Chapter 10 #3
“Yeah, well I don’t want you here.” I spun around and grabbed his leather jacket from the other night and threw it back at him.
“Take your shit and get out.” I pointed to the door, but Forsythe just stood there.
I could tell he was furious, hurting from what I had said, but deep in his eyes there was a look that told me he was worried. For me.
Why is my chest so tight?
“Lucille.” Forsythe ignored my demands and hovered over me. “I’m not leaving you alone right now. You don’t want to stay? Fine. But stop pretending you don’t feel the same way I do. You might lie to yourself, but don’t lie to me.”
Oh, you want to talk about lying?
“You’re one to talk.” I stepped away. “You want to talk about lying? Really?” I walked around him and reached under my mattress, yanking the vest out before throwing it at him. “How’s that for lying?” Forsythe’s face dropped at the sight of the vest in his hands. “Yeah, I’m the one lying.”
He didn't speak. He just stared at me with a horrified look in his eyes, telling me the answer to the question I feared asking.
“I might not want to face my past, but I’ve never hid any of it from you.
You know everything, Forsythe. I’ve spilled all my secrets, told you my pain, laid myself bare before you!
For the first time in a long time, I was beginning to feel safe…
with you.” I choked back tears. “I thought I was safe with you… I thought I knew you, but I guess I don’t know anything.
” His eyes met mine. “You’re a stranger to me. ”
A stranger I’ve completely lost myself in.
“Go ahead, try to deny it’s yours.” He didn’t speak.
“I mean, there’s no name patch, so it could just be an honest mistake, right?
That’s what I said too…until I saw the patch on the back.
” I crossed my arms and glared at him. “It’s the same as the tattoo on your back.
A viper and scorpion entangled together with a stake piercing them both right down the middle.
The symbol for an infamous biker gang here in Texas. The Cryptids.”
Forsythe squeezed the vest in his hand. “Lucille, where did you get this?”
I scoffed. “Does it matter?”
“Does it—Lucille, there are some things buried in the past for a reason.” The look in his eyes startled me.
He wasn’t angry at me for unearthing this secret…
he was scared. “Was there anything else with this?” I nodded.
“God damnit!” I jumped as he threw the vest down in a huff and paced around the room.
“He promised me he’d get rid of that. Of all of it! ”
I watched him circle around my room in a panic. “Who?” He didn’t answer. “Who was supposed to get rid of that box?”
Forsythe stopped and shook his head. “Your daddy.”
My dad? Wait…the photo.
“Was he in the gang too? Him and mom?”
Forsythe nearly laughed. “Nah. If anything, they tried to keep me out of that world. It’s how I came to live here way back then.
Your daddy rescued me, kept me as far away from the Cryptids by any means possible.
” He paused. “It wasn’t until I turned twenty-one that my world came crashing down.
And no matter how much he tried, Memphis couldn’t stop fate.
” He slowly walked over to me and sat on the edge of my bed with a sadness about him.
“I never wanted you to know that side of me.”
I was mad that he kept such a thing from me, but seeing him weighed down by whatever ghost haunted him made me want to know more. And for the first time, I didn’t want to run.
“I thought we were done running from our pasts.” I sat down next to him.
“If it’s too hard to speak, then maybe start with something easier to remember?
” I pulled the photograph of my parents and the woman from under the mattress and handed it to him.
“Start with this.” I tapped the woman’s face with my nail.
“Who is she? And why are my parents with her? They obviously knew her. Were they friends?”
Forsythe smirked. “They knew her alright.” He tapped the photo. “That woman is my mother.”
His mother?
“Her name was Loretta. And your daddy was her best friend. They grew up together, ran along these hills together, just like you and Boone. She was wild and carefree.” His smile fell. “That is, until the Cryptids sunk their teeth into her.”
He handed me the photo back. I looked down at it and noticed the similarities between them. He had her dark hair and nose…but what struck me most was he had her eyes.
“According to Memphis, my mom’s childhood and home life wasn’t the greatest. Her daddy worked here, busting his butt to make ends meet.
But one day, when they were just teens, he had an accident while moving the livestock.
