Page 14 of Spider

Cash pulls out a folder and after he opens it, he begins to chuck pictures on the table. All of them are mugshots of Nova. I pick one up and look at it. Her face is gaunt, and there are dark circles under her eyes. “Nova Ward, age 25, date of birth January 19th1999. Lived with her mom and stepdad in a towncalled Reinton,” Cash states. Apart from her date of birth, I already knew this information. He pulls out another photo, and this is one that sends chills down my spine. “When she was 15, their house was burnt down. Arson. Her mother and stepfather died, both locked in their bedroom, cuffed to the headboard. Police never found out who did it. But that left Nova without any family. She ended up in a small all girls home, where she got into drugs and met Dean,” he states before he places down another picture of a dark haired guy with tattoos up his neck.

“Where was she?” I ask, interrupting.

“Where was she what?” Cash asks.

“Where was she if she didn’t die in the house?” I clarify.

“She was at her job, at the local pizza place,” he states. “She had an alibi. She didn’t start the fire,” Cash states.

I know she didn’t,I think to myself.

“Dean is a drug dealer,” Cash continues. “He’s a pimp and he sees himself as an entrepreneur.” Cash scoffs. “He’s a real fucking asshole. He gets the girls on drugs, gives it to them for free, then makes them repay their debt to him,” Cash states.

“Why don’t the police just take him down? If you know all of this, then surely they do,” I point out.

Cash smiles. “Why else would the authorities not take him down? They use his girls, which means he has them in his pocket, or he has filmed them and blackmails them.” Cash shrugs.

“So what? You think Nova is still a junkie?” Hawk asks.

“No, there ain’t no junkie that looks like she does, or does fucking yoga at 5 am,” I point out.

“What the fuck were you doing up at 5 am?” Hawk asks.

“Having a fucking wank, what do you think? I couldn’t sleep so I got up,” I snap.

Hawk fights back a smile. “There is more,” Cash states. We all look back to him. “Her bakery was trashed.”

“When?” I ask.

“The day after she arrived,” Cash adds.

“So, what? You think she knew that would happen and came here to hide?” Scar asks.

Cash nods. “Yeah, and I think we owe Spider an apology. She is in some deep shit, and whatever it is, or if it is this Dean guy, they are looking for her, hunting her down. Either she knows something she shouldn’t, or she has something he wants.”

I run my fingers through my hair. “Fuck,” I sigh.

“You fucking called it, brother. You said it was for more than Acid,” Ghost states. “One thing, though. Why were you so adamant that he didn’t have a sister?” Ghost asks.

I look around the table at my brothers, at the men I trust with my life, each of them staring back at me, all waiting for my answer. “Sorry Pres, but if I’m going to tell you all this, I’m going to need a smoke,” I state as I take one out of the packet and light it. “Fuck, we promised we would never fucking talk about this.” I sigh. “You know Acid and I were in the home together,” I state. My brothers all nod. I pause, feeling the betrayal of Acid hanging heavy on my chest. “I’m not going to tell you Acid’s story, because that’s his shit to tell. But what I will say is it was a fucking mess. Much like most of ours. He wanted payback, he wanted retribution for what he had suffered, and he had every fucking right.” I pause as I take a pull of my cigarette. “So we went to his old house, and they were asleep in their beds. Both off their fucking faces on whatever drugs they had taken. I cuffed them to the bed and locked their bedroom door while Acid poured gasoline all around the house.” I sigh. “We started the fire and hid, watching as the house became engulfed with flames. It wasn’t until a neighbour came running out of the house with the phone to their ear calling the fire department, that’s when we found out. Acid assumed his sister had been taken into care. He never knew she was sent back to live withthem. Acid ran back to the house. He tried to get back in, but the flames had become too much. I dragged him back out.” I pause as images from that night flash through my mind. “I pinned him down. He was screaming, desperate to get in the house, desperate to rescue her, but he couldn’t. Neither of us could, because it was too late,” I state, pausing to clear the emotion from my throat.

“Acid has lived with that the entire time? Thinking that he had burned his own sister alive?” Ghost states, shaking his head. “The scar on his forearm?” he adds.

“Yeah, when he tried to get back inside the house, he burnt all along his forearm,” I answer. “Both of us have tortured ourselves over it our entire fucking lives. For years I blamed myself for not checking the house properly.”

“No wonder you two are so fucking fucked up,” Hawk tuts.

“We’ve lived through horrors, too many fucking times, but nothing stays with you quite like the guilt of knowing you had a hand in killing your best friend’s sister.” I sigh.

“What was the house made of?” Rage randomly asks.

I raise my brow and look at him. “Wood,” I answer.

He nods. “Yeah, if it was brick it still would have burnt to the ground, but at least it would have bought you a few extra seconds.”

“Even now, after all this time, I still have no fucking idea what goes through your head,” Hawk states, shaking his head at Rage.

“What? I was merely pointing out a state of facts. Not that it matters, because you didn’t kill her, and she is alive and just in the next room,” Rage argues.

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