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It was blood.
I shrugged to answer Alicia’s question. “I remember now. Just… my attempt at a clever way to not outright lie without giving you the truth either.”
“Doesheknow?” Alicia asked and I nodded.
“Yeah, he knows. And he’s pissed.”
“Because you didn’t tell him?”
“Because I exist.”
Shit.
I hadn’t come here in search of connection. I came for closure. I came to quiet the voices in my dreams insistent on settling scores.
It was the biggest mistake of this entire undertaking that I hadn’t managed to stay more insular, because that connection had happened anyway.
Inevitably, maybe.
And because of that… the rejection kinda… stung.
“Ah,” Alicia mused. “Even if the circumstances of your conception weren’t what they were, the fact still remains that Jesse Garrett had a child he didn’t take care of, which is antithetical to thePredatormoralsheput in place. You’ve broken Blue’s ability to see his father as a good man, after he’s reverenced him his whole life. He wants to hold on to a reality where that’s not the case, but your presence makes that impossible.”
“Yeah. All that exactly,” I agreed. “Plus finding out that his mother is aRose. His whole life is a lie and so was Tati’s.”
Alicia nodded. “I told you I thought that girl would make a goodRose. She got it honest.How is she taking all of this?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I left her house and came straight here before I got shot in the ass with another sedative,” I grunted. “I didn’t tell her much because I didn’t feel like it was my place.”
“Who else’s placewouldit be?” Alicia asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “The people who’ve lied to her all her life?”
“Why would it bemine?”
“Maybe because ofthis,” Alicia grinned, reaching out to tap the rose charm Tati had put on me before I left her house. “Clearly all this was deeper than you keeping enemies close.”
“They were never my enemies,” I countered, shaking my head. “Never.”
She nodded. “I understand. And hopefully… they land at the same conclusion. In the meantime… how does all this change what we know about what’s happeningright now?”
I sighed, letting my head fall back to look up at the ceiling. “Well… Renard didn’t come to Vegas for the motorcycle gangs; he came looking for hisThorns.”
“Or did he already know where they were?The Gardenis sourced from all over the world. What makes them landhere?”
“I’m not sure,” I answered honestly. “What do we know about their connections? Long term ones.”
Alicia’s eyes went wide after a moment, like she’d just thought about something. “The day we found outyouwere in Vegas… Tati and Blue came toReverieto speak with Kingston Whitfield.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I remember. Why is that significant?”
“Because… that relationship is generational. Jesse Garrett and Gerard Tate were friends with Daniel Whitfield, who was part of something calledThe Collective.”
“I’m familiar.”
“Then you know that relationship is somewhat mismatched,” Alicia added. “Evil aside, Daniel has much more in common with the Belroses than he ever would with Gerard and Jesse.”
I grunted. “Hell, washeaThorn?”
“No,” Alicia shook her head. “His family roots are too deep and too public. But… He would be fairly close in age to Gerard and Jesse, they were peers inthatregard, and the Whitfields have the money and connections to be ‘global citizens’. So it’s not far-fetched that theycouldhave known each other way back when, which is what brought them to Vegas?”
