Page 85 of Banshee
“Would you stop throwing a fucking tantrum?” Indie hissed.
“I don’t want to be here,” he whined.
“Then go,” Bane snapped.
“August!”
Mimic leapt from his seat and grabbed Indie’s hand, dragging her inside. I threw back my head and laughed.
“What did you tell me the other day? He needs time?”
Diana sighed and leaned further into her seat as she stared in the direction her son had disappeared.
“Probably didn’t help that he saw his grandfather deck his club brother in church,” Banshee snarked.
“Fuck you, Banshee. You deserved it,” my father growled.
Diesel’s head popped up, and he barked, letting us know we were getting out of hand. I loved that dog.
“Shug,” my brother said. “Will you tell us what happened?”
I took a deep breath and sat up. Slipping off Banshee’s lap, I sat between his feet on the ground. Diesel jumped down from Kytten’s lap and crawled over mine. I looked up at my sister. “I didn’t tell you everything the other day,” I admitted.
Banshee leaned forward and whispered, “You tell them what you’re comfortable with.”
I reached up and covered his hand on my shoulder. I looked around the yard and watched my brother’s men milling around, protecting the small circle that held my family.
I began my story with Pepper. With the day we were married, the beatings, the threats. My father’s knuckles turned white as he held the edge of the wooden arm of the chair. My brother sat forward; he didn’t look at me. I knew it was because he didn’t want me to see the murder in his eyes.
I didn’t tell them about the money, or the drugs Pepper was cutting. I needed to share that information with King first, and he could decide what he wanted my family to know. Instead, I told them about my life here in Diamond Creek.
I told them about meeting Kytten and Valhalla. I told them about my flower shop and how much I hated it. And then I told them about Greg, and the reason I was living in the Silver Shadows’ clubhouse.
My father looked at Banshee.
“That fucker better be dead.”
“He is. As is his brother, who helped him.”
That was all Banshee told them. He didn’t tell them that it was Haizley who’d killed him. Or that Greg’s brother was a cop. Neither of those things were important. The details didn’t always matter; it was the end result that decided how my family reacted.
“Sugar, I’m so sorry.”
My father lifted my mother from his lap and stood. He walked across the circle and held out his hand. Diesel sniffed it and huffed, then looked at me to see what he should do. I patted his head before reaching out and taking my father’s hand. He pulled me into his embrace, and tears filled my eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Sugar. This was all my fault.”
There was more my father and I had to work out. But it could wait. Right now, I just wanted him to hold me like I mattered to him. As though I were just as important to him as Diana.
I stood there in my father’s arms until Mimic came rushing back.
“Banshee, let’s go!”
Banshee jumped out of his chair. “What happened?”
“Death Dogs attacked the bar.”
“Oh my God, Grace!” I shouted.
