Chapter Twenty-One
Banshee
Angel and I sat at the bar talking while Aspen was in King’s office. Grace had taken Ravage’s woman back there and kicked King out. Now King was sitting at a table with Ravage and a few others, as they ribbed him about how much he had fucked up when it came to Grace.
Angel told me all about my sister and nieces. Things I never would have known. Like, how she was when she was pregnant. What kind of mom she was. How much she loved her girls. Listening to him talk, I could hear how much he loved her.
It mended a small piece of the crack in my heart to know that she had a little bit of happiness in her life. She’d had a man who loved her, even if she couldn’t be with him.
I’d never forgive myself for what she went through. I’d never forgive myself for how she’d died. If only I’d seen what was going on at home. If only I hadn’t waited three motherfucking days when she didn’t answer. Maybe I could have saved her from being sold the first goddamn time.
“Did Steele know she was pregnant?” I asked, my eyes straight ahead.
I couldn’t look at Angel as I asked the question.
I wasn’t even sure I wanted the answer. It was a good thing the motherfucker was dead, but in my anger, I’d let him die too quickly.
I should have made it more painful, more drawn out.
He should have been tortured for days before dying a gruesome death, the way my sister had.
“I don’t know,” he said, taking a sip of the whiskey Joey had put in front of him. “It was early still. We’d only found out about a week before she disappeared.”
His words were laced with pain and anguish.
The kind only a man who’d lost the woman he loved could feel.
I wanted to hate him the way I hated Steele.
I wanted to make him pay for Kaylah’s suffering.
Knowing he couldn’t save her any more than I did was his penance.
Like me, he would have to live with the regret of not being enough.
Of not being aware of everything Kaylah had endured, knowing there was nothing he could do to stop it.
The front door opened, and I turned to see who it was. Kyllian walked in with Firestride right behind her. I slid off the stool, and when I saw Angel follow, I snapped, “Don’t fucking move.”
“Kyllian?” I met her halfway, unsure if I should hug her, when she walked into my arms and made the decision for me. “I’m so glad you came.” My voice was raw and harsh, so filled with emotion as I held my niece in my arms.
“I wasn’t sure at first,” she said, her face buried in my chest.
“Come sit down.” I led her to a table in the corner, away from everyone. When I looked at Angel, he stood up, and I shook my head. He sat back down, his expression a mix between pissed off and heartbroken. He’d have to get over it. I wanted some time with Kyllian to make sure she was okay.
I knew he cared for her, but she was my family. My sister’s child. My niece. The time I had with her would be brief. Angel could fucking wait.
“Are you okay?” I asked, looking her over. The bruises had faded some. But they were still there. A reminder of my failures. My jaw clenched as I thought about what she’d been through. I wanted to know how much of it mirrored Kaylah’s life.
“I’m okay.” She smiled slightly.
I looked across the room; Firestride was talking to Ravage and Declan. When I turned back, I asked, “Are you safe?”
“I am.”
“Sweetheart, are you there because you want to be?”
Kyllian’s eyes dropped to her lap, and I felt my body stiffen. I placed my hands on the table to stand, and she stopped me.
“Wait.” She looked at Firestride. He must have felt her eyes on him because he turned and looked at her. That was when I saw it. The smile. It was so small that if I weren’t concentrating, I would have missed it.
“It hasn’t been easy, but I’m there because I want to be.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice. “It’s a lot like living in the dark ages with cavemen who have no social skills whatsoever. But I think I’m rubbing off on them. At least a little.”
I threw back my head and laughed. Everything I’d heard about the Brotherhood told me what she was saying was the God’s honest truth.
“He’s treating you right?” Again, her eyes dropped. “Kyllian?”
She looked up and blew out a breath. “He is treating me better than anyone ever has. They all are. It was rough in the beginning,” she admitted. “None of them really knows how to treat an old lady. But we’re all learning together.”
“That doesn’t make me feel better,” I grumbled.
“If it ever changes, I have somewhere to go now.” She smiled at me, and I returned one of my own.
“Damn right you do,” I agreed. “There’s someone I want to introduce you to.”
“Your old lady?” she asked with a hopeful look.
“Soon, yes. She’s in the office with some of the others.”
I stood up from the table and held out my hand. When she took it and stood, I squeezed her hand in mine. My sister was gone forever, but at least I had a small piece of her in Kyllian. I led her over to the bar, where Angel looked about ready to jump out of his skin as he stared at Kyllian.
“Fuck, you look just like her,” Angel said. He slipped off his stool, but he didn’t move. He looked terrified as his eyes traveled over Kyllian.
When I turned to my niece, she had a strange look on her face. She studied Angel with curiosity, and I wondered if she remembered him.
“Kyllian, this is—”
“Angle?” she said softly, her voice barely above a whisper.
“You remember me?”
She shook her head as her eyes watered. “Not until just now.”
