Chapter Seventeen Kill You, Kill Me
Romeo
Next to me, Julianna trembled. I felt so bad for her. No, I didn’t blame her for not telling me. She didn't really have anything to tell. Not until she was sure. I hoped this meeting wouldn’t go badly, but according to Jarret, this woman was a lot like this infamous O. I sure hoped not.
We all waited. Then we heard it.
“Put me down, asshole!” a voice screamed.
I held tightly to Julianna’s hand as that voice did sound a lot like hers.
Finally, a very large man showed up at the door with a woman over his shoulder. Tank, I think it was as we’d seen him on the screens earlier. Then another man I recognized as Keys walked beside them.
“Let me go, you fuckhead!” the squirming woman shouted.
“Set her here,” my father suggested as he pointed to a chair.
Silent, the big man unceremoniously dumped her into the overstuffed chair.
Dropping down heavily, she screeched, “Hey!”
Keys stood on one side as Tank stood on the other.
She had her wrists zip tied as well as her ankles. Sitting up, she took a look around. Pausing when she spotted Jarret, she sneered at him.
He shook his head. “So how does it feel to be tied up? Fun, ain’t it?”
She fumed at him but made no reply. Looking around again, her gaze halted on Julianna. Her face went white as she stared. Looking afraid, she blinked several times. “W-what the hell is this?”
Julianna looked nervous as she took a few steps closer to the chair and spoke softly, “Y-you're my sister.”
V shook her head as she couldn’t seem to fathom what was happening. “I-I don’t have a sister.”
“You do and a twin at that,” Julianna said.
“What kind of game is this?” V asked as she refused to look at Julianna and swung her gaze around at the faces in the room. “You people are horrible. Why would you do this?”
“Do you remember me?” Julianna asked.
V continued to ignore her as she looked over at Stephano. “Where’s my brother?”
“He’s not your brother,” Julianna spoke a little louder now.
V turned her head and glared at Julianna. “The fuck you say!”
“I do say,” Julianna stepped even closer to the chair. “You were taken from your real family when you were five. That woman claiming to be your mother, stole you from us. From your parents.”
V kept shaking her head.
This didn’t seem to stop Julianna once she got going, “Your name is Valencia Celene Regatta. You were born in New York City, three minutes after me. We were together until we were five.”
“No. NO!” Valencia shouted. “Why are you all doing this?”
“Shit, I wish it was a cruel joke or a trick,” Jarret said. “You deserve that much at least.”
“You killed my mother,” Valencia accused as she sneered at him.
Jarret shook his head. “I wasn’t even present when she killed herself.”
“You are a liar! She didn’t kill herself!” Valencia shouted. “She was a warrior. She led armies. She was tougher than any of you.”
“She did take her own life.” Liv nodded. “There were many of us that saw it on video feed.”
Valencia swung her gaze over to her and paused. “Well, if it isn’t Liv Walker, herself. Yes, I saw pictures of you. My brother was super fond of you.”
“No, he wasn’t,” Liv retorted. “He set out to ruin my life. He never cared about me. In fact, he cannot love or care for anyone. He’s too psychotic.”
Valencia’s gaze raged at her as hate showed on her face. “You’re a fucking bitch!”
Glory stepped close to the chair, seemingly unafraid. Leaning down, she slapped Valencia across the mouth.
Valencia’s head snapped to the side then she immediately gazed up at Glory. “The fuck doing that while I’m tied up!”
“So?” Glory retorted. “You did it to my dad! Kept him tied up and had your fucking goons beat on him. He’s covered in bruises.”
“Yeah, that was pretty funny,” Valencia then spat blood at her.
Glory looked down at the bloody spit on her shoe and growled.
Legend quickly stepped over. He wrapped his arms around Glory, pinning them to her sides as he moved her back.
“Let me go!” Glory yelled. “Untie this bitch, so we can go at it. I will beat her to a fucking pulp!”
Redemption laughed. “And she can too.”
Valencia's head snapped to the side and she glared at him. “So did you kill my brother too?”
“What do you mean too?” Redemption asked.
“You all know the Walkers murdered my mother. And after what they did to her all those years ago? They all deserve whatever they get.”
“What they did to her?” Liv exclaimed. “She killed many family members. Even before most of us Walker kids were born. Then she murdered quite a few young women who worked for her. She framed one of my brothers so he would be sent to prison for seven years. She killed friends of our family. No one did anything to her. She was the fucking murderer!”
