Chapter Forty
Mimic
Seeing my mother stare at me, disappointment etched into her face, it was like I was ten years old again. It was the look she gave me whenever I fought with my sister or called her names. I hated it.
“Take off your shirt.”
“Excuse me?” I couldn’t possibly have heard her correctly.
“Take. Off. Your. Shirt.”
She stood up from her chair and walked toward me. “I’m waiting, young man.”
Fuck, why was the little kid inside me forcing me to do what she said? I stood up and took off my cut, laying it on the table. Then I reached behind me and grabbed the neck of my shirt and pulled it over my head.
“Turn around.”
Something trembled in her voice. Something that hit my ten-year-old self and brought tears to my eyes as I gave her my back. I hung my head in shame as her gasp pierced my heart.
I felt her fingertips gently touch the brand in the center of my back.
“Do they know?”
“No,” I answered, then looking over my shoulder at my mother, I asked, “Does he?”
Tears streamed down her face as she shook her head.
“He doesn’t know anything yet. I haven’t told him much.”
“Why?” I asked, turning around to face the woman I had missed for half my life. I was so fucking angry, and yet seeing her here, standing in front of me, all I wanted to do was reach out and hug her. Feel her arms around me again. Let her chase away every fear that ever assaulted me.
“I’ve hurt him enough.”
“Fuck him,” I scoffed. “What did he ever do for you? For us?”
“So much more than you will ever understand.” She reached up and placed her hands on my cheeks. “He gave up everything for us. He gave up his life. His dignity. His freedom.”
“What about my freedom? What about yours and Rose’s?”
I couldn’t believe she was making excuses for him. Trying to justify his walking away.
“It wasn’t his fault.”
“It sure as fuck wasn’t mine!” I shouted.
“Thorne.”
“No!” I backed up out of her reach. “For fuck’s sake. He took me! He kept me in a fucking cell. He let his son beat the shit out of me every fucking day.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“What?” I asked, leaning forward, unable to believe her words, but at the same time, they confirmed everything I thought all these years.
“He told me. He visited me every week and told me exactly what he was doing to you.”
“And you did nothing?” I yelled.
I turned my back on her. I couldn’t fucking look at her. How could she do this to me? Her son. The child she claimed to love. The child she claimed she thought of every day. Spouting bullshit about Rose and me being the only thing that got her through.
“I couldn’t do anything. I was in an insane asylum, Thorne. Drugged out of my mind for ten fucking years!” she screamed.
I spun around. I had never heard my mother use that word. Never heard her raise her voice to me. Her lips trembled as she tried to get control of herself. She took a deep breath and sat down.
“I did everything I could to keep you and your sister safe. I ran; I left everything I knew—my family, my husband. I didn’t even know you were twins until the day you were born.
You have no idea how hard it was to keep George Stone from finding you.
And it was all for nothing. Because he found you anyway.
And he took you, and he tortured you. And then he came to my room and tortured me by telling me everything he was doing.
Everything Dakota was doing. I couldn’t do a damn thing to protect you. But at least I knew where you were.”
She looked at me as tears streamed down her face.
“Do you have any idea what it’s like to know your son is being tortured? While having no idea where your daughter is? If she’s even alive?”
“No. And I never will; do you know why, Mother? Because George fucking Stone forced me to have a vasectomy.”
Her gasp broke me. Her hand swiftly covered her mouth as she sobbed.
“I was eleven fucking years old. Barely going through puberty and he took that away from me. Do you want to know why?”
She shook her head.
When she closed her eyes, I slammed my hand on the table. “LOOK AT ME!”
I waited for her to open her eyes. “Because that motherfucker out there you love so much, the one you don’t want to hurt? He’s my father. That was my fucking crime.”
“It wasn’t just him.”
“What?”
“George didn’t want you just because August was your father. He wanted you because I was your mother. Because of who I am. Because of who my family is.”
I stared at her. Who the fuck was she? “Who are you?”
She turned her body toward me. Wringing her hands together in her lap, she said, “My father is Kronos.”
I felt the blood drain from my face. My head spun, and I grabbed the nearest chair and sat my ass down before I passed out.
“The fucking Gods of Mayhem?” I asked. “That Kronos?”
