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The bald man tries to hide the panic, but it flashes in his eyes briefly. He tries to feign indifference, but it fails. “The man is a drunk.”
“Has he always been a drunk?”
“What’s your name?”
As a warning, Huxley digs his nails into my thigh, but I’m not stupid enough to give my real name.
“Fiona. Do I get to know yours?”
“My mates call me Jay.”
The conversation is interrupted when Carlos walks back over. “I’m going to drop dead before you get the next round.”
The two friends share a look before Jay smiles at us. “Just making friends with the out-of-towners. This is Fi.”
Tears brim in my eyes at my mother’s nickname. Maybe it wasn’t intentional, but I know they know who I am from the suspecting looks on their faces.
I blink my tears away. “Don’t call me that,” I snap.
My father steps between me and Jay. “Sorry. Force of habit. The woman you remind us of, she was known as Fi.”
I arch my brows. “You all knew her?” Neither of them answer. “Was she from around here?”
“No.”
“So, how didallof you know the same woman from another city?”
The smirk on their faces makes my stomach curl. “It’s hard to forget the first woman we fought over. The brother bond almost broke.” Jay slaps my father’s back. “Turns out she was feisty and wanted all of us.”
Every fibre of my beingburns. Anger. Rage. Sadness. Tears brim in my eyes, but Irefuseto let them see it.
I arch my brow. “Sounds like a crime to me.”
Carlos narrows his eyes. “What are you trying to say?”
Jay grabs Carlos by the arm to divert his stare from my face to his. He shakes his head as if to saydon’t entertain this anymore. And like the spineless piece of shit he is, he listens.
“That’s enough talking for me.”
I point at Jay. “Is he the leader? He says jump, and you all follow? Who makes the decisions in your little group? Or do you take turns? Or maybe you’re all into the same thing, so it doesn’t matter.” I stand up. “Or maybe you don’t care so long as you run your little club together.”
Huxley grabs my hand, stopping me from getting in his face.
Carlos almost looksscaredwhile Jay bares his teeth at me.
“This is a scary place – you never know what might jump out behind the bushes. You should be careful,Fiona.Did your mother not warn you about bad men?”
If there wasn’t life inside of me I needed to protect, I would gouge his throat out with my bare hands. He has no right to ever mention my mother. None of them do. They might have gotten away with it, but my DNA proves what they did.
I shrug Huxley’s hold off me and step up to Carlos. I pin him down with a stare and smile. “DNA is a funny little thing – most people don’t think about it. But to a jury? It’s the nail in the coffin.” I look past him to Jay. “To answer your question, yes. My mother told me all about what happens here.”
I take two steps away from them before backtracking. I narrow my eyes and drop my smile. I take one last look at the man who is half of me, but I feel nothing. No longing, anger or sadness.
With a wicked grin, I ask, “Why do you think I came?”
21
“Areyoufuckingkiddingme?” I groan when I see Elliot leaning against my car. “I’m going to call the police.”
