Page 88 of Brage & Dinah

Her throat closed. She wanted to ask about her mother and how Brad and Tony were able to take her away from mom, but she couldn't get the words past her lips.

Jeremy stroked his long beard. "I'm disappointed to learn that it wasn't an enemy who killed a patched member of my club but Brad Reed who pulled the trigger on one of our own. This is new information I gained only recently. I had been under the impression that the Reed brothers were close to your parents and it was a mutual decision to let them raise you."

Brad was the murderer? She covered her mouth as her stomach rebelled. He'd killed her father?

"Two night's ago, one of the wardens at the state prison found Brad dead in his cell. He'd hung himself." Jeremy gaze intensified. "We have men looking for Tony, who ran after the shooting on Slag property. As of yet, we're unable to locate him. You have my word that we will find him and he'll pay for his part in stealing a child away from her mother."

Her knees weakened. Her arm brushed Brage, and she stiffened, keeping on her feet. Jeremy made it sound like they were going to kill Tony. She couldn't make herself say anything to stop him.

She hated them for what they'd done to her. But she refused to condone murder.

"I pulled the Moroad records on your dad. His name was Tom Copelan." Jeremy looked at Brage. "I have a piece of paper in my vest pocket that I'd like to give to Dinah."

Brage removed his pistol and aimed it at Jeremy. "Take it out slowly."

Jeremy reached inside the pocket and extracted a folded white paper. Elling stepped forward and took the item, walking back and handing it to Dinah. Her hands shook.

Ann Gardiner

559 Thompson Street

She moistened her lips with a dry tongue. "What is this?"

"It's your mother's address. She moved out of Federal when your father was killed," said Jeremy.

"Why didn't she stay and look for me? I went to school in Federal." Lightheaded, Dinah reached out for Brage and remembered his instructions not to touch him. "I don't understand."

"She was told you were killed along with Copelan. Moroad paid to have your father cremated. And, ashes were prepared for her that she believed were also yours. Whether she was threatened into silence or paid off not to go to the police, I couldn't tell you that. She moved away soon afterward."

"Oh, my God." She gagged and covered her mouth, turning away from Jeremy.

How could they? She was alive. She lived in the same town all those years and could've been with her mother instead of being raised by Brad and Tony.

"Does she know about me?" She panted for breath. "Does she know I'm alive?"

Jeremy shook his head. She closed her eyes at the onslaught of disgust choking her.

"You can find her at that address. I had one of my men verify that she was still living," said Jeremy.

She couldn't stand still. Looking at Elling and Roar, she begged one of them to let her leave. She couldn't hold herself together any longer.

"Is that all you need to know?" asked Brage quietly.

She nodded and changed her mind. "Why tell me? Why now? Nobody at Moroad cared that I was stolen from my mom or that Brad killed my dad."

"Those are good questions, huh?" Jeremy inhaled, broadening his shoulders, the soft sound he'd made opposite of his size and demeanor. "I only recently learned you belonged to Copelan when I dug into Tony's background after our visit to Portland, hoping to find him. I was under the impression he and Brad gained custody of you. Once I found out they'd stolen you from your mother, it took me a few weeks to discover how you fit into the picture, seeing how you belong to Slag."

"Why are you helping me?" she asked.

Several seconds passed, and she was afraid he wasn't going to answer. He tilted his head, his gaze softening in a harsh, hard face. "I understand what it feels like to be taken from a parent that you relied on to keep you safe and put in a dangerous situation. As president of Moroad and seeing how it was patched members who had done this to you, I wanted to make this right for you."

"We're done here." Brage stepped in front of her and lifted his chin.

She walked back to the truck and climbed in, holding the paper with her mother's address in her fist. Her past was straight out of a horror movie.

Everything Jeremy told her she'd pieced together. Her father was killed when she was a child. Her mother was alive. The little details only made her physically sick.

"Hang on, babe. We must wait for Roar and Elling." Brage started the truck.

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