Page 78 of Grace's Redemption
The word echoed around my brain. I reached back for something, anything to break my fall before the world slipped out from under me.
My son.
“What the fuck, Grace?” I covered my mouth and felt the leather seat of her bike. I leaned against it, never taking my eyes from her.
She stood in the middle of her garage, her eyes darting around at anything except me.
“Grace.” I yelled.
She jumped and hugged herself.
“Why did you take my son away from me?”
The tears fell and a moment of sympathy hit my heart, but my heart wasn’t in charge here. My heart didn’t have a purpose in my life any more, my brain wanted answers.
“I could …” Her voice trailed off. She took a deep breath. “Oh my God. I didn’t want to tell you. Not like this.”
“You were going to keep him from me forever?” I stood up and stalked toward her. I grabbed her arm and leaned over her. “Why would you do that to me.”
“It wasn’t you.” She looked down.
“What do you mean?”
“I know it was an awful thing to do, but I thought you of all people would understand why I did it.”
I shook my head.
“I wasn’t going to raise my son there, breed him to worship your father, be the future of the SouthEast Dragons.” She wiped her face with the back of her hand. “Not after what I saw, not after what he did to Mattie.”
I dropped my hold on her.
She turned around and walked over to a stack of something in the corner. It looked like plastic bags of mulch. The garage smelled like a mix of manure, mulch and something medicinal.
She sat on the bag and hugged herself.
Her eyes blinked so fast, I was sure she’d be able to take flight.
“After who did what to Mattie?” I pronounced each word with careful emphasis on each syllable. I needed to hear what she knew, what she saw. I should have known she would know something. She was always around sticking her nose into club business.
She would ask me stuff she couldn’t possibly know, but the guys got used to talking freely around her because she was always around.
“Mattie came to the house the night he was killed. He told me Papa ordered him to kill the Vipers President’s son. He tried. The kid begged for his life and Mattie couldn’t go through with it.” She wiped her tears away.
I could tell she was shaking clear across the dark garage.
“He knew he had to go tell your dad what happened because once the Vipers found out Mattie tried to kill the President’s son, Mattie wouldn’t be safe.”
I scoffed. Already dismissing her story. I knew my father.
“He was scared and I was scared, too. I didn’t ask for details. I told him he had to take off and take me with him. We needed to go and find you.” She shook her head. “He refused. Started spouting some bullshit about his duty as a SouthEast Dragon. That’s when I told him about the baby. I convinced him we needed to take off that night. He told me to get my stuff together and to meet him at the clubhouse. I arrived first and packed him some clothes. I went in your room to grab the money you showed me out of the safe.” She pulled her knees up and hugged herself.
“That’s when I saw Mattie.” A dark cloud settled in the dank space and the humidity made the air feel thick. Her words bounced off the surface of the walls before reaching my ear, which made it the creepiest story time ever.
“He was in the middle of the courtyard. Yelling at someone and then Derrick pulled up. I heard a bunch of gunshots. I ducked down. When I looked again, two guys, they were Vipers were down and so was Mattie.” She paused and rocked as tears streamed down her face. “Derrick held him in his arms as he died.”
“Where was my dad?” I asked.
“He stood there. He did nothing to help him, didn’t call the ambulance, the police, nothing. He just stood there and watched him die …
