Page 79 of Banshee
“Daddy, King wasn’t hiding me. I just got here a few days ago, and I have been spending time with my kids. Making up for the time I lost.”
Kronos turned his head. “And you?” he asked Aspen.
“I’ve been living in Diamond Creek for two years. I’ve been living in the clubhouse for almost six months.”
“Why didn’t you come home?” he asked.
“Why didn’t you fight for me?” she countered. “Why didn’t you storm into Arizona and demand to see me? Why did you wait so fucking long before you started looking for me?”
“I did fucking fight for you!” He slammed his fist on the table. Diesel stood up, and Aspen quickly grabbed his collar. “When I found out Skinner had lied, I fucking fought to bring you home. Do you know how many fucking men I killed trying to get to you? You said you were happy. You said you didn’t want to come home.”
“What?” she whispered.
“Shuggy,” Zeus said, “we tried to get you back. Dad stepped down after he realized what he’d done, but you kept saying you were happy. You kept insisting everything was perfect.”
“That should have been your red fucking flag,” I snapped.
“Maybe if you had fucking stepped up, none of this shit would have happened,” Kronos hissed. “What was it you said to me?‘I’m old enough to be her fucking father’?”
Kytten stood up and walked around the table. “Rosie, where are you going?” Cash asked.
“I can’t do this,” she said, shaking her head. “I can’t listen to this anymore. It’s too fucking much.”
“Rose, Torment is in the main room if you need to talk to him,” Bane told his daughter.
“I’ll come with you.” Cash stood, but she stopped him. “No, stay here. I’ll go talk to Dr. Dunaway.” Kytten walked out, and when the doors closed, Diana turned on her father.
“You need to get that fucking temper under control.”
Kronos stared at his daughter. “Don’t think you can talk to me—”
“I will talk to you however the fuck I want. I am not a child anymore. I am a mother.” She took a deep breath. “Daddy, I love you. I have missed you more than you will ever know. But that girl who just walked out has been through hell and back. Both of my children have, and so have I. I will not let your uncontrolled temper trigger her. Get it under fucking control, or I will make sure you have no relationship with her ever. And if you don’t have her, you will never have him,” she said, pointing at Mimic.
“Lucas, she’s right.”
“Rosebud—”
“We’ll talk about it later. Let’s deal with the issue at hand.” Rhea turned toward Bane. “Morpheus doesn’t need to know who or where I am. You’ve kept it quiet this long.”
“I’m sorry, Gabriella; I really am. But it doesn’t work that way, and you know it,” Bane responded as we all turned to look at him.
“You knew?” Diana asked.
Bane looked at Atlas, the Gods of Mayhem’s SAA, and said, “My father told me.”
Zeus followed Bane’s gaze to Atlas. “Something you need to tell me, brother?”
“I didn’t fucking know shit,” Atlas said, his hands in the air. “I didn’t know about Rhea, and I didn’t know shit about Diana until I joined the club. I was only sixteen when she disappeared. I never talked to August—he was old as fuck. And technically, Albert is not my uncle.”
“What the fuck am I missing here?” King said.
“Atlas is my cousin,” Bane admitted. “His father is Barbara’s brother.”
“How did your father know, Bane?” Cash asked.
Bane looked at Rhea with a sad smile. “Because he was the one who helped Gabriella get away from Kalden Baudelaire.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
