Chapter Twenty-Seven
Mimic
Jingles stepped up behind me and placed a hand on my shoulder. That wasn’t a good sign. Something began to build inside me, telling me to run. My senses were heightened. I could feel myself slowly losing the control I tried desperately to keep in check.
Sam, my momma, reached over and took my hand. I held on to her like a lifeline. Fear raged inside me, telling me if I let go for even a second, I would drift away again. Lost in the ocean of memories and nightmares.
No one knew what I was capable of. No one knew what I had endured, what I had learned while the man had me locked up. No one knew what I had given up to get away.
The day I walked through the gates of the Silver Shadows’ clubhouse, I didn’t know what to expect. I came here looking for answers. I thought she would have them. But she didn’t know who she was, let alone who my sister was.
Or where she was.
I hadn’t found any answers here, but I found something else. I found a family. Found Sam and Charlie. And I guess Jack too.
King was a good guy. Not like him. Not like his father. His father was gone now. But he was still alive. Still walked the earth while my mother didn’t. His time was coming. Now that Rose had found me, we’d work together. We’d take him down.
And fuck the others if they got in our way.
They might not have been involved, but they knew who he was. The things he had done. They should have taken him out a long time ago. Instead, they let him roam the world. Wreaking havoc on innocent, unsuspecting women and children.
I had to pull myself back from the brink.
My sister needed me. I was here for her.
I sat quietly, holding Sam’s hand, as I listened to Rose tell me everything.
The truth about our mom and the man who took her.
That day so many years ago when I thought I saw her kiss him played through my head.
Only now could I see what my ten-year-old innocent mind couldn’t.
The way she leaned away. The way she struggled against him.
How he overpowered her, forcing her against the wall.
Anger burned inside me. Even more now than it did that day.
I should have done something. I should have run down the stairs and pushed him away from her.
I should have hurt him before he could hurt her.
What could you have done?
I could have done something!
Then he would have known about you.
He knew about me anyway. He found me, and he took me too!
He would have known about Rose.
That stopped me in my tracks. To this day, he still didn’t know about Rose. And if I had anything to say about it, he never would. Only his father knew. Why his father hadn’t told him, I couldn’t say. Maybe he knew what his son was. What he had become.
It was his father who let me go. Sent me here. He’d known about her. He wanted eyes on her. Wanted to make sure she never left. I sold my soul for my freedom.
“Rose, he needs to know all of it. So does Val,” Cash said, pulling me back to the room we were in. Rose nodded and turned back around.
What more was there?
There was a lot fucking more.
“Mimic,” Sam whispered. “Calm down, son.”
Hearing her call me son did things to me. She knew it. That was why she did it. Some might call it manipulation. I didn’t. It calmed something that raged inside me. Only right now I wanted to rage. I wanted to hurt someone.
That someone stood on the other side of the room. The fucking bitch who had sexually assaulted my sister. I wanted to take everything I had learned from the man and use it all on her. I wanted to flay the skin from her bones. I knew just how much to cut without killing her.
He had taught me that.
I wanted to pull the nails from her fingers, one at a time. And peel back her eyelids so she couldn’t hide her guilt. So she couldn’t retreat into a safe place while I tortured her.
There was no safe place for her.
There never would be again.
When Rose finished telling us what happened, the room exploded. Cash picked her up, and Jack and Blade held the doors while he carried her out. I didn’t know where he was taking her, but I was thankful he got her out of there. I didn’t want her to know what I had become.
I had told her a watered-down version of what had happened to me when the man found me. I told her about the chains and the basement. I told her about what he had done. But I didn’t tell her about what I had learned.
What he had taught me. What his father had taught me.
I stood from my chair, and Sam held tight to me. “Mimic.”
“Don’t,” I growled, looking back at Sam. “Don’t tell me no.”
“I won’t. Just give it a minute.” She hitched her chin in the direction of the bitch. Melissa, Ghost’s old lady, had gotten to her first. I wasn’t sure how, since she was surrounded by other women who should have done something.
They were supposed to be Rose’s family. The people who had cared for her after I was gone. But they failed her then, and they fucking failed her now. They stood there with their mouths hanging open like they didn’t fucking believe my sister.
“YOU FUCKING CUNT!”
Melissa threw her fist at Syrena, and the sound of bones breaking echoed through the room.
“SHE WAS A FUCKING CHILD!” Melissa screamed as Syrena stepped back, bumping against the wall.
She didn’t get a chance to defend herself, not that there was any defense, because Melissa hit her again, and again. Syrena slumped to the floor, but Melissa didn’t stop. She changed course and started kicking her.
“Ghost, enough.”
My head turned to King when he spoke. It wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. I watched as Ghost walked painfully slowly over and wrapped his arms around Melissa. She was still kicking and screaming as he pulled her back.
Valhalla didn’t move. She hadn’t spoken since Kytten had uttered the words that broke us all. To her credit, she didn’t look at Syrena. She didn’t ask her whether it was true. She turned and walked out of the room.
“I’M NOT FUCKING DONE!” Melissa screamed as Ghost held her tight. She might just be my new favorite person.
Just don’t tell Sam.
“Mellie!” Gunner yelled as he crouched in front of his sister.
