“No. Not right now. I can’t.”
“Okay, I can have Blade take you back over...” Grace shook her head.
“I want to go upstairs.”
“I don’t want you to be alone, Grace. You’ll get all up in your head and fucking run. I won’t fucking have it.” I looked at the church doors and blew out a breath. “I have to finish this shit. How about if I call Dec to come get you? He can take you to the house, and you can talk to Maureen.”
She nodded. I quickly sent my brother a text and then I grabbed the cut and helped her put it back on. “Don’t ever fucking take this off again.” I leaned down and kissed her hard, reminding her of my claim, before we walked back into the main room, where Popeye was still on the floor.
“Stephanie.”
“Fuck off,” I snarled. “Blade, take her outside. Dec will be here soon. Stay with her until he picks her up.”
I watched my broken woman walk out with my cousin. And I turned to the bastard who had walked away from her. He got to his feet, and I shoved him back down.
“Why the fuck are you here?”
“My daughter is here!” he growled.
“The daughter you fucking walked away from? Why now? Where the fuck have you been her whole fucking life? You have any fucking idea how much pain she’s in? Do you even fucking care? You walk into my motherfucking house and think you’ll just pick up where you left off? You have nothing here. She fucking belongs to me!”
Popeye got to his feet again, and when I moved, Mimic stepped in front of me, preventing me from doing something I couldn’t come back from. Because make no mistake, I wanted to kill the bastard.
“She’s my fucking daughter.”
“YOU FUCKING LEFT!”
“No, the fuck I didn’t! She fucking disappeared!”
“King.” James stepped forward. “There’s shit going on you don’t know about.”
“Get the fuck away from him, old man,” Reaper snarled, pushing James back. “This isn’t your show anymore.”
“Yeah,” Montana piped up, standing behind Reaper. “The Golden Skulls are under new management.”
“I am so fucking sick of you fuckers coming out of the goddamn woodwork. Just once I’d like to meet one fucking parent who stuck around,” I barked.
“Sometimes, son, sticking around is the worst possible outcome.”
Everyone turned to the voice of the woman standing just inside the door. I recognized Dread, president of the Twisted Dragons, standing beside her, and my face paled.
“Momma?” Hemlock whispered, moving quickly to stand by the beautiful older woman I suspected was my birth mother.
“Who the fuck is that?” Montana asked no one in particular as Snoopy gasped, and Morpheus growled.
“Bridgit?” Snoopy said.
“Gretchen?” Morpheus snarled.
Blade walked back inside, followed by Sal. I dropped my head back. My head spun as I heard him gasp, “Darce?”
Blade looked at the woman, then Sal, then back at me, his eyes wide. “Oh fuck!”
“I’m fucking done!” I barked and walked into church. I sank down into my chair and held my head in my hands, my elbows on the table.
I heard the doors swish but didn’t look up until I heard Reaper’s voice as he pulled out a chair. “Hiding in here ain’t gonna make them go away. Word of advice: shit will only get worse if you don’t put a stop to it, fast. Right now, there are three powerful men out there, all connected to your mother. Left unchecked, they will take over.”
“He’s right, King,” Montana spoke up. “We knew this shit was fucked up. Known for a while how deep the blood went, but now it’s your turn. Reaper and I have been where you’re at right now...”