It left him unable to work, relying on drugs and alcohol to self-medicate.
Before long, he had become an unruly drunk with a heavy fist. Over the years, her momma grew tired of his shit and ended up just skipping out on them both, leaving my mother to deal with it alone.
” He paused. “Your daddy did all he could to help. He even offered her a place here…but she was too stubborn to accept his handout.” He looked at me with a smirk. “Kind of reminds me of someone I know.”
I gently shoved him. “Is that how she ended up with the Cryptids?”
He nodded. “In a way. One day, after she took off, she ran into an older guy at a bar. According to your daddy, they really hit it off, and he swept her off her feet, promising to protect her and give her a home of her own. It was everything she always wanted. It wasn’t long before they ended up getting hitched and then pregnant with me.
She moved in with him, and he gave her everything he promised, a home…
protection…it was all hers. The only thing was, it was because my dad was the MC of the Cryptids. ”
Which makes Forsythe a club child of the Cryptids.
“I don’t remember much about her early days in the gang, but I vaguely remember the nights.
They were filled with violence and anger.
Raised voices and the sound of things breaking.
I remember the fear I had…not for myself, but for my mother.
” His eyes raised to mine, and I could see the trauma within them, hiding in those emerald pools he got from his mother.
“She ended up with a guy worse than her dad. She tried to suffer through the abuse, hoping my dad would one day clean his act up, but he never did. And as he drowned himself in all the ways you’d expect, he took the gang down with him.
It was then my mother decided to leave and bring me here.
She knew my dad would never let her go…no one leaves the Cryptids.
” He paused. “That’s how I came to Bone Ridge.
My mother risked her life to save me. She knew Memphis would protect me, raise me as his own—” He stopped and I noticed tears in his eyes.
“I just wish she would’ve stayed too.” His hands tightened into fists along his thighs.
Without a thought, I instinctively reached out and grabbed his hand, looping my fingers through his. He looked up at me, shocked by my kindness, and I found myself wanting to take away his pain. “If she saved you from that life, then why did you go back? Weren’t you happy here?”
“Do you think I wanted to leave?” His irises fell.
“No, I didn’t have a choice. I spent most of my life thinking I had a choice of freedom, but it was only a matter of time before fate would reel me back down to my sad reality.
There was no escaping what I was born into. And eventually, it caught up to me.”
“When I was around twenty or so, I got a letter from my mother who had ended up running right back to the Cryptids, falling into old habits and forgiving my dad.” He scoffed.
“She convinced herself that if he truly loved her then things would change. They never did. From what I heard, they stayed the same. And the only reason she was reaching out was because she was sick. Really sick.” He paused.
“She had cancer, and being a part of a biker gang, you can’t exactly get the greatest medical insurance.
She spent years battling it all by herself, seeking comfort in all the wrong places…
following the footsteps of her own mom. And the worst part?
My dad let her suffer. He was too busy with his mistress and illegal shit to take care of her, or even give her the time of day.
By that point, they were married on paper but nothing else.
So, my mother did the one thing no one expected and wrote to her son, asking for help. ”
His story sounded so oddly similar to mine.
I held his hand close. “Did you want to help?”
“Of course I wanted to help. She might be a stranger to me, but that woman was still my mother. The only issue was, if I wanted to return to the Cryptids and help her, I’d have to earn my place.
Despite being the MC’s son, I was an outsider to them.
My birth gave me the right to return, but the rest was solely on me.
I spent years crawling my way through the gang, scraping by on survival alone.
I did things I regret to this day, participated in things no one should be forced to endure, all to help her.
And in the end, it still wasn’t enough.” Forsythe wiped his face.
“My dad had me out running a drug deal with a neighboring gang. I told him I didn’t want to go.
That I wanted to stay behind, by my mom’s side, but he wouldn’t have it.
So, I did as I was told and followed orders.
But when I returned to her side…she’s gone.
” He slumped forward as tears flowed from his eyes.
“She died all by herself. Alone in that damned place!” He reached around and grabbed me close, hugging me tight as he cried.
“I could’ve saved her…had I stayed by her side, I could’ve saved her! ”