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Even worse, he didn’t seem to be happy about her finding out the truth. Who her father was. What he belonged to. What he’d hidden from Shay.
Holy smokes, had her mother even known? Or did he keep it a secret from her, too?
He couldn’t have hidden it from his wife, could he?
Or did he only hide it from his daughter? The daughter who loved him so much.
The daughter he warned about staying away from the club. An MC that he actually belonged to.
He told her those men were dangerous.
Dangerous.
But he was one of them.
He was an Original.
He’d worn a Fury cut.
Just like Ozzy.
Chapter Eighteen
“Do you think he’s still alive? Is he out there somewhere?”
Shit. He needed to tread carefully until he could fully wrap his fucking head around what he just discovered.
What he feared.
What he had hoped to fuck wasn’t true.
But of course it was true.
Every time he thought his life was doing okay, it went and kicked him in the fucking nuts. Dead center.
Every fucking time. Like clockwork.
But Shay, Ham’s daughter, was sitting in his bed, asking him a question and expecting an answer.
It would be difficult to tell her the truth and so much fucking easier to lie.
Or at least avoid the truth.
For now. Until he knew how to handle this situation that was quickly turning into quicksand.
“Don’t know. Not too many survived. Most who did, disappeared. Dutch stayed ‘cause of the garage. He had a business to run, two boys to raise. Pete stayed ‘cause of the bar. Both had somethin’ to keep them here. Don’t know what your pop had.”
Her mouth opened and for a second nothing came out. But a whole bunch of shit crossed her face and he realized he’d fucked up with what he’d said.
“Us,” she finally whispered, a tear sliding free from the corner of her eye. “He had us. His wife. His daughter.”
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!
Ozzy turned away and closed his eyes, his nostrils flaring as he tried to breathe. Ham had destroyed his family, but Ozzy had destroyed Shay’s.
“You okay?”
She was asking him if he was okay? He did his best to strap his shit down tight. “Yeah.”
“Does talking about what happened with the club bring back bad memories?”
If she only fucking knew. He cleared the thick from his throat. “Kinda.” But not in the way she thought.
Her hand wrapped around the back of his neck and squeezed.
For fuck’s sake, she was trying to comfort him.
She was trying to fucking comfort him.
If she only knew…
For fuck’s sake, if she knew…
He reached back and peeled her hand off his neck, drawing it to his chest and holding it there. With her other hand—the one still holding that fucking picture, the photo that made her cry—she used her thumb to wipe away the tear that had slipped down her cheek.
He should’ve been the one to do that for her.
It should’ve been him.
How can the man who killed her father comfort the daughter who felt that loss so deeply?
“Maybe that’s why the cops didn’t seem too concerned about his disappearance. Because he was a Fury member.”
The MGPD had to have known Marshall Graham had been involved with the Fury. Jet said the club had been mentioned in the notes of the case file but not how he was involved. Not that he was a member. And until now Ozzy hadn’t realized Ham and Marshall Graham were one and the same.
If the Fury was mentioned in the file, for whatever reason, that most likely meant her mother knew. If not before he went missing, then at least after. The pigs would’ve shared that info with Shay’s mother once they put two and two together. So, if the woman knew, she also kept his involvement with the Fury secret from Shay.
Why? He had no fucking clue other than to keep their daughter sheltered. Or maybe to keep her safe. Even though he’d never been a parent, he could understand the lengths parents went to protect their children. He’d seen it himself.
With Cage and Dyna. Judge with Daisy. And Reese with Reilly, even though they were sisters. Reese had stepped in the role of Reilly’s mother and had a difficult time stepping back out of it.
He already knew how fiercely Trip would protect his unborn child once he or she was born.
“Yeah, the pigs hated the Fury back then. The Originals did a lot of shit to rub five-o the wrong way.”
“Like what?”
That was a loaded fucking question. “Anythin’ and everythin’.” Hell, back then they did everything to rub the pigs the wrong way. They would do shit just to torment them.
“Do you think my father was involved in illegal activity?”
Of fucking course he was. They all were.
Drugs, guns, shake-downs. Rape, torture and murder.
“Good chance,” Ozzy murmured.
Christ, he could lie like it was the truth, so why was it bothering the fuck out of him to lie to her like this? It shouldn’t, but it did.
