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That sounded like something that Tara would do—at least the one that I was slowly getting to know thanks to Theo’s nightmares.
The one I thought I knew was bad enough, but the woman she was slowly painting a picture of in my mind was much, much worse.
“I don’t know how long I was in there. It felt like days.” She shivered. “The men stopped coming eventually, but the water never stopped, and soon it went from being super uncomfortable to painful.” She licked her lips. “My skin turned red, then a deep shade of purple.” She swallowed hard. “I couldn’t chafe my hands up and down my arms anymore because my skin started to slough off.”
I closed my eyes, barely retaining control enough not to shake with rage.
Barely.
“I started to bleed, and the tile was turning red as the water rinsed it down the drain,” she whispered. “And then Tyson found me…”
I’d never really liked Tyson much.
In fact, I thought he was a pompous douche.
But then he’d shown me that he defended his sister the best way that he could, and I realized that he wasn’t that bad.
Sure, he could’ve probably done more, but the more and more of the puzzle that I got, the more I realized that maybe he couldn’t.
Maybe he was just a small tadpole in a big pond of fucked up fish.
Whatever the reason…I was happy he was there for her when I couldn’t be.
I was also kind of pissed…because regardless, I would’ve done more. I would’ve royally fucked my life up if it meant that she was safe. And later, that her daughter was safe.
“I know what you’re thinking.” She pet my chest, running her fingers along the hair there. “That Tyson didn’t do enough.”
She was a goddamn mind reader.
I still didn’t say anything.
“But Tyson was a small kid back then. Smaller than he is right now,” she murmured. “He and Andy were a ways apart. Where Andy grew tall and bulky, Tyson stayed slender and small. Tyson never stood a chance, just like I didn’t, when we were that age. Tyson isn’t even a big guy now. Andy was, though. Still is.”
She shivered.
But I could see how she thought that.
“Why did they only do it to you?” I whispered into the dark. “Why not Tyson?”
And why were both sets of twins so different? I mean, first you had Tara who had no moral compass at all. Who didn’t care what she had to do to get what she wanted. Then you had Theo who was the exact opposite of everything Tara represented. Selfless, uncaring of what she had to go through as long as those she loved—Linnie and Tyson—stayed safe.
Andy and Tyson, from what I’d heard, were complete opposites. I didn’t know either man well. Sure, I knew that Andy tried to do his level best to fuck Linc’s life up just because he was a part of a motorcycle club—our motorcycle club, The Bear Bottom Guardians MC—that supported the Dixie Wardens MC.
And Tyson had attempted to date Conleigh, Linc’s wife. Though, it’d only been one date before he decided that she was too much work—i.e., she’d lied about being pregnant and he thought better of his decision.
At the time, I’d thought it was just because he was a dick.
Then I realized that it wasn’t because he was a dick, it was because Tyson already had a lot on his plate.
A lot being Linnie.
“I don’t know,” she admitted. “But Tyson did his level best to help where he could. My father sent him away to boarding school.”
“Why not you?” I asked. I sounded like a broken fucking record at this point.
“I don’t know. I don’t pretend to know my father’s motives at all. If I did know anything at all, I’d likely not find myself in the situation that I find myself in.”
I snorted.
“What happened after Tyson found you?” I asked softly, not wanting to hear it but knowing she needed to say it.
“He helped me out of the shower and tried to clean me up…but it was bad. By the end of that day, I had a fever because infection had set in. It went on for another two days before Tyson was able to convince my father to call a doctor. The house doctor that fixed my family up without any questions asked came over, did what he could, and prescribed me a boatload of medication. I still have some slight scarring on my legs,” she explained.
I could happily torture Tara right now and sleep like a baby tonight.
I wanted nothing more than to string Tara up by her toes and re-enact every single punishment that she had ever inflicted on Theo.
And I likely only knew a small portion of the terrible things that had been done to her.
“How much more did she do to you, baby?” I asked. “Was that the worst?”
