Page 68 of Scar

Itwashim.

“You said he died over two months ago? Then how was he standing in my apartment twodaysago?”

A flurry of responses went up. From gasps of shock to words of denial. Someone started praying. Everyone was talking over each other and it wasn’t until Steel silenced them with a sharp whistle that they all stopped.

Steel’s voice was harsh but held no malice. “I am going to need you to explain that statement. We putourbrotherto rest two months ago. If he’s…” Steel cleared his throat. “If he’s alive then we have a right to know about it.”

Tally reached for Simone’s hand. The raw emotion in Steel’s voice was like a sledgehammer to her heart. Between Bulldog’s reaction and now Steel’s, Tally knew that these people truly cared for Scar.

What would their reaction be when they learned her father had kidnapped him?

Tally turned her face in Harper’s direction. “You said that he was the best man. Why? Did you not believe him to be dangerous?”

Steel made a sound as if he was going to speak again, but Harper spoke first. “It’s okay.” To Tally, she said, “Scar was very dangerous, but there’s no one I trusted—” Her voice cracked. “Trustmore to protect my children.”

Meaning that the baby Lucky had strapped to his chest wasn’t their only child. Not that that truly mattered, but Harper’s statement about trusting Scar was powerful. A good mother would do anything to protect her children.

Tally squeezed Simone’s hand for support as she shifted in her chair towards Steel and Bulldog again. “About a month ago, Scar showed up in my apartment. I didn’t know why he was there at first and mistakenly thought he was a bodyguard my father sent to guard me. He was just…there.” Tally shrugged, unsure how else to describe it. “He never spoke, which I found disconcerting at first, but then started to take comfort in his presence. The knowledge that he was there and had my back.”

She swallowed hard, suddenly feeling cold. “I started cooking for him. We became, uh, friends, I guess.” She winced, the word feeling inaccurate. Needing to feel something other than sorrow, Tally forced out a laugh. “I didn’t even know his name until yesterday when we found that,” she pointed at Scar’s cut still in Bulldog’s hand, “in my apartment.”

Not knowing what else to say, Tally stopped talking. How did she explain what had happened to Scar? These people were learning that their friend and brother was still alive, but it wasn’t like he was about to walk through the clubhouse door. Was she only giving them false hope that their brother would return to them?

“Forgive me for the indelicate question, but how blind are you?” Tally turned towards the new voice. It was a woman sitting fairly close to Harper and Lucky. “I’m Dr. Tessa Collins, by the way. I apologize for the inquiry but your friend acts like you’re completely blind but you, uh, don’t. You said that Scar was in your life for the past month, but I’m having trouble understanding how or why he would reveal himself to you. Most of the time we don’t even know he’s in the room until he was, uh,” she struggled to find the right words, “suddenly there.”

Tally fought the urge to slap herself in the forehead. Apparently, she sucked at playing being blind. Removing the sunglasses, she handed them back to Simone. “I’m entirely blind. I was born with bilateral anophthalmia. I use echolocation to ‘see’, for lack of a better word.” Though she sensed confusion from others, she didn’t from the doctor. “And I suspect Scar didn’t reveal himself to me and never meant to, but I knew anyway. Once he realized he couldn’t hide from me, he stopped trying to.”

“Why would Scar go to you?” another woman asked. She was sitting on the other side of Lucky. “If he was alive,” her voice cracked, “why would he go to you? Who are you to him?”

Tally shook her head. “Nobody,” then corrected, “at first. But we…bonded, for lack of a better word. I care about him. I…” Tally’s face scrunched as she tried to process the whirlwind of emotions going through her. “I feel like wecould have…” Tally flinched at the past tense. Clearing her throat, she professed, “Scar’s mine. I don’t know if that means he’s my friend or someday more, but he’s mine. He meanssomethingto me.”

It felt like a weight had been lifted off of her chest at the confession, the declaration.

The silence that followed was broken by a man saying in a low, almost jovial voice, “Holy fucking shit. Scar’s got a woman.” Which was then followed immediately by the slap of skin, like someone had hit him.

“Where is Scar now?” Bulldog demanded.

Tally flinched, but not at his question. At what her answer would have to be. These people, Scar’s family, were owed the truth. Only, she didn’t know how to explain it.

A phone notification went off. Tally’s ears picked up Steel reaching into his pocket to pull out his phone. After a moment, he said, “Our computer whiz of a brother is telling me to ask you about your father, Tally.”

Tally felt her skin go clammy as cold chills rolled through her. “What?”

Another message, followed by a sigh. “He also says he wants to try your crème brûlée the next time he’s down in Atlanta.”

Well, fuck. So much for anonymity. Clearly, whoever their tech wizard was, he was very good if he found out who Tally was already. Had he run Simone’s plates? Maybe they should have taken an Uber to the clubhouse.

But this was Scar’s family. She could trust them, right? Fuck, what did she know? She couldn’t even trust her own father right now.

“Can you help him?” Tally asked, desperate. “You’re all former military, right? Can you help him?”

Others quickly started talking, demanding to know what she meant by her questions, but again they all stopped at a signal from Steel.

“Where is he, Tally? I swear to you, we’ll help him. But we need to know where he is.”

Tally took a deep breath, considering her options. What she was about to do went against the very beliefs she’d been raised to uphold. She was about to betray her father in an irreversible way. But Scar needed help, and she was the only one who held the answers these men needed to find their missing brother.

“My father is Henry Meacham,” Tally said in a soft voice. Like if she didn’t say it loudly, it wouldn’t be such a betrayal. “He runs a paramilitary group out of Washington, D.C., named Primis.” Swallowing hard, she confessed, “He took Scar. He captured Scar out of my apartment two days ago…and I think he’s holding him prisoner.”

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