“We expected something like that. Not because of him though…” Dax cuts a glance at the lump that is my father. I wonder if he’s sizing up the threat level he represents, but Dad’s only really a threat to me and my family. I doubt he’s even got the balls to go against someone as mighty as the head of Trevainne. Blackmail, sure. Bribery, perhaps. Huh, maybe he is an issue?
Carlo huffs loudly, drawing our attention. “Can you discuss this later? I need to know what we are doing with him and get Mara to a fucking hospital or have you forgotten she’s injured? You okay, baby?” Carlo calls over to her.
Mum drops her head, letting her lank hair cover her injured cheek. “I’m okay. Just a bit sore.”
“Are you lying?” I reproach, concern riding me. We always hide the damage. “How long were you here before I arrived?” She glances across the room to Dad’s armchair, and I see two phones sitting on the cushion. I recognise the one I gave to TJ but the otherI don’t know. Mum’s? Did she have a secret phone all this time? Wait…when did Dad take the phone from TJ?
“Did Dad make TJ call me?” I ask.
Mum bothers to lift her eyes to mine. I see hatred there. I’m harbouring similar feelings towards her.
“Yes,” she admits after a second’s contemplation. Her hesitancy bugs me.
“How did he know about the phone?” I fire back, suspecting there’s something she’s not saying.
“Because she fucking told me about it,” Dad grumbles from the floor. He grunts and pulls himself into a seated position. His eyes glare daggers at everyone in the room.
“Did you?” I ask her, but she doesn’t say anything.
“Your own mother sold you out, Mutt.” Dad’s laughter is loud and confident.
Mum finds her fire, but it’s not for me or even at Dad, it’s for Carlo. “He called me. He knew about the phone you gave me,” she cries to Carlo. “He said he’d burn us all in our beds. He knew your address.”
Dad snorts. “You always thought I was an idiot, but I knew. I knew every time you went to his house. Every time he snuck you in the back room at the bar…every time you took MY BOYS out for the afternoon with him.”
“You threatened your own sons?” Carlo asks.
“Better dead than with you,” Dad grunts. “I told her you could keep your mutts, but I keep my sons.”
“And you went running?” Carlo asks my mum. Betrayal written across his face. “You’d have given him those boys?” Carlo’s face whitens as Dad’s words really sink in. “Wait…mutt? You know?”
“You think I’d sire girls?” Dad spits. “That little bitch even has your eyes. I knew it the second she entered the world.”
“Casey’s Carlo’s?” I don’t know who to accuse. Carlo or Mum, but it’s Dad who sneers a response. “Not just Casey.”
I’d heard him before I just didn’t let it sink in, he’d said muttsnot mutt,girlsnot girl, but I don’t want to know. It doesn’t make sense. I focus on one revelation at a time.
“You’ve been seeing Carlo all this time? You had a way of getting out, but you didn’t leave…I don’t…I don’t understand.”
“Jules,” Dax warns. He watches me but flicks his head toward my…towards Eric. He’s relaxed, leaning back, eyes full of wicked glee and a grin so wide it exposes missing teeth in the back of his mouth. He’s enjoying this way too much.
I refocus, ignoring the fucking herd of elephants parading around the room. I try to get the answer I know Dax needs. “Did Hanson’s men come to you, or did you already know to seek them out?”
Dad doesn’t respond, just grins at me and licks his lips.
“Fucking answer her!” Carlo slaps him across the face. The crack rebounds around the room.
“Gresh!” Dad hisses. “Fucking Gresh figured it out. They’ve been looking for a little bitch called Juliet, who saved some rich prick in the Vale. Gresh figured out it was you, not like there are many bitches called Juliet around here. He called me and I called them. Knew you’d come running if I threatened the little shits. Figured it might take a few hours for you to show up, but mummy dearest told me you gave Thomas Joseph a phone.”
“You really sold me out,” I whisper more to myself than Mum.
She shoots back defensively, “He threatened the kids…I had to protect them.”
“I might have believed that if you hadn’t already brought them back to him. Would you have left them here, with him?”
“He said he’d leave me and Carlo alone. He only wanted his boys back…I was protecting Casey…I was protecting the twins. He already said he’d kill them rather than lose them.”
“Did you ever think to protect me? No. Don’t fucking answer that. I already know the truth.”