“I’m sorry, Kyllian,” Angel said, his eyes on the ground. “I didn’t know. Steele told us Kay took you girls and ran off.”
“She wouldn’t have done that,” Kyllian argued. Her voice was hard. Anger radiated from her as she looked at Angel.
“I know. I looked for you. All of you, for two years.” Angel put his hands in his pockets and looked at Kyllian through hooded eyes.
“Do you know what he did? What she suffered? What we all suffered?” she snapped, her raised voice getting the attention of Firestride, who moved quickly to where we stood.
“I do now,” Angel admitted. I felt his shame. It was something he and I had in common now. We both loved my sister and neither of us had protected her.
Kyllian crossed her arms over her chest just as Firestride stepped behind her and pulled her back against him with an arm around her waist.
“Kitten?” he said into her ear. The single word held the hint of a question. One if answered incorrectly meant Angel would follow Steele into the kiln out back. She moved her arms down until they covered Firestride’s.
“And what are you going to do about it?” she asked Angel.
“Nothing I can do; Banshee already killed the fucker.” I elbowed Angel as my eyes sought Declan. Thank God, he hadn’t heard him. There would only be so much the sheriff could do if he’d heard Angel’s declaration.
Kyllian’s arms dropped to her side as she looked at me. “When?”
“Yesterday,” I said, my voice low.
Kyllian threw herself at me, and I held her close. Between killing Pepper and Steele, I’d finally gotten something right for the women in my life.
“Kyllian,” Angel said. “I need to ask you a question.”
My niece stepped back away from me, and Firestride was waiting to pull her into his arms. The way he held her, the way he looked at Angel, as if he was waiting for him to fuck up, gave me a little bit of relief that maybe she was safe. That maybe she was loved.
“What?” I watched Angel’s face fall at the tone of her voice. She hadn’t forgiven him. Maybe she never would.
Angel hesitated. He rubbed the back of his neck, and I knew he was afraid to ask the question. Once he knew the truth, there was no going back.
“Get the fuck on with it,” Firestride growled.
Angel looked at me, and I nodded. I needed to know the answer as much as he did, because if my sister had another child out there somewhere, I needed to find them. Make sure they were safe.
“When you all disappeared... Kay was pregnant.” Angel closed his eyes and swallowed. “Did she have the baby?”
Kyllian’s eyes widened as she leaned back further into Firestride’s embrace. The tightness and worry in my heart eased at the sight. She felt safe with him. Whether he loved her or not, he treated her well enough that he was a safe place for her to land.
Something she’d never had in her life until now.
Kyllian nodded. But she didn’t speak right away. Angel opened his mouth to ask a question, and Firestride glared at him.
“Sweetheart, can you tell me what happened to the baby?” I asked.
“I don’t know. It was a girl; Kaitlyn Grace was what Mama called her. But Knuckles wouldn’t let us keep her.”
“FUCK!” Angel shouted and turned around to slam his hand on the bar top. He leaned his elbows on the wood and held his head in his hands. “She could be fucking anywhere,” he muttered.
“We’ll find her,” I assured him.
His head snapped up, and he scowled at me. “How, Banshee? How the fuck will we find her? We have absolutely fucking nothing to go on.”
“I don’t know, but fate stepped in and brought me Kyllian.” I didn’t have the first clue how to go about looking for a child who might not even be alive. “I have to believe that fate will do its thing again. I never stopped looking for my sister, and I won’t stop looking for her daughter.”
“You’ll find her?” Kyllian asked.
I turned back to my niece. I wouldn’t touch her; not while Firestride’s arms were around her, but I wanted to hug her and assure her that I would look for Kaitlyn until my dying day.
“I will do everything humanly possible to find her.”
“Banshee?”
I turned and found Aspen standing behind me, Diesel at her feet. He wasn’t growling, but his hair stood up. “Baby girl, this is Kyllian, my niece. Kyllian, this is my old lady, Aspen.”
“Hi, Kyllian.” Aspen smiled at Kyllian. I knew she remembered her, but I was surprised when Kyllian’s eyes got wide as she looked at Aspen.
“I know you,” she whispered.
Aspen nodded solemnly. “We never met, but yes, I know who you are. I didn’t know you were Banshee’s niece.”
“It wouldn’t have made a difference,” Kyllian said.
“No, I don’t suppose it would have. Everything happens for a reason.” I pulled Aspen against me and kissed the side of her head.
“No!”
I turned and saw Grace and King facing off yet again. The two of them were like oil and vinegar. They kept themselves apart, but if you shook them up, eventually they’d blend into something everyone loved.
“Fuck this,” King growled. He lifted Grace off the floor, over his shoulder, and moved down the hall as everyone in the room shouted and whistled.
“Think this is it?” Aspen asked as she stared down the hallway.
“I fucking hope so. Not sure any of us will survive the two of them living here if they don’t fucking get it together.”