Born of Fire

Still, it tasted good.

He scratched his chest and resumed his seat. “I know what you’re thinking. However, I’m not quite out of my prime yet. I still can do my business and not get caught. Though I must say I came mighty close to getting caught with that shipment of water. But it was definitely worth it.”

Shahara swallowed fast—she was drinking contraband? Why was she even surprised?

Not like your brother doesn’t do it. Or your father for that matter either. Half your wardrobe as a kid fell off the back of someone’s transport.

Shut up and drink it.

Setting it aside, she wiped at her chin, then changed the subject. “How long have you known Syn?”

His eyes turned gentle. “I’ve known him since the day they brought him into this world. I was even the first one not in a medical uniform who held him.”

Now that was interesting. “Really? Before his mother or father?”

He nodded. “His mama had a hard delivery with him. She was too weak, and his father . . . He couldn’t make it.” There was a note in his voice that made her suspicious but she didn’t pursue it. “I was the one who took her to the hospital and stayed with her while she struggled.” He sighed. “I’d give anything to have had a son like Sheridan. But he’s as close to one as I ever got. Not that I’m complaining, mind you. He was even named after me.”

“Sheridan?”

“Sheridan Digger Wade. I’m his uncle.”

Ah, that explained their closeness. “Maternal?”

His eyes went blank as he looked away. “No.”

Shahara choked on her food as that settled in. Good gods, he was . . .

Idirian’s brother.

She wanted to run.

Digger sprang to her aid and pounded her on the back until the food dislodged from her throat. Taking a few gulps of air, she blinked back the tears in her eyes.

She gaped at the old man as he took a seat next to her on the sofa. “How can you be related to that psycho?” she asked, eyeing the old man warily.

His look turned harsh. “Indie wasn’t always like that,” Digger said defensively. “He was a good kid. He just fell in with the wrong kind of people.”

Oh yeah, right. What a load of crap. That was the one excuse that made her want to hurt someone. “Are you telling me other people led him into that kind of sadistic slaughter?”

He returned to his chair, his shoulders slumped in defeat. “No, child. I’m not a fool. Indie became everything you ever heard and worse—I know the real stories that didn’t make the news—the ones they deemed too gruesome for public consumption.”

Now that terrified her, given how grisly the released stories had been. How much worse could they get?

“At first, I stayed around thinking I could change him back into the innocent kid he’d been or at least browbeat him into some form of decency. But once he had the taste of blood in him, he decided he liked it, and the power people’s fear gave him. There was nothing I could do. It’s hard when you’re kicked down your whole life and people mock you for being beneath them. Then when you find a way to pay them back . . .”

He shook his head. “Indie got high off it and he felt it was justified for the way we’d been raised and treated.” His gaze seared her. “I’m not about to excuse it. I was never blind to my little brother’s shortcomings. But to the end, I did love him and I wish I could have saved him from himself.”

On one level she could admire that. Yet on the other . . . She shivered.

Still, she didn’t understand why Digger had stayed with such a man. “Once you saw that you couldn’t change him, why didn’t you walk away?”

Digger sighed. “It wasn’t that easy, and there for a time, Indie got better. Not because of me, but for Sheridan’s mother. She was a decent lady from a good family and, believe it or not, he loved her like nothing I ever saw. She was under his skin and he’d have done anything for her. But it wasn’t that easy to leave his past, which hadn’t been all that bad up until then.”

“So what happened?”

“Her parents,” he spat the word. “Stupid interfering bastards. They refused to even call him by his name cause he was so far beneath them. They told her that so long as she was with him, she couldn’t come home. Even when she took Talia there to see them, just a few weeks after Talia had been born, her parents had her thrown out and told her they didn’t want to see no bastard lowborn baby—said it was no grandchild of theirs.”