“Let them stay,” I say, sounding braver than I feel.
I feel Hunters eyes on me but I ignore his questioning look, may as well get this over and done with. I tense as Jacques’ eyes meet mine, a pitiful expression crosses his features. He must only be… eighteen now but he’s so tired looking it makes him look a lot older than he is. The club pressure is obviously getting to him like it did Hunter. I should feel nothing but hatred toward him, but he looks like nothing more than a frightened boy in a man’s body.
I specifically left out the part in my statement that I knew it wasn’t my Uncle who had taken me, they’d just assumed it was, so I never corrected them. I knew what club life was like, you had to do things you didn’t want to do at times, and I can tell looking at him now that he feels nothing but remorse and guilt.
Everyone chooses to stand apart from Jojo who sits in a chair on the left side of the room and gives me a quick wink, he’s always been one of the only ones that I liked out of all of the brothers. He’s like the class clown that all the ladies love to hate. He’d never settled down, well, he hadn’t when I was still about, and it doesn’t look like he’s changed one bit apart from a rounder belly.
Hunter’s voice breaks my thoughts. “Y’all just gonna stand there like a pack of wolves, or you gonna sit the fuck down?”
I’m impressed at how authoritative he sounds and everyone but my dad sits down.
They seem to be in a staring contest and I roll my eyes. “For fuck sake, this isn’t a pissing contest. If you’ve come to say something to me, just say it.”
Dad’s eyes linger on Hunter for a couple more seconds before he looks at me and his face softens ever so slightly. “You look a mess.”
I roll my eyes. “Ever the confidence builder, now let’s get to what you’re really here for.”
“You killed my brother,” he states, but he doesn’t seem angry.
He knows the answer but he wants to hear me say it. I puff out my chest as my eyes bore straight into his. “I did. And I’d do it again.”
His eyes flit over my body and back to my face. “How?”
He says it as if someone as small as me could never overpower someone his size. I can see his fists are clenching and unclenching as he uses his peripheral vision to eye Hunter beside me. It clicks, he thinks I’m covering for him, fine, I’ll give him what he wants.
“While he was too busy groping me, whispering how he was going to gut me and kill me just like he did mom, he got sloppy. I noticed a knife sheathed in his belt and decided I wasn’t going down without a fight. I grabbed it, broke his nose, and dug that knife deep to the hilt, right into his chest. His blood ran down my arm as I watched every inch of his worthless life drain out of his eyes. That what you wanted to hear, dad?”
His face pales and everyone in the room is deathly silent apart from Hunter that releases a low growl.
“Your mom?” Dad whispers.
I nod and squeeze my eyes shut, I still haven’t processed that properly. “I’m not talking about this in front of everyone.”
Trent, Hunter’s dad, walks up and grasps Hunter on the shoulder. “Proud of you, Bear.”
Even Hunter looks confused at that but doesn’t say anything as he watches his dad walk out of the room, Jacques and Jojo following behind them. My dad turns to the other three men. “Means you too.”
They stand up warily but eventually leave the room so there’s only me and my dad with Hunter standing over me like a guard dog.
“She said everyone, Bear,” dad says, narrowing his eyes at him.
Hunter snorts a laugh. “Yeah, I ain’t leavin’.” And sits down in the chair to my right to prove his point.
My dad looks like he’s about to walk forward to get Hunter out, so I sigh, “He can stay.”
He narrows his eyes at him but talks to me. “Your mom?”
I nod even though he’s not looking at me. “She tried to tell you what Merl was like but you wouldn’t listen, you kept telling her to stop attention seeking and do her Old Lady duties and stand by your side.” I eye Hunter and he winces. Although he was always the one I would run to when I needed to feel safe, there wasn’t one time I ever told him why, he’d always just assumed it was because of my mom’s drinking. “I even tried to tell you a bunch of times that he made me feel uncomfortable, but he was your brother, and not just by the patch, he was a blood brother, so why would you listen to us?”
He waits for me to carry on talking, although I can see his jaw ticking as he holds back what he wants to say.