Page 13 of Property of Riptide
“In his way, he was either protecting y’all from me or me from y’all,” I describe. “I’m not sure which it was because I was sheltered so I’m presuming it was for my benefit.”
“Sheltered how?” Riptide queries.
“My parents were older when they had me. They hadn’t planned on having kids, they were career driven, so imagine their shock when my mom, who was forty-six, discovered she was carrying me,” I say, painting them that mental image. “My parents werevery open and honest with me and they told me once that they struggled with the decision of keeping me or placing me up for adoption. They weren’t sure they could give me the quality of life they felt I deserved because they weren’t physically capable of keeping up with me like they would’ve been in their twenties. Up until the day of my birth, when my mom looked at me, she was conflicted. But she says the moment our eyes met she knew that I was meant to be with them.”
“I can see how that’d be problematic,” Riptide mentions.
I snort then inform them, “They got lucky with me though. I was a homebody as a child. They tried putting me into sports and dance, but I wasn’t coordinated and hated every bit of it. I’d rather have had a book in my hands than learning how to pirouette or juggle a ball.”
“I bet Gage loved that,” Rio huffs. “He was always on the go. The man never saw a stop sign he didn’t breeze through.”
“He’d tap on the brakes.” I laugh because it was just that, a gentle tap, and as long as there wasn’t traffic coming from either direction, he’d press on the gas. Then say with shrugged shoulders, “I adjusted. When he was home I went places with him and enjoyed it. But when he was on the road, I reverted back to my childhood ways.” I breathe in through my nose and gather my courage, then broach the topic we’ve been tiptoeing around. “What changed with Gage? What did he do that has y’all standoffish and second guessing yourselves anytime his name is mentioned?”
CHAPTER
SEVEN
Riptide
Isn’t that the million dollar question of the day? How do we tell this woman, whose eyes sparkle when she talks about our childhood friend, that he betrayed those closest to him—the ones that always had his back no matter what?
Rio scoots forward on the cushion and begins telling her about Issy’s kidnapping, Gage’s involvement, and how he made amends at the end. Van is as quiet as a mouse the entire time, even the little man didn’t make a peep through the entire explanation as if he knew his mother needed time to absorb what she was being told. Van’s eyes are wide and tears gather in them as she listens. Some sort of foreign reaction inside of me wakes up, and all I want to do is go over to her, pluck her from her seat, sit her in my lap, and comfort her. But I don’t because I’m a virtual stranger to her as she mentioned earlier upon our arrival and she’d probably think I have a screw loose.
Instead, I clamp my hands into one balled fist and press my blunt nails into my skin making moon-like impressions in it. Iwon’t take advantage of the way she’s emotionally spiraling as we dump this information on her. The man she knew in the beginning isn’t the same as the man Gage was toward the end. He only showed her the better part of who he was and hid the rest of the bullshit from her. It’s like he had two separate personalities. The good Gage and the one with the devil on his shoulder.
“He has a sister?” she questions.
“We were in the dark about that too,” I say, mollifying her.
“That’s all we’re willing to say on that subject,” Rio tacks on. “One day, maybe we can share more about that.”
“I’m still digesting everything you’ve said. I can’t believe he put Issy in that situation. How could he do that?” she asks, sounding dejected. “She was like a sister to him. How could one be more important than another?”
“If I had those answers, I’d give them to you, Van,” I swear. “As it is, we’re still wrapping our heads around things ourselves. We’ve forgiven him to a degree, but that level of deception is a hard pass for us.”
“I understand, I really do,” she mumbles. “I find it commendable that y’all are giving him the sendoff you are.”
“That’s more Issy than us,” Rio clarifies. “Personally, the guys and I would rather bury him and not give him another thought. But my ol’ lady, even after the bullshit he put her through, feels loyalty toward him and believes that his heart was in the right place and he was struggling with demons but in the end, he wanted to do the right thing.”
“And he did,” I expand on his thought. “He took a bullet for you, Rio.”
“At least there was something redeemable about him,” Van vocalizes. “I’m so damn disappointed in him. I wish he’d have come to me.”
“We all do and I told him exactly that,” Rio states. “If he’d have gotten over himself and not tried to deal with those fuckers his own, things might have had a different outcome.”
“That’s what’s most troublesome to us,” I tell her. “He knew we’d help him, so what had him going solo?”
“Because he was a fixer,” Van says, blowing out a heated breath. “He always thought he could take care of everything by himself. His problems were his and his alone just like my problems were his to solve, or so he believed. He never could take a helping hand and carried the weight of the world on his shoulders.”
“Yeah, well he was wrong,” Rio growls out. “He wasn’t part of the club, but he was part ofmybrotherhood. I would’ve walked through the fires of Hell for him.”
“I’m sorry his betrayal cut you so deep,” Van says.
“We’ve had more time than you to think about it, and it still makes no goddamn sense,” I groan.
“Now I understand BamBam’s muttering of ‘traitor’ the other day,” Van mentions. “It makes sense now that I know everything. I promise you, I wasn’t part of it and had no clue that any of that was going on or I would’ve stepped in and done something. What that would have been, I don’t know.”
“We believe you,” I quickly insert.
