Coughing up blood, Sinclair gasped, his eyes wide with a desperate plea that twisted something deep within me—a faint, flickering ember of the person I used to be, the person I was now actively extinguishing. He clutched his ribs, his body a fragile cage of pain. “What about Dante?”
His question hung in the air, heavy with implication, a loaded gun aimed squarely at my burgeoning darkness.
Dante.
The thought of him, of his innocent trust, of the life we were supposed to build, was a shard of ice in the growing inferno of my resolve. I was meant to protect him. Yet, the path I was on demanded something more.
Something definitive.
Something final. To turn back now would be to condemn myself to a different kind of death, a death by a thousand regrets and an eternity of “what-ifs.”
Leaning forward, my words tasted like victory as I whispered, “You said it yourself, Crispin. He’s yours,” as I slid the knife deep into his gut. The resistance was sickeningly soft, a violation that resonated not in triumph, but in a profound, soul-deep ache. “But don’t worry,” I continued, the words a venomous bloom in my chest. “I’ll take care of him too. I’ll take care of them both.” The realization of my words, cold and sharp as the knife in my hand, struck me with the force of a physical blow.
I had just signed my own damnation.
Chapter Forty-One
Bane
I still couldn’t believe that after all these years, I was sitting next to my bed, holding her hand while she slept. I worried this was a dream, and if it was, I never wanted to wake. I still didn’t know how I was going to explain everything. All I prayed for was that when I was finished, she forgave me.
“So where have you been all this time?” Torment asked Shame as he leaned against the desk in my room. Looking over at my former intern, I no longer saw a young man, but a weathered one, his face etched with years of hidden secrets and choices that haunted him.
Standing against the wall with his arms crossed over his chest, his face void of emotion, Shame slowly turned his head toward Torment and said, “I’ve been around.”
“That’s it? Around?” Torment scoffed. “We thought you were dead, man. We buried you.”
Shame smirked at that.
Torment shook his head, clearly dissatisfied with his lack of answer, but Shame offered no further explanation. The silence between them stretched, weighted with things left unsaid.
“He’s been looking for my wife,” I admitted, trying to ease the tension. “It wasn’t Shame’s fault. None of this was. It was all mine. If anyone has a problem, they need to direct their anger toward me. He only did as I asked, Torment.”
“Bullshit,” Torment snapped. “This has Montana written all over it. You can’t sit there and tell me that for the last year and a half, Shame’s been looking for Diana.”
“Twenty years.” I admitted.
“What?”
Sighing, I turned and looked at my brother. “Shame’s been looking for Diana for close to twenty years, Torment. That’s how long she’s been missing. It’s a long story, brother. One I’m more than happy to tell when everyone is back.”
Torment shook his head, pulling the chair out from under the desk and sitting. “Lies upon lies. If it’s not this club, it’s the Golden Skulls, and now others.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Shame asked.
“I’m talking about everything, Shame. All this,” Torment said, waving his arm about. “Everything. I’m looking at a man who should be dead. I got brothers showing up out of the blue. Bane is married. Has been for twenty-fucking years. People who were supposed to be allies are enemies, and enemies are allies. And caught in the middle are innocent people with no idea whom to trust. God, this is going to kill Kytten when she learns the truth.”
“Who the hell is Kytten?”
Torment looked at Shame and frowned. “Your daughter.”
Shame smirked at that. “Now, that shit is funny. I don’t have a daughter.”
“Yes, you do,” Torment continued. “A son as well. Mimic and Kytten. They are with the Silver Shadows in Nebraska.”
Confused, Shame looked from Torment to me and then asked, “Do you know what the hell he’s talking about?”
“I’m talking about your kids.” Torment groaned, and I shrugged my shoulders, looking at Diana, wondering what had happened to our own child. He would be about the same age as Mimic and Kytten now. I wondered where he was, what he was doing, and if he was safe.