting. Get up on the platform." I looked down at the dust-covered script on the floor that said: To hold your hand and grow old together... My stomach churned. My hands curled into fists. "Not a chance!" I turned to walk away, but Jules threw a photograph at me. In it, my sister, studying abroad on the other side of the world, was bound hand and foot with a knife pressed to her throat. "Are you sure you want to leave?" Chapter 3 I stared at Jules, unable to believe what I was seeing. After our parents died, my sister was the only family I had left, and Jules knew exactly how much she meant to me. "Get up there. Officiate the wedding." She looped her arm through Nicolas's and smiled at me. My fingers dug into the photograph, my nails cutting into my palm. "I, Max McGraw, am honored to pronounce Ms. Jules McKenna and Mr. Nicolas Bernstein husband and wife..." I don't remember how I made it out of the church. All I know is that the press had a field day at my expense. [THE KINGPIN TURNS SOFT? BROTHERS-TURNED-RIVALS IN LOVE, AND HE'S WORSE OFF THAN A KILLER] Jules had paid an army of trolls to stir up the narrative online. [Jules faked her own death just to get away from him. Max's level of obsession would scare any woman off.] [If I were her, I'd have run a long time ago.] [What does he even do besides hurt people? The one who was never loved is the real third wheel here.] I stayed awake all night. The next day, I went back to the mansion and found all my belongings dumped outside, soaked through from a full night of rain. "Sorry, Max. This is all just trash to me now. I don't want any of it." The door opened, and Nicolas leaned against the frame, watching me. "Why are you here?" I tried to look past him into the house, but Jules stepped into my path. "You signed this house over to me years ago. It's about time it went back to its rightful owner." I blinked, not believing what I'd heard. "But this was my wedding gift to you." Jules cut me off, impatient. "What wedding gift? My husband lives here now. I've decided to sign this house over to Nicolas, so get your junk out of here!" She shoved me. I stumbled and caught myself against one of my own boxes. When I looked up, I saw the pocket watch my mother had left me hanging from Nicolas's breast pocket. My lips trembled with fury. "Give that back! You have no right to touch anything of my mother's!" I lunged toward him. Before I even touched him, Nicolas lurched backward and tumbled down the stairs. "Nicolas!" Jules's face went pale. The second she saw the blood pooling beneath him, she screamed at the guards. "Get a doctor! Someone call an ambulance!" … Inside the hospital room, the doctor shook his head helplessly. "Jules, Nicolas's thigh has been shattered in multiple places, and... his fertility has been affected. He may never be able to father a child." Nicolas collapsed against Jules, sobbing so hard he could barely breathe. "Jules, what am I going to do?!" Jules turned on me, her face twisted, while I knelt on the floor against my will. "Max, you came here on purpose today, didn't you? You wanted to hurt Nicolas!" Her palm cracked across my cheek, hard enough that it swelled instantly. Jules looked like she wanted to tear me apart with her bare hands. "Just looking at your face makes me sick! If you didn't have the harbor in your pocket, you really think I'd have ever looked twice at you?" Chapter 4 Jules stared at me like I was a piece of garbage. "I didn't push him," I said. Nicolas's crying only got louder. "Max, are you saying I'd cripple myself on purpose?" "It's not impossible," I replied. Jules's fury boiled over. She kicked me so hard I flew backward. My forehead slammed into the coffee table, and blood poured down my face. She froze for a moment, her chest heaving. "Have you even noticed? You're the one who's always pushed me away. Every time I asked you out, you said you were busy with work. Every time I planned a trip, you said you had a business trip. You never once put me first. Everything that's happened to you today, you brought on yourself." She grabbed my collar in a death grip. "I'll give you one last chance. Apologize to Nicolas publicly. Tell all of Hallahan City that you forced yourself between us and destroyed what he and I had. Do that, and I'll let your sister go." Every part of my body was in pain, but none of it compared to what she'd just asked of me. All I could think about was my sister, in her hands. I closed my eyes, the weight of it pressing down on me. "Fine. I'll do it." The next day, at the press conference, they dragged me up onto the stage. The flashbulbs were blinding. I gripped the apology letter in my hand. "I'm sorry. I apologize to Nicolas Bernstein. It was wrong of me to come between him and Jules..." Every word felt like a tooth I had to break off and swallow. The crowd erupted. "The tyrant has some nerve showing his face after what he did! Nicolas can't have children anymore, and Max still has the gall to stand up there!" "Get out of Hallahan City! The sight of you is bad luck!" "Get down there and beg Nicolas for forgiveness!" A rotten egg splattered across my face, blinding me. I stood frozen on the stage, unable to say another word. "That's enough!" Jules called a stop to the spectacle. She had me put in a car and a black bag thrown in after me. "This car's headed for the docks. Your sister's waiting on a boat there. Once you leave, don't ever come back." The black bag she'd thrown in was stuffed with cash. She shut the car door, wheeled Nicolas's chair around, and smiled at him, doting and warm. I closed my eyes, heart heavy with everything I'd lost. … Nicolas was going on about honeymoon destinations when Jules's mind wandered. "Jules, what's wrong?" Jules shook her head, trying to shake off the image of how broken I'd looked in that car. "It's nothing." She wiped a hand over her face. That was when the phone rang, sharp and urgent. "Jules, something's happened! The boat carrying Max out to sea exploded!"