Page 21 of Golden Atonement

Montana glared at his brother before nodding.

“It started before you married Reaper. A few days before your wedding, Maxim and I met with Reaper and hatched a plan. It was a shit plan, but with no time, we went with what we had.”

“The plan was intricate yet straightforward,” added Fedorov. “After the wedding, you and Reaper would go into hiding until we found theSociety’smiddleman. A man we later learned was Boris Petrovitch. He worked closely with Capribella and Bianchi.Back then, theSocietyreally didn’t give a damn about the Golden Skulls. Reaper’s club was merely a nuisance. What they really wanted was our organizations—the Soulless Sinners and the East Coast Bratva—but we refused.”

“I don’t understand. We did just that. After the wedding, we moved the club to Tennessee and stayed to ourselves until theSocietyfound us again.”

Montana shook his head.

“No, Remi. TheSocietydidn’t find you. Reaper went after them. He couldn’t stand the idea that the threat to you was still out there, so he forced our hands.”

“TheSocietydidn’t want me. They wanted him because of who his father was.”

Maxim looked over at his friend, Vladmir Ivenok, who took a deep breath and admitted.

“No, sweetheart. TheSocietydidn’t care about Reaper or the Golden Skulls. Like Maxim said, they were merely a nuisance. The only reason theSocietywent after Reaper and the club was because of... well, because they learned they could use you to get to me.”

“You?” I muttered, confused. “I’m sorry, Mr. Ivenok, but I only met you when you came to Tennessee to help the club get rid of theSociety. I’ve never met you before.”

“That’s not entirely true,” Vladmir said, looking directly at me and causing the hairs on the back of my neck to perk up.

There was something compelling in his eyes he was trying to relay to me. I could see the sorrow in his blue eyes. The trepidation of what he was about to say. “I held you in my hands when you took your first breath. You were so small. I didn’t understand how something so small could be so perfect.”

“Vladmir had a choice that day, Remi,” Maxim interrupted. “We knew we couldn’t protect you, so Vladmir found you a loving family. Only we never expected what came next. Noteven twenty-four hours after he placed you with the Greysons, someone took you. If we had known. God, Remi. We are so sorry. Because of what we did, you endured a horrible life.”

Shaking my head, I tried to assimilate what he was implying.

It was impossible.

There was no way. My birth parents were Benjamin and Diana Greyson. The club said as much. Player and the others investigated me. The entire club did. They found the paper trail.

“When I learned what happened, I tried to find you. I traced you to Saint Mary’s Orphanage in San Francisco, but by the time I got there, they had already placed you with another family. The names were fake. I had no way of locating you.”

“Remi?”

Looking up, I noticed Angelica kneeling next to me.

“What are you thinking, sweetie?”

“It’s not true,” I whispered as tears ran down my face. “It can’t be. My whole life, I knew. I knew I didn’t belong to anyone. I thought when the club found my birth parents, I’d finally found my family. They found Sunny and Jax for me. Even Sunny said our parents never stopped looking for me. Sunny showed me a picture with my mom holding me right after I was born.”

“The Greysons had just lost their biological daughter to a misdiagnosed heart defect. They were distraught when I approached them. I couldn’t give them back their daughter, but I could give them you. The second Diana saw you, she fell in love with you. They wanted you, Remi. Sunny never lied to you. Benjamin and Diana never stopped looking for you,” Vladmir said, kneeling before me, reaching for my hand. “Sunny and Jax may not be your blood, but they are your family. They love you dearly. You have always been wanted, sweetheart. Always.”

“You are my father, aren’t you?”

“Yes,moi malenkiy lev. My little lion. I am.”

“I think we all need to take a break,” Angelica said, getting to her feet.

“We don’t have the time. There is so much more we need to tell her, Angelica. If there was any other way, we would. I hate doing this, but it needs to be done,” Montana said.

“She’s just had a bomb dropped in her lap. She needs time to absorb it all.”

“Reaper’s alive.”

I gasped.

Leaning against the railing on the back porch, I watched the waves crash against the sand.

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