“She raped her, Gun,” Melissa cried. “Kytten was a child. And that bitch raped her.”
Gunner held his sister. “I know, Mellie. She won’t get away with it. I promise you.”
“No, she won’t,” King confirmed. “Jingles, take her downstairs and lock her up.”
“What?” Arsyn asked. “Lock her up? Why? We can finish it right now.” Arsyn flicked a lighter in her hand, and a small flame lit up. As she stared at it, I recognized a kindred soul.
“She gets locked up until we decide what to do with her,” King said. “Your president will be involved in that decision.”
Arsyn scoffed, but she put away the lighter.
I felt helpless. I wanted to do what Melissa had done, but Syrena was a woman. I had never in my life hated a woman enough to want to cause her physical harm.
Until now.
Sam wrapped her arms around me. “Kytten needs you. She needs to know that you are here for her. She doesn’t need you to beat the shit out of a woman to show her you love her. She needs the words, Mimic.”
Sam was right. My sister needed me, not my anger. Not my rage. She needed my love. For a long time, she was the only girl I loved. Now there was Sam.
And now my mom.
I felt like I could love my mom again. I could forgive her. Yet there was nothing to forgive. She did nothing wrong. That guilt weighed heavily on me, but I pushed it aside. Right now, it wasn’t about me. It was about Rose.
Jingles dragged Syrena out of church. And I followed. I wanted to make sure she was locked up tight. I wanted to see it with my own eyes so I could tell Kytten without a doubt she would pay for what she had done.
The basement wasn’t damp like you would expect.
It didn’t smell of mold and stale body odor.
It was clean and disinfected. It was also well ventilated.
It wasn’t just where we locked people up.
It was where we got answers. And when we were done, Zero cleaned it.
Leaving no trace behind. Jingles locked the cell and then turned to me. “You coming up?”
“In a minute.” He looked at the key and then shook his head at me. Putting the key in his pocket, he walked out. All the officers had keys. I wondered for a moment if Sam would swipe Jack’s for me.
Only I wouldn’t ask her to do that. I wouldn’t put her in the position of betraying her old man. I also wouldn’t want her to know what I would do if I had the chance. I knew she could figure it out. But after what she had been through, I didn’t want her to look at me that way.
I stood against the wall and waited for Syrena to move.
I hoped she was still alive. I wanted her to suffer before she died.
Men were sick fucks. Everyone knew that.
People tended to ignore that women could be just as fucked in the head.
Only when it was a woman who abused a child, they made excuses.
She was abused herself. She didn’t understand what she was doing. You can’t really rape someone if you don’t have a dick. It was all bullshit. And it wasn’t fucking talked about enough.
Syrena moaned on the floor. She tried to move, but Melissa had truly kicked the shit out of her. The smell permeated the room. I didn’t have any sympathy for her. I wanted to line the brothers up and dole out MC justice; however, King would never allow that.
The only reason he would defer to Valhalla was because Syrena was a woman. If she’d been a man, regardless of her MC affiliation, she never would have left that room alive.
Maybe I should tell him what happened to me. It wasn’t quite the same, but it was bad enough. The man was in a club.
Technically.
But I didn’t need King to fight my battles. Our revenge belonged to me and Rose.
I walked to the bars and placed each hand on one. Grasping the bars tightly, my knuckles turned white. I wanted to pull them apart and step into the cell. I wanted to kill her.
She didn’t deserve to live, even for the short amount of time it took to decide her fate. She turned her head and looked at me. I spit in her face, and she smiled. Blood covered her teeth. She coughed and wheezed as she tried to sit up.
“Be thankful Rose didn’t tell me first. If I’d known what you did to her, you never would have stepped foot in my clubhouse. You’d be buried in a shallow desert grave where the coyotes could dig you up and feast on you.”
“She loved it. She begged me for more.”
“Shut your lying mouth, you fucking bitch. You’re a goddamn predator. How many other girls have you hurt? How many other girls have you raped? You’re supposed to help people. Not hurt them.”
Her smile was evil, and it turned my stomach. Just the sight of her had bile rising in my throat. I squeezed the bars harder.
“How many?” I screamed.
Syrena laughed, then started coughing. If I had to guess, Melissa had busted some ribs. Maybe punctured her lung. A punctured lung would be a painful death.
Slowly drowning in your own blood as you suffocated while your heart tried to overcompensate for the lack of oxygen. It was an excruciatingly scary way to die. It was perfect for her.
She grabbed at her chest and I knew then, that’s what was happening. I was content to watch her suffer. But then she opened her mouth.
“I made her come...” She stopped to take a breath. They were coming faster now, more shallow. “I made them all come.” She closed her eyes as she struggled to get a deep breath. “Not just the girls.”
Jingles should have checked me before he left. He should never have trusted me with this bitch just because I couldn’t get in the cell. I didn’t need to get into the cell.
I pulled my gun from the waistband at my back. I carried it everywhere. I would never be caught unprotected again. No one would ever take me, lock me away, and torture me again.
And Syrena would never hurt another child.
I lifted the gun, aimed it at her head, and pulled the trigger. The sound reverberated around the room. It echoed in my head long after the sound had vanquished.
No one would ever hurt my sister again.