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“When Rynn was younger, her brother was a part of Grimrose.” Hayes passed the paper to her, and she reluctantly took it with questions in her eyes. “Things happened, and she ran. We took all her things from her place, including pictures.”
“And?” Chris snapped, losing his patience.
Hayes focused on Rynn. “What did I just give you?”
She unfolded the paper, her body stiff as she dropped her gaze. Her hands trembled as she inspected what Hayes had handed her, and her voice was unsteady when she answered. “It’s just a picture.”
“A picture of what?” Chris hissed. He looked ready to lunge at her, but Hayes’s men moved closer, and our guys did the same.
“Of me when I was a baby,” Rynn said quietly, her stare still on the picture. “And my mother.”
“What happened to your mother?” Hayes asked.
Her eyes snapped to him, her lips tipping into a scowl. “She’s dead.”
“Give it to me.” Chris reached forward, snatching it from her hands.
The second he looked at it, his entire body locked up. Disbelief filled his eyes as he crumpled the picture up before glancing at Rynn and then back at Hayes.
“What kind of lie is this?” Chris sputtered. His shock had me wishing I could have seen the picture. He was never caught off guard like this. “What the hell are you playing at, Hayes?”
“No games.” Hayes chuckled, and I noticed another picture in his hand. He raised it higher, letting Rynn get a look at it. “Who is this?”
She swallowed thickly, pure hate gleaming in her eyes. “Me and my brother.”
Hayes handed it to Chris, who quickly took it. His hands shook as he stared at it, his face growing a shade darker.
“Not possible,” Chris grated out. “I would have known—”
“Maybe if you had a better relationship with your son, you would have known,” Hayes interrupted. His voice was full of cruel mocking, and I straightened up, wondering how I fit into this. Hayes glanced at me and laughed. “Not you, Jace. I’m talking about his real son. His blood.”
“What? No,” Rynn whispered, sounding horrified. Her eyes were large as she stared at Chris as if she’d never seen him before.
“Rynn already knows that you killed her brother. Shawn.” Hayes looked at her, tilting his head. “What kind of monster kills his own son? And abandons his girlfriend when she’s pregnant with his daughter?”
39
This was not fucking happening.
The room spun as I sucked in shallow breaths, feeling Chris’s burning stare on me. I refused to look at him. Instead, I caught Jace’s gaze. His face was lined with confusion, as if he didn’t understand what Hayes was talking about. Or maybe he was denying the truth of the words. They were pretty damn clear to me.
Shawn was Chris’s son.
But that would mean…nausea roiled my stomach, and bile crept up my throat as I tried maintaining a calm exterior since all eyes were on me. Chris could not be my fucking father. I detested him. He killed Shawn. It made me physically hurt to think of sharing genes with that man. I wanted him dead. To suffer. I’d always wondered who my dad was, but now I wished I was left not knowing.
Kian’s hand wrapped around mine, squeezing it tightly, pulling me out of my panic enough to focus on the current conversation. Turning my head, I raised my face to him, and he looked back with pity in his eyes. Realization hit me. My anger was instant. For the last three days, I’d had a feeling that Kian had been keeping something from me. This was it. He fuckingknewwho Chris was to me. Not that he had a chance to tell me if he even wanted to. Anytime I saw Kian, Nick or Hayes was with him, as if they didn’t trust him alone with me.
“What was your mother’s name?” Chris asked in a strangled voice.
I didn’t answer, choosing to look at Gage instead. He was sitting high on his knees, his arms stiff at his sides as Pratt’s gun stayed pressed against his head. His emotions were locked down even as he stared at me, making it hard to guess if he knew who Chris was. Did Ellie know? I was suddenly questioning everything. And I wasn’t sure I wanted the answers.
“Her name,” Chris snarled, crossing the invisible line that had been separating Grimrose and the Disciples during this entire conversation. “I’ll find out anyway, and if you don’t tell me now, it’ll be a lot less pleasant for you.”
Kian yanked me behind him, letting go of my hand to shove Chris away. Men from both sides murmured under their breath as Chris drew his gun from behind his back.
“She has our ink,” Kian said loudly. “And we have a truce. Don’t fucking try to touch her again.”
The fact that I had the Grimrose symbol on my arm barely fazed me. I knew where I belonged, and it would never be with them. It was the other thing Hayes had forced me to do that had dread coiling through me. Because it tied me to everything.