“Besides, she killed herself,” Jarret told her.
“You lie.” V shook her head. “Deacon told me they killed her.”
“Deacon wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him on the ass!” Glory exclaimed.
“I was there when she took her own life,” Redemption said. “I saw it all.”
“Ha!” Valencia scoffed. “You’re a Walker, so you are lying.”
“I can prove that he’s not,” came a quiet, calm voice.
We all looked over at Logan, who had said this.
Valencia stared at him. “Who the hell are you?”
“I’m the man who recorded O’s death.”
She simply stared at him and kept shaking her head in denial.
Liv looked over at her man, Logan and asked, “Can you…”
He nodded. “I have it right here on my laptop.” He paused to look around. “I have to caution all of you, this will not be easy to look at.” He raised his forefinger and tapped a key.
….. Rip went into the barn where O was being held in her cage. You could easily see that he hadn’t wanted to do this at all. He hated the woman, you could see it in his eyes. He wanted this to be over.
O stood from her rocking chair and smiled at Rip.
He did not smile back. Who could blame him? His mother was nothing short of a monster. A killer with no remorse and no soul.
He pulled up a folding chair and sat down next to the cage.
“Rylan, I am so glad to see you again,” O gushed as she sat back down.
He slowly shook his head and replied in a flat voice, “I need to ask you some questions.”
Her smile dropped away. “Ah, so the Walkers sent you in here.”
Sitting forward, he said, “I am a Walker.”
Shaking her head, she seethed. “No, you aren’t like them.”
“Mother, my dad was a Walker. You were married to him, remember? That makes me as much of one bloodwise as any of them.”
She looked away as if she refused to accept this obvious fact.
“But I didn't come here to rehash anything,” he went on. “We need to know about this exchange.”
“What about it?” She now looked back at him.
“Well, we don’t know where or how. You know, important things like that.”
She shrugged and gave no answer.
“Look, mother. The kidnapper never told Jarret any of that. He just sent him here.”
She smirked. “Yeah, that lit a fire under his butt, didn’t it? The prodigal son finally came home.”
“Why do you think any of this is funny?” Rip glared at her smirk. “You took a young girl and locked her up. Your own niece in fact. You threatened to kill Glory. What in the hell is funny about any of that?”
“Son, I already explained it to you,” O replied. “I can’t go to prison. I did it so I could go free. You don’t want me to survive? Is that it?”
If Rip didn't play this right, we would get no information. “We just need to know the specifics,” he stated in that flat tone again.
“And you all will get them, when we leave tomorrow.” She nodded her head.
“You mean after we leave?” he asked her as he clenched his fists.
“Yes, that is what I just said. Weren’t you listening?”
He slowly shook his head. “I will be in a SUV with you the whole ride, so will you tell me?”
“Well sure, when the time is right,” she answered.
“So, what are the rules to this?” he dared to ask.
“Rules?” she repeated back. “We make the trade, that’s all.”
“Who has her?” He stared at her.
She paused to stare at him. “I gave all my instructions to Deacon. He always carries my orders out to the letter.”
He leaned forward again. “Who is this Deacon?”
Shrugging, she said, “He's your brother. I thought I already made that clear?”
He let out a frustrated breath. “So you raised him and not me.” He was treading bad water here. This could piss her off and it took very little to do that.
“Yeah, see,” she went on. “I was never with anyone else. I had to leave town real fast.” She shook her head. “I was pregnant with him when I left here.”
Rip sucked in a breath and stood from the chair. “You mean this guy is my full brother? Bronson was his father?”
Nodding, she replied, “Well, yes. I would never betray my vows like that, son.”
Rip looked like he was gonna lose it at any moment. Stepping closer to the cage, he leaned in and said, “So, you killed our dad, then you raised his second born son, thinking you were being virtuous?” His voice rose.
With round eyes, she stepped closer to the cage net too. “I did what I had to do. I made sure Bronson felt no pain. I went on and had Deacon. I sent him to college, he became an agent for the FBI. He made me as proud as I was of you. I did two things right in this world. You and him.”
Rip grasped the cage with his fingers and nearly hissed his words at her, “We could have grown up together with a father and a mother, but you changed all that. Now, he’s as bad as you are. A serial killer with blood on his hands and a kidnapper. Tell me something, does he skin people alive too?” His voice had risen to a shout.
The poor guy who faced his insane ghoul of a mother seemed to fight for control of his temper in the face of such delusion.
