Page 106 of Banshee
Everything I’d learned over the last few days led me to believe that maybe my family might be cursed. My mother still had no contact with her twin, despite knowing exactly where he was. They’d been separated for most of their lives. Diana and I lost decades together. And my niece and nephew, Diana’s children, had also been separated.
What the fuck was wrong with my family? What the hell did we do wrong in a past life that made fate want to keep us apart? Maybe my father was tempting fate by calling us Gods.
Whatever the issue, if my niece had twins, those babies would be the most protected children on the fucking planet. Iwouldn’t let another fucking generation suffer, even if I had to lock them up myself.
My father tried that with my baby sister. Tried to protect her, keep her safe. He fucking failed. I’d told him Skinner couldn’t be trusted. I didn’t trust Steele either. King appeared to be a good man, though. Trustworthy.
Until he kept my sisters from me.
He should have called the moment he knew who was in his fucking clubhouse. I’d called him when I’d gotten a lead that Aspen was in his area somewhere. I hadn’t wanted to; but when the Death Dogs moved from Arizona to Wyoming, I knew she had to be there somewhere.
Erebus was the only reason we even knew she was missing. Every time my mother called, Pepper gave her some bullshit story about how my baby sister wanted nothing more to do with us. How he thought we’d believe that shit was a mystery.
Though after hearing Aspen tell us everything, maybe he knew her better than we did. She should have come home when she left him. We would have protected her.
I would have fucking protected her.
Diana did the same thing. She ran. What did I do wrong that they both believed they were safer out in the world than with the club?
Safer among strangers than with me?
I shook my head, clearing my mind of my thoughts as we pulled up to the bar in Burns. Judging by the number of bikes lined up along the outside wall, the Death Dogs were already inside.
Nav and Eros climbed off their bikes and looked around the building. Eros motioned to the woods and walked off as Nav came back toward King and me.
“There are no security cameras inside or outside. Nothing to hack into and give us a view of what’s going on inside.”
“Then we need to go in there,” King said. “We have enough brothers with us to take them out.”
“And get your man and our old lady killed in the process,” a deep voice said from behind me.
I turned around and tilted my head up. The motherfucker was big. I was six and a half feet tall and Morpheus had at least a fucking foot on me. I stared at the man, looking for some resemblance to my mother.
It was there, in the eyes. Though the lines on my mother’s face were from years of laughing and living with love. I suspected Morpheus’ were from years of fighting and hard living.
“What the fuck are you staring at?”
“Just wondering what all the hype is about,” I answered, crossing my arms over my chest. I looked him up and down. He was big, and maybe some people thought he was scary. But now that I knew who he was to my mother, I wanted to kill the son of a bitch.
Morpheus growled and took a step forward. King stepped between us and pushed me back.
“We have enough shit to deal with without you two breaking a fucking treaty that’s been in place for close to half a fucking century.” King narrowed his eyes and lowered his voice. “Don’t start this shit now.”
I raised my hands beside my head and stepped back, turning my focus to the bar. I watched as four men, one of them being Eros, stormed into the bar. A moment later, patrons filed out quickly, running from what was no doubt a massacre about to happen.
I knew what Eros was capable of. And I knew he had secrets. Secrets my father knew and didn’t bother to share with me when he stepped down. It made me wonder what other secrets he was keeping.
Knowing I had a brother with the Brotherhood tattoo on his chest didn’t sit well with me. We’d be having a sit down when we got back to Texas. I’d let him have his secrets, never once believing they would impact the club the way seeing that tattoo did.
I looked over my shoulder at Morpheus. The man I was named after. It didn’t make sense that my mother would name me after a brother she didn’t speak to. Why name your son after a man you hated?
Did she hate him?
She was hiding from him. Even now, after her uncle was dead, she was still hiding. The question was why?
“Enough of this shit!” Morpheus snapped and walked toward the front door. King and I looked at each other; King shook his head but followed behind him.
Morpheus kicked the door open just as we heard a gunshot ring out through the room. The man standing behind Banshee, and the woman who was also tied to a chair, dropped to the floor.
