Page 29 of Ruckus

“Sonny’s dead.” Polly’s voice comes out shaky as she flicks the ash from her cigarette into the ashtray. “I guess you and your brother still have a lot to talk about.” She strokes my shoulder and smiles sadly then heads back into the kitchen.

“Okay, what the hell happened to Sonny?” I ask Alicia, and when Raze and Peyton walk in through the back door, Alicia quickly looks to her for support.

“You good?” Peyton asks once Raze kisses her and heads into his office.

“Freya, here, was just wondering what happened to Sonny.” Alicia’s eyes have gone all big and desperate, and I get worried when Peyton’s automatically do the same.

“I really think you should speak to Wrath.” Peyton gets straight back up from the table, and when I look to Alicia for an explanation she shrugs her shoulders.

“I’m sorry, but she’s right.” She leaves me guessing too, and as I sit back in my chair and watch everyone come and go, I wonder why I’m being kept in the dark.

Wrath and Eden arrive half an hour later, and when Eden heads straight into the kitchen I call my brother over to join me.

“What’s up, sis?” He takes the seat opposite me as if we’ve never been apart.

“I need you to tell me what happened to Sonny?” I get straight to it. He looks away from me and sighs, and I know exactly what it is.

“Dad killed him, didn’t he?” I shake my head and let the tears roll down my cheeks. Sonny was such a sweet boy, I remember how everyone felt a little bit sorry for him. He was still young when I left, same age as Willow. Polly wanted him to become a member when he was older, but it was never gonna happen. Sonny was far too kind and gentle to wear the cut.

“Dad didn’t kill him.” Aaron keeps his voice low, and when he leans in and takes my hand I start to worry about what's coming next. “Freya, you remember how no one ever knew who Sonny belonged to.” He clears his throat.

“He belonged to Polly.” I shake my head, it didn’t matter that no one ever manned up and claimed him as their son. Sonny didn’t need a father, he was Polly’s world.

“You know what I mean.” Aaron looks impatient.

“I know what you mean,” I assure him, back when I was living here I was a brat, I never paid much attention to anything other than getting a reaction out of Ruckus, but I do remember that Sonny was always kind to me.

“It turns out Sonny was Cliff’s son too,” my brother tells me.

“Cliff, as in our father?” I check I’m hearing him right and when he nods his head I cover my mouth with my hand. “That would make Sonny our…”

“Our brother,” Aaron confirms.

“But how… why didn’t we know?” I can’t believe that for all those years I had another brother. One who I saw almost every day.

“Cliff didn’t want anyone to know. He was using him, like he did everyone else. He got inside the kid’s head.”

“Aaron, what are you talking about? What happened?”

“Sonny was working for the Reapers, on our father’s instruction. He ended up becoming a traitor and a rat, all because he wanted to be loved by our father.”

“Sonny?” I look across the table, unconvinced by what he’s telling me. “Aaron, Sonny was… he was?—”

“He was dangerous. He fooled everyone, and he tried to rape Peyton.”

“No?” Now I know Aaron’s lying, the boy I knew would never have been capable of that.

“It’s true and Raze killed him for it,” he explains further.

“And you expect me to believe that Polly’s just okay with that?” I look toward the kitchen and see her washing dishes.

“Of course she ain’t okay with it, but she’s found her peace. She knew for a long time that Sonny wasn’t right. She saw him gettin’ outta control. He may have seemed sweet, but he inherited our father’s evil.”

“That doesn’t make it any easier though.” I continue to watch her as Eden and Peyton sit on the kitchen counter and chat to her. “Everything about this place is so fucked up.” I sigh.

“It was, but it ain’t anymore. We got direction now, and a good leader. We could really make this place our home again.” Aaron squeezes my hand a little tighter.

“Do you really believe that after everything that’s happened? After all the people our father hurt?” I question him.

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