She nodded.
What did I say to that? How was I supposed to feel? I was both a Soulless Sinner and a Silver Shadow, with ties to the Gods of Mayhem.
“Wait, I don’t understand.” I shook my head. “Why does that matter?”
“I will explain it all to you. But we have to tell King about the brand. Your father needs to know as well.”
“Fuck no.”
“Thorne.” It was her mom voice. The one that had the power to break my will. The one that when I heard it, I wanted to do whatever she asked as long as she never stopped loving me.
“I believed him,” I blurted out.
“What? Believed who?”
I hung my head in shame. Indie was right. She loved me. She never stopped loving me. At least not yet.
“Dakota. I believed him. Everything he said about you.”
“What did he say?” she asked, her voice soft and cautious. It was the one she used when I was angry. The one that always had the power to make me talk, and a decade later, it still worked.
“He said you were a whore. That I was a bastard. That you didn’t want me.”
“Oh, Thorne, none of that is true.” She rushed over and threw her arms around me. I held on to her. I didn’t want to let go.
“He said you told him where to find me.”
“Never,” she growled. “I never even confirmed your existence. Every time George came and told me what he was doing to you, I tried to convince myself he was lying. It was the only way to get through it. It was the only thing that kept me hanging on to the hope that your father would find me.” She squeezed me tight.
“He never stopped looking. He walked away to keep us safe.”
“It didn’t fucking work,” I muttered.
“I know.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Oh, baby, for what?” She kneeled in front of me.
“For believing him. For thinking the worst of you all these years... for hating you.”
She wiped the tears away with her thumbs. “You were a child. You have nothing to apologize for. It’s my fault I didn’t protect you.”
“You tried.”
“I tried. We both did. And we failed. But I promise you we won’t fail this time. Our mistake was not asking for help.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’ve been talking to Rose.”
“Why do you say that?” she asked, a smile on her face.
“She keeps trying to convince me to ask the club for help before going after Dakota. She wanted to ask the Soulless Sinners. But he’s one of them.”
“He’s not one of them. In fact, if Montana gets his hands on him, there won’t be anything left for us.”
“Montana’s a dick.”
Her laugh rang out, and it was a sound I’d missed most of all. “He is a dick. I beat the crap out of him when I met him. I thought he was George. He looks just like him.”
“I’ve heard that, but I’ve never actually met him.”
“Well, prepare yourself for that. He’s your father’s best friend, so you’ll meet him one day. Probably sooner than you’d like. I love you so much, baby. That never stopped, and it never will.”
“I love you too.”
“Can you do something for me?” she asked. I knew what she was going to say as soon as the words were out.
“I don’t know. He didn’t protect you.”
“I ran away from him. He searched for me, for us. He never stopped.”
“He was in this clubhouse for months. He saw me every fucking day and never said a word. He stood in this room, listening to Rose tell us what happened to her. He held that bitch in his arms, Mom. While she faked sympathy for something she knew was happening.”
“He didn’t know. He didn’t know he was looking for twins. And to be honest, aside from your hair color, you look more like my side of the family than his.” She ruffled my hair, like she used to when I was whining. “He loves you.”
“He doesn’t fucking know me.”
“Then let him in. Give him a chance.” She sighed, knowing I wouldn’t promise anything.
“We need to tell the club. How you’ve managed to keep it a secret all these years is impressive.
I would have thought the club girls would have said something.
” I looked at her and scrunched up my nose.
“Thorne, I grew up in an MC. I know what the club girls are for.”
“No!” I said, shaking my head. “Besides, I never slept with them.”
“And Indie?” she asked, her eyes twinkling with mirth.
“NO!” I stood up and moved to the door. Holding it open, I shouted, “King, I need to see you and the officers. Rose, Indie, and Bane as well.”
Indie’s eyes widened when she focused on my chest. I saw the question on her face, and I nodded. It was time to tell the club the truth.
I backed into the room, keeping my back to the wall as everyone piled in. Once everyone was seated, I looked at my mother. She smiled, nodding her head.
Indie stood beside me, her hand in mine. “I have something I have to show you.” I took a deep breath and turned around, giving King and the officers my back.
“What are we looking at here?” Jack asked.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT?”