“What about us?” Warren asked, indicating towards me with his chin. “How’d that come about?”
“The Kingsmen were her family. Here, Danica was at the bottom and knew that wouldn’t change.”
“So she fled her family who intended to sell her into the sex trade and became a slave, anyway?” I fired at him.
King ignored that.
“Family?” Warren asked, picking up on that part of King’s story.
“She was their President’s daughter.”
“Fuck,” Warren breathed out. I echoed his sentiment silently. I could barely comprehend someone selling their women into sexual slavery, let alone their own daughter.
King looked between us, his face hardening again. “I knocked her up. It wasn’t planned. Dutch made me take care of her. It’s the way things are done. Plus she’d fucked everyone here back then.”
I almost lost the ability to breathe. Dad didn’t talk about mom but the way he was talking now, it was like he didn’t care about her at all.
“Danica isn’t the person you think she is, Waverley,” he told me, seeing my horror at what he said. “You have some kind of fantasy she was more, even though she left you when you were three. Danica wanted to secure her place here, even though under Dutch she had that security.
“Being an Old Lady means elevated status in an MC. And that was all she wanted from me. She used you too. You aremykids,myresponsibility and I took that seriously, but Danica was strong willed, after a couple of years she wanted more and the higher I rose, the more she thought she deserved. But she screwed over the club and wasn’t welcome anymore. Dutch kicked her, and she wasn’t allowed back in.”
“What did she do?” Warren asked.
“That doesn’t matter,” he said and if I wasn’t mistaken, there was a pained tone to his voice. “She was out, and she left without looking back.”
Now he sounded disgusted, and it was giving me whiplash. I looked at Warren to see if he was hearing the same thing, but he was just staring at the floor between his feet. I sank into my seat.
I knew little about my mother. As much as I was disillusioned about my dad, I thought deep down we meant something to him. I stared wanting him to give me something that showed me we were more than that. We had to be, he’d raised Warren in his image. I’d always thought because I was a girl I was treated differently, that was my father’s way. But now…he brought me here to protect me. What did that mean?
“Do you even love us?” the words escaped before I could put a lid on those thoughts.
Kings jaw flexed, but he remained silent. I got to my feet, I needed out of this room. Warren grabbed my arm to stop me leaving.
“I may not show it-”
“But you can’t say the words. Jesus, is it any wonder I’ve never felt like I belonged here? A mom who used us to get where she needed to be and a dad who didn’t want us? Well thanks but no thanks. I don’t need to be around this. I’m worth more and so are you,” I snapped at Warren. “You choose to be here, but I don’t. I’m leaving.”
“Who said anything about not wanting you?”
The roar of his voice made me jolt to a halt. Despite wanting to get far away from here, I had never disobeyed that voice, even after all this time.
Warren pulled me towards him. “Don’t,” he said to me quietly. “He hasn’t finished telling us what this is all about.” That last part he aimed at King.
“Careful, War. I’m still your President,” he said in a menacing tone that brokered no argument.
I felt Warren tense, but he didn’t argue, just like King expected. Neither of us did but Warren’s hand slipped into mine showing he supported me and wouldn’t let me go. King noticed, watching our hands. For a second, I saw something like pride flash in his eyes.
“There is no way to sugar-coat this, and I don’t intend to. Danica is dead, happened a few months ago. I don’t know why, don’t care why,” he said callously. “Word has gotten to me she went to the Kingsmen a couple of months before she died, and something happened that has got them interested inmychildren.”
King got to his feet, his whole body vibrating with anger. He rested both fists, knuckle down on the table and leaned forward, showing the face I’m sure scared hundreds of people before us.
“They want to hurt you for some reason, and I don’t know what that is, but I intend to find out. They will never get near you.
“That is why you are here and that is why you will not be leaving, Waverley. I told that bitch back then and I will tell you both now. They will have to go through this entire MC and burn it to the fucking ground before they take my children from me.”
I made my way out of the clubhouse and followed the path to the old ladies house. It was where I would find Rosa and right now, she was the only person I wanted to speak to.
Warren walked me out of the office and tried to get me to go back to my room, but I needed air, plus that room already held bad memories I didn’t have the mental capacity to deal with. Warren said as long as I didn’t leave the compound it would be okay. I wouldn’t get through the gates even if I wanted to.
