Page 39 of Scarred Sunrise

Smithy snorted. “Yeah, that’s why you have a gun pointed at me.”

“Insurance, Smithy.”

“Of course. It’s always insurance with you, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t come here to kill you.”

John moved slightly into the room and Smithy moved with him, not letting him out of his sight for even a second. This man may be in his sixties, but he was deadly.

“Then why the fuck are you here?”

“I have information.”

“And an email wouldn’t do?” Smithy saw he had one more minute on the download.

“You have your mother’s sense of humour.”

Smithy felt his temper rise as John spoke about his mother. “The fuck you know about my mother?” His stomach muscles clenched, as if his body sensed something his mind wasn’t catching up to.

“She was beautiful, fun, easy to fall in love with. She was everything Rhea wasn’t, and I would’ve left Rhea for her except she fell pregnant.

“No.” Smithy staggered back a step as what John was saying began to hit him.

“Yes, Whittaker, you’re my son.”

“How could you?” Smithy rasped as the oxygen in the room became dense, and he couldn’t get his breath as anger and betrayal made his vision turn red.

“I had no choice. Rhea found out and would’ve killed you if I hadn’t turned my back on you and your mother.”

“Is that why she hates me?”

“Yes, she sees me when she looks at you. It’s also one of the reasons she kept you alive.”

“Is that why you recruited me?”

“Partly, I wanted to get to know the man you had become, and you were an excellent soldier. I was proud of what you had achieved.”

“You don’t get to be proud. You left me with a broken, alcoholic mother like I was expendable, a toy you no longer wanted to play with.”

“That’s not true. I sent money, and I looked in on you when I could. It was too dangerous to do anything else.

“Why choose her over us?”

John seemed to age in a split second, grief and regret pouring over his features like a tidal wave. “I loved Rhea too.”

“Yet you still fucked my mother and abandoned us.”

“Yes.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

Smithy was torn between wanting to kill the man who’d sired him and praying this was a nightmare. He’d never seen the resemblance before, but as he looked at the man now, it was clear he was telling the truth, much as he wanted it to be a lie.

“Because I need you to understand.”

“Well, you failed. I don’t, and I never will. If you love someone, your heart belongs to that person with no room for anyone else. The only person you love is yourself, so don’t pretend otherwise.”

He snatched the flash drives from the computers as they finished, and with his focus still on John, tucked them safely away. He had so many questions whirling in his brain, and this might be his only chance to ask them.