Chapter 35 #2
She shook her head. “No. This was before I joined the Wildcats, but Lena apparently saved them. And they vowed to help her deal with the bodies. They’re just old ladies trying to make a living by cleaning homes and offices. Who’s going to question them?”
“Genius. Absolute genius.”
Once the ladies were done making the place sparkle, we all left together from the back door of the basement. It was already dark out as we made our way to the car. Once in, Tara put in the address of the hideout where Sloane was kept as I got behind the wheel.
There was a lightness in Tara as she quietly hummed beside me, tapping on the phone, while I navigated the evening traffic of Brooklyn. It was going to take us an hour to reach there. “What are you doing?”
“Chatting with Sloane. Making sure she’s alright.”
“Is she? Greg give her any trouble?”
“None so far. Did he say anything about Maxim Orlov visiting their hideout tonight?”
I nodded. “He confirmed Maxim is coming with a few of his goons.”
“Do you trust this Greg?”
I glanced at her and shook my head before looking back at the road. “I don’t trust anybody.”
“What if he stabs us in the back?”
I shrugged, knowing that he would do just that at some point. A man who would agree to sell out his own people would have no loyalty to his enemy. “Then I stab him.”
She chuckled. “Of course you will. I just don’t want any of our innocent people to get compromised because of him.”
“I know. That’s why Sloane’s identity is a secret from him. We keep him as long as he’s useful.”
She nodded, going back to tapping on her phone. A small smile played on her lips.
I wanted to know what was making her smile like that.
I wanted to know what made her cry, what made her adopt Shadow, what made her mad, where her parents were, whether she had siblings, where they were, why I hadn’t seen her talk to them, and why there were no photos of them in her house.
Deciding to try to get to know the love of my life, because that was what she was, I asked, “Tell me about your parents.”
The temperature in the car dropped. Her smile vanished. A frown came over her eyebrows. “Why the question all of a sudden?”
I shrugged. “It’s a long ride. You’re the love of my life. I want to know more about you and the people in your life.”
She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair. “Well, we don’t talk anymore.”
“Why?”
She let out a frustrated grunt and snapped, “Because they’re assholes, that’s why.”
My fingers tightened around the steering wheel as the familiar burn under my rib cage bloomed. “Tell me what they did to you.”
She leaned closer to my face, her eyes narrowed. “Why? So you can kill them?”
I couldn’t help but smile at that. “Only if you want me to.”
She let out a little squeak. “You’re completely nuts. Of course I don’t want you to kill my parents. Now, I don’t even want to tell you.”
“Tell me, or I’ll definitely kill them.”
“Ugh…” she growled adorably. “Fine. Fuck. They abandoned me after the attack.”
My body froze, my feet accidentally hitting the accelerator too hard, making Tara shriek. “Knox, careful.”
I pushed my leg off a little, gaining quick control of my body. “Explain.”
My eyes moved to her, but she was looking out the window.
“What’s there to explain? Sure, I heard they came rushing to the hospital when they found out about the attack.
But when they saw my face, my mom threw up.
My dad fainted. The two people who had ignored me for most of my life now only cared about my face.
Not once did they ask how I was feeling.
Not once did they consider going to court.
They didn’t want me to show my face to the whole world. ”
I shouldn’t have been behind the wheel when I asked this question. My control was slipping. Fury was riding my bones, and all I wanted to do was find her shitty parents and light them on fire. “Tell me you disowned them.”
She let out a hoarse, wet chuckle. “That would’ve been nice, wouldn’t it? Saved me some dignity.”
My jaw clenched. Her soft fingers caressed me, and I unclenched my teeth. “What happened?”
Her hand moved from my face to my lap, and I immediately closed my hand over hers, warming up her now freezing hand.
She let out a soft sigh. “Well, they started contacting every plastic surgeon to help us. They kept me in my room all day. In my bedroom, Knox. Not even in the living room or the dining room. My parents couldn’t bear to look at my face.
