Page 71 of Sypher

“You gonna talk to me?”

“What more is there to say?”

“You should have told me, Dante. I could have protected you.”

“No one can protect me.”

“Told Reaper I claimed you.”

His head snapped to mine. “When?”

“Before the shit went down with Baranov last year. He promised me the club would have your back.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because you’re mine.”

“Sin won’t ever let me go.”

Reaching across the table, I took his hand in mine and added, “You’re mine, Dante. I don’t care who fucking raised you. They ain’t no blood relation to you. They never were. You’re mine now and that makes you Golden. Now tell me why Sinclair had a fucking dog collar on you?”

Removing his hand from mine, Dante sat back in his chair and looked toward the window. I knew he didn’t want to tell me, but I wasn’t going to let this go. I couldn’t help him if I didn’t know everything, and the faster he told me his truth, the easier it would be for me to help him heal.

“So I wouldn’t forget what Silas did to save me.”

“Gonna need more, babe.”

“I think I knew before I could walk what I was. I wasn’t ashamed. I embraced it, and Sin, Rowen and Silas encouraged me to be whatever I wanted to be. When I was kidnapped and taken back to the Trick Pony, I didn’t know what to expect. They never told me what went on there, keeping their own pain close to the vest. I wished they would have said something because maybe I could have prepared myself. You already know that I fought her, held out as long as I could until I couldn’t anymore. What I left out was how she brought me to heel.”

“The collar.”

He nodded as tears streamed down his beautiful face.

“It was the same one she used on me, and Sin kept it as a reminder of what Silas endured to save me. You see, when they realized what happened to me, he and the others moved heaven and earth to find me. It didn’t take them long to figure out who took me, and when they showed up demanding my return, the bitch flat out laughed in his face, refusing to let me go unless Sin gave her something in return.”

“What did she want?”

Slowly turning toward me, he whispered, “Silas. To get me back, Silas had to submit to her for twenty-four hours, returning to the one fucking place on earth he vowed never to return to. Sin flat out refused, demanding she ask for anything else. But she refused, and his hands were tied. He fucking knew that bitch wouldn’t give in. She never did. Silas either gave her what she wanted, or I would be lost to them forever. Sin considered himself my father. He and the others raised me. It was at that moment I knew Sin would burn the earth to the fucking ground around him to get me back, but not at the price of another. Yet it wasn’t Sin’s choice. I knew the second Silas made his decision, and I pleaded with him to leave me there, but he refused. Even Rowen and Sin tried to change his mind, but I knew Silas. When he made up his mind nothing would change it.”

“What did she want Silas to do?”

Dante closed his eyes and whispered, “To fuck me.”

Shaking my head, I sat back in my chair as Dante continued.

“She knew Silas gave me his last name and raised me to believe that he was my older brother. I wasn’t stupid. We looked nothing alike. I was thirteen when I sent off for one of those home DNA tests. The results just proved what I already knew. I wasn’t related to any of them. Yet, they were my family, and I loved Silas as a brother. I loved them all.”

“Jesus fuck.” I got up and started pacing the dining room.

I didn’t want to hear anymore. Just thinking about the pain Dante and Silas suffered at the hands of that cunt made me sick, but to know that the man he revered as his big brother, the one who helped raise him was forced to rape him to save him, was the ultimate mindfuck.

“She was true to her word, because twenty-four hours later, Silas and I walked out of the Trick Pony. Silas took off that day, and I never saw him again until he showed up at the clubhouse. As for the others, they never asked what happened, but I think they knew. Sin escorted me back to school and made me promise to never speak of it again, and I haven’t until now.”

Kneeling before him, I cupped his face. “Babe, I need you to explain this to me. Why, after everything that happened, are you still doing what they say.”

“Because they are the only family I have.”

“You have me, Dante. You’ve always had me.”

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