O stared at Rip and exclaimed, “It was all wrong! I never loved Bronson, I was supposed to be with Jacob. Can’t you see that? They all deceived me, took everything from me. I was the sister who didn’t deserve to be happy. Nooo. Bea was so precious, so wonderful! She took it all away from me.”
“She couldn’t take what was never yours, mother,” Rip countered. “You murdered your own baby sister by burning her up and my grandparents. You did the same to my father, then you killed my uncle and you hurt all the people that were my only family. Now I find out I have a brother who is as sick as you are? You raised him to be just like you! A killer with no remorse. No conscience. Don’t you see it? You robbed me of ever having a brother or ever having a dad. And all you can say is, poor me? You wrecked lives because you didn’t get a man that was not in love with you. That is what you did. Then you turned into a criminal, slave trading children for fuck’s sake, running prostitution rings, peddling drugs to people who die because of it. Using people up, raping, killing, robbing and God knows what else. Then you say it was all justified because you were jealous?”
Her face had gone white as even her scars went pallid. O stared at him and placed her hand onto her chest while looking shocked. “They brainwashed you. I’d guessed it before but I see it now!” She had tears rolling down her face.
“You are flat out insane!” He shouted. “You have done all those things, do you deny it?”
She simply stared at him.
“No, you can’t deny any of it,” he said quietly. “I see the facts, mother. You aren’t even sorry. You just keep on with this shit that you are better than all of us. You truly believe that you actually had the right to murder YOUR OWN family. You really believe that too. Next, you’ll murder me. Why not? I am your flesh and blood, so it follows that if you had a knife in your hands you would push it into my heart too!”
“No! No!” she screamed at him.
Rip refused to listen as he ranted on, “Then what? Deacon will make a mistake and you will skin him alive?” he shouted.
“No,” she denied. “I would never kill my boys. Never!”
“Why not?” He shrugged. “We might make you mad or something or maybe you think I’m rejecting you right now. I love Bea as my mom, so you maybe should off me, like you said the other day. Off somebody , what kind of human being does that and smiles? A fucking freak that’s what.” He paused as he was breathing heavily and then he whispered, “Like I bet you want to kill me right now, don’t you?”
Rip had lost it and he was about to tip O over the edge. He had a knife out and waved it at her. “Don’t you wanna off me right now?” he asked her. “I mean I am Bronson's son, so doesn’t that make me all wrong too?”
“Stop it!” she screamed. “Stop!”
Rip looked so enraged… So furious as he couldn’t seem to stop yelling at her, “Here!” He slashed a hole in the cage wire and pushed the knife through. “Go ahead! Off me!”
“Rip!” Talon called to him as he rushed over.
“Stay back, Talon,” he warned. “She can’t be denied more family blood, this kill will make her a fucking queen, right?” Rip kept his raging gaze on her.
She kept shaking her head at him while looking lost.
He stuck the knife through the slit in the cage. “Take it. Get rid of the fact that I wasn’t Jacob’s son. Just like my dad wasn’t him. Right that wrong, Olivia Claire. Get rid of me and when you get out of here, take care of my brother the same way. If you do, then maybe you will finally be happy. You will have finally won!” Rip held the knife out to her.
“Fuck,” Talon muttered under his breath as he rushed over and tried his best to get there before she got the knife.
O looked like some kind of ghost as sadness appeared in her eyes. With tears falling down her scarred face, she took it from his grasp.
Rip pushed himself against the wire as Talon stepped over to grab his arm.
O then did something no one expected, she whispered to Rip, “I-I’m sorry, Rylan. I'm so sorry.” She turned the knife on herself.
Rip gasped as he realized what she was intending to do and he tried to reach her.
Stepping back, she raised it up and plunged it into her chest. “Jacob will not come again. No, no, he is dead. He never will come again. God a mercy on his soul.” With a gasping breath, she sank to her knees.
“Fuuuuccck!” Talon shouted as he tried to get the cage door open.
Liv and Jarret came running into the barn and others did the same. Everyone halted as if they were afraid to interfere.
Rip dropped to his knees and stared at his birth mother through the cage weave. “Tell me where Glory is. Do one right thing, mother. One good thing .”
Gasping, O spat out blood and whispered, “Behind the bridge a house…Conner.” Then she stared at him as tears ran down over her scars. “I am s-sorry, son.” .... She slumped over onto her side.