They would try to stay around me for a few minutes before making any excuse to leave the room.
I mentioned to you that my dad worked in another state during the week and came home on the weekends.
Well, he stopped coming home for weeks. Mom couldn’t even stand to come to the hospital with me for my regular checkups.
She started drinking more. And eventually, she even stopped asking what the doctor said about my treatments. ”
It was only Tara’s warm hand under me and her tiny, lost voice in my ear that was keeping me sane and in control. If it were anybody else, I would’ve killed them. Painfully. Happily. I pulled her hand to my lips and pressed a kiss on her knuckle. “What happened then?”
“One of the nurses in the hospital gave me a card for the Wildcats. That was about six months after the attack. Told me that if I ever thought about avenging myself, I could contact them.”
“And you did.”
She had a proud smile on her face when she looked at me. “The moment the nurse left my room.”
“Good girl.”
Her hand tightened on my lap. My girl liked hearing it. “What about your parents?”
“Once I met the Wildcats, I told them I wanted to get out of the house and explained to them the situation with my parents. Well, Thunder Claw has three underground floors with fully equipped rooms, the Den, a fully stocked kitchen, and an amazing restaurant and bar right upstairs. I moved in the next day. Told my mom goodbye. She asked me where I would stay. Told her I had friends. She knew I had no friends in my life. That nobody had shown up for me after the incident. But all she did was nod.”
“You in touch with them?”
“Nope. After years of therapy and surgeries, dealing with the storm of my life with the Wildcats, I know who my real family is. It’s those four women who’ve shed tears with me, who’ve held my hand when I was screaming in agony, who’ve fed me soup when I was sick, who’ve made me laugh on rough days, and who look at me.
Just like you, they look at me and don’t flinch.
They’ve seen me with half of my nose missing, my eyes and lips drooping, my skin melted off, and half my ear burned off.
And never once have they made me feel ugly. ”
At this moment, my respect for her friends cemented itself in my mind.
I owed them my secrecy, my loyalty, my protection, and my fucking gratitude for eternity.
I turned to Tara and made a vow to her. “I will never let you get separated from your friends. I will always protect them. They will never face any scrutiny from cops. You are all always safe from the legal eyes. I will make sure of that. I promise you. You are mine, and I will take care of everything and everyone that is yours.”
She sniffled and laid her head against my arm. “Thank you.”
My girl had been through hell in her short lifetime.
Her desperate need for attention, her downright ecstasy at having me obsessed over her, her kinks all made sense.
My girl has been abandoned and left to her own devices all her life.
The people who were supposed to shower her with love, attention, and care had deprived her of all of those emotions.
Hell, my mom had obsessively loved and protected and trained a psychopath like me.
I pressed a kiss on her head and took a few turns to reach our location while Tara pulled herself together.
Once I’d parked the car five blocks away, the two of us grabbed our guns, a backpack she asked me to carry, and started walking to the hideout.
“Sami and Naomi are already in position,” Tara whispered. “So are two of our other teams.”
We reached a bend in the road, and Tara pulled me into one of the dark backyards.
I followed her as she jumped over fences in a few backyards, tracking our position on her phone.
After jumping over and climbing under nearly fifteen fences, Tara stopped and turned me around to grab a few things from the backpack.
She, then, climbed over the fence right behind us and landed softly in the other backyard. I was about to follow suit when she waved me back, indicating she’d be back in a second.
I didn’t like that. Still, I lowered myself behind the wall but kept my head over so I could be on the lookout for her.
She moved around the house, which I was almost certain was the hideout, and began placing audio devices on the walls.
I could see the shadows moving behind the second-floor window.
But considering the backyard had no light, we were fairly hidden.
Tara rushed back in under a minute and climbed back over.
Before she could run ahead of me, I pulled her by the front of her sweatshirt and leaned over her. “Next time, you send me out for something like this.”
“Umm, no. Hush now. Just follow me.”