Page 31 of Fate
Staring at me, she burst into laughter.
“Yeah, he’s a jerk like that.” I shook my head at her. “But I have to admit, it did shock me. I just do not see myself as like this upper class person you described at all. I mean we didn’t even grow up in town. We were out in the country like this placeis. Just growing up in overalls and cowboy boots. And unlike kids today, we got dirty. When our chores were done, we played outside until the sun went down. It wasn't a rotten childhood, we had a great time. Except that we all had times when we missed not having a mom. I admit that is something that affected all of us here and there. Like when other mothers would bring cookies or candy to class parties or they would get involved in school activities and field trips. Marta was great but we all knew she wasn’t our mother. Then you can imagine the shock we got when we arrived here. We had all these cousins and Aunt Bea.”
“You mean your dad never told any of you about them?”
“He really didn’t. Like that is a huge secret for anyone to keep. And he kept mum quiet for our entire lives? At first, some of us were angry that he’d kept that quiet for all these years.”
“Were you?” she asked. “Angry, I mean.”
“Nah…” I shrugged. “After I thought about it I realized it had been painful for him so he put it in the past. As I pointed out to Redemption once… none of us would exist if he hadn’t gone away. Yes, he could have tried to tell us about what we were walking into…When Glory got kidnapped by Deacon, we had no idea why. Me and my brothers went through hell, wondering what the nappers might do to her. It was horrible.”
Briget squeezed my hand. “I’m sure that was scary as hell.”
“We all raised her as she was the youngest of us.” I let out a sigh. “Then we came here because that is what the kidnapper instructed us to do. We found out we have this huge family then as you can imagine, we did not understand any of it.”
Briget removed her hand from mine and said, “Even I barely understand it. I mean everyone in Ramton knows of the Walker family. They were like leaders in the community. Our parents and even grandparents all knew the Walkers. As you heard, my mom knew Bea for years. They all did well, then theirdad was killed. Next thing we knew, Dagger went to prison and that stunned everyone in the area. I mean the Walkers never broke the law. Jacob was like a pillar to Ramton. He insisted on helping everyone who needed it. My Mom said they did charity drives and used that Dojo building for the events. He held classes for martial arts for free so that the younger crowd would have a place to go after school. A really kind hearted man. After he died, most of them just disappeared. They all left Louisiana except for Raven and Rip. Ma stayed of course, but the townspeople rarely saw her either. It was like one day, they were all here and the next, they were gone.”
“I heard a little bit about that,” I said. “Seems like what my dad did is sort of a family trait, I guess? Things got too sad and he left. I lost my mom when I was just a toddler, so I never felt true emotional pain over it. From what I know, they were all older when he was killed. I cannot imagine what they all felt when that happened to Uncle Jacob and what happened to our other uncle. It came out when they caught O that she had murdered both brothers. Hell, my dad woulda been next maybe? And if so, none of us would exist.”
Briget smiled at me.
I saw her smile and asked, “What?”
“Your name is Fate and you talk about fate quite a bit. Or you think of things in that way.”
I laughed. “Liberty teases me about being a laymen therapist.”
“No, I said ‘man, you were alametherapist.’ ”
We both looked up.
Liberty stood there behind our chairs with Belle by his side. He was grinning at us.
“Oh, fuck you.” I laughed.
“Is it time to go?” Briget asked.
Liberty nodded. “We were assigned an SUV. I just talked to Bones and we will be taking the road. Our turn will come in a half hour.”
Belle nodded. “So we need to go get our bags and—”
“—find Daisy!” Briget exclaimed while looking a bit panicked. “We gotta find her. I haven’t seen her since yesterday afternoon. I think she might be with Hawk’s—”
“—I have her,” I announced.
Looking confused, Briget shot her gaze over to me and asked, “What?”
I shrugged. “She sleeps with me… I mean I admit at first it was odd, but after about a week, I got used to it. So Daze is safe. I got her a nice kennel from the storage rooms and she sometimes hangs out in it. I would never lock her up, but we might need the kennel on this trip.”
Briget stared at me as her eyes looked huge.
I stared at her and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“She has been staying with you?” she asked quietly.
I nodded and replied, “Not all day. But every night when I got to my room, she would be sitting outside my door. So I would let her in then up on my bed she went.” I chuckled. “I admit we had quite a discussion that first night.”
“Discussion?” Briget asked.
