Confused, I tried to piece together what he was saying. “I don’t.”
“Really? You didn’t tell Frankie his name was Darian Bianchi?”
Fuck. How did he know that? I didn’t even think Frankie was listening when I told her that. She’d been doing her whole ‘mmhmm’ and ‘That’s crazy’ responses when I told her. Usually, that was when she had gotten distracted by something on her phone or she was in the middle of remembering something and couldn’t utilise her full brain capacity. I mean, I couldn’t complain, I did the exact same thing.
“I saw it on my birth certificate when I was looking through some documents to rent my apartment. My mother wouldn’t tell me if it was true or not.”
“Why else would the name be on there, Rowan?”
I shrugged. “She won’t tell me anything about him, and I can’t find anything. I gave up the search a while ago. Why does it matter?”
His expression changed, softened a little, before he cleared his throat. Pulling something from inside his kutte, he threw it down on the bed. I looked down at a photo from my past.
“Where did you get this?” I asked, picking it up and looking at the photo, where we were smiling. Me, Frankie and…Raf.
Happier times.
Before…he changed.
“The Pit.”
Realisation flooded over me, and I pulled the sheet up to cover myself. I’d lied to him the other night when he asked. I told him I knew about it, but the truth was, I’d been there, almost every weekend for almost six months. I’d wanted to be there because it had been fun and exciting and everything my mother hated.
“I can explain.”
“I’d appreciate that, Rowan.”
He was angry. Not just angry, but he had a simmering rage right on the surface. I could see it. But more than that, I could see the man that was known as Reaper.
And that was terrifying.
“I told you about how crushing my mother was once she got into the religion, that was true. I rebelled against it so much, I hated it. I hated that I couldn’t just be me, with my thick eyeliner and tight clothes, and the one who listened to hard rock and metal over the hymns of Sunday service. Frankie was with Raf, getting her fix of being with a badass. He was the guy you didn’t talk to, the dangerous bad boy that could get you arrested. She was hooked, and she dragged me out with her one night to the Pit. I loved it. I loved how wrong it was that I was there, that I was so young and no one batted an eye. It was an obsession. I went every weekend almost, sometimes without Raf and Frankie. I just wanted to feel like I could belong somewhere, and not feel bad about who I was.”
His expression morphed into understanding, the grimace on his face was changing.
“Why’d you stop?”
I shrugged. “I…started dating Trey.”
“Did he know about Raf?”
“Yeah, we all went to school together. I didn’t know Trey that much, he was…well, I’m sure you know how smart he was. He was top of his class, and I was barely able to get through a class without being distracted.”
“He tutored you?”
I nodded. “Yeah, he got me to a place where I could graduate.”
Reaper nodded.
“What’s going on, Wyatt? Why the inquisition?”
“I don’t like being lied to.”
He stood up, pushing the chair away and swiping a hand down his face.
“I didn’t lie, Wyatt.”
“Yes, you did. I gave you complete honesty when I told you something no one fucking knows about me, and you sat there and omitted the truth, and for no fucking reason. I wouldn’t have judged you for it. You were finding out who you were. So why not tell me the fucking truth?”
