Page 22 of Rage's Solace
Glancing over at her, I see tears streaming down her face. I want her. She deserves another chance. I deserve one too. If can get her to want me back, I won’t let anything in this world separate us again. I’ll even take her daughter to raise. I actually like Mia. Maybe I’m not father material but I’m willing to step up my game and learn.
***
When we get to my house, the place is crawling with club brothers. I turn to Priscilla. “Do you mind if Meli picks Mia up from school and keeps her for a bit this evening. I don’t think she should be around this whole mess. Not until we have a better idea what it’s all about.”
“I agree,” she replies. “Do you think we’re putting too much on Meli though?”
I shake my head, “Meli loves Mia, I sometimes think she gets a bit lonely living out there behind the restaurant. Once Ven and Amy’s new home is ready and they move in, it won’t be so bad, but in the meantime, she likes the company.”
We get out and I walk Priscilla up to her room to rest. Once she’s comfortable, I quietly shut her door on my way out and call Meli. After explaining what went on here today, she agrees to pick Mia up from school and keep her for however long we need. I ask that she hangs onto her overnight because I want a security system put in before she comes back to my house to stay.
With that taken care of I head outside to talk to Siege. Tex and Rigs are there, looking grim as well. They have their contact from the Las Salinas PD bagging up the entire box with both carcasses for their crime lab to work on. He takes my statement and heads out. I regret not having security cameras set up, but when I inherited this place from Gerald it was the last thing on my mind.
Siege, Rigs, Rider, Tex, and Ven approach me. Siege says, “Tell us everything you know. We need all the details if we’re going to piece together what happened here and why.”
I motion them over to my truck to see the thing that caused Priscilla to abandon all hope of being with me. All my club brothers crowd around as I start at the beginning and tell them everything I know. At the end of my long, convoluted story, they’re all about as shocked and dumbfounded as I am.
“Damn,” Ven says. “That was cold-hearted, vicious shit her parents pulled. I can’t believe they’d do something like that to their own daughter. And she raised a kid with that man. It’s a damn tragic story if you ask me.”
“I second that statement,” Rigs chimes in.
Others murmur their agreement as they gaze down at my creepy new trophy.
Siege speaks up. “We need to station brothers here until Rage can get a security system installed.”
Tex adds, “I can get a couple of prospects and cover tonight.”
“Thanks, Tex. I should be able to get the security system installed tomorrow even if I have to do it myself.”
Turing to Siege I say, “Mia is staying with Ven’s mom. I don’t know how comfortable I feel with them not having someone there overnight.”
Ven jumps in, “I’ll take a couple of brothers and cover her house. My mom can handle herself, but better to be safe than sorry.”
Rigs adds, “And I’ll hook up with our police contact over the next few days and alert everyone when we get feedback from the crime lab. Headless rabbits are a seriously fucked up message to send.”
Zen offers, “I’ll keep looking into both families. See if she has any friends, enemies, or people that she’s had a throw down with before and I’ll check on them as well.”
Siege wraps things up, “As always, we just keep looking for clues until it leads us to the person doing this. This is some seriously sick shit that we can’t look the other way on.”
I speak up, “My gut tells me it’s her dead husband’s father. He’s been a serious asshole to her over the years. And Priscillamentioned that Conrad had an older brother. Maybe he’s pissed about his brother’s death and is looking for someone to blame?”
Chapter 8
Priscilla
Lying in bed, I’m truly shaken, not just about the rabbits but about the headstone, Conrad shooting me and getting killed by the SWAT team… just everything. It all feels surreal, like I’m a stranger standing outside my life watching one depraved thing after another take place. It’s too much and I’m glad Mia isn’t here to see this latest round of what the fuck.
I pull the blankets over my head and just let it all out. I cry so hard I give myself hiccups.
Eventually, after I’m all cried out and sobbing, the hiccups slowly diminish and go away completely. I hate that I lost control of my emotions but at least no one saw me breaking down. Deep down inside, I know I needed a good cry to purge all those negative feelings before Mia comes back, I need to be strong for her.
I lift up the blanket, making an opening between my face and the room because if I don’t get some fresh air, I’m going to pass out. I close my eyes and try and think positive thoughts. Mia’s smiling face floats to the forefront of my mind. That little girl is so resilient, the way she’s coped with everything that’s happened over the last few weeks is nothing short of amazing. Though I know I have Rage to thank for that too, the way he stepped up to take care of her when I couldn’t.
Seeing them together is startling, the similarity between them is unmistakable and my mind goes back to what Meli saidto me at the restaurant—and once more I wonder if it could be true? It’s something I wished for, for so many years, but I always told myself that it couldn’t be.
I tried to blank out that awful night when Mia was conceived, but I’m living with the consequences. Don’t get me wrong, I love my daughter with all my heart but only I know the truth, her father is a monster. Rage and I were in love, we might have been childhood sweethearts, but it was real. I had been secretly hoping that he was going to ask me to marry him, I was heading to college in the fall, but I knew our love would survive the distance. Then my world was consumed by evil. I had vaguely known Conrad, we attended the same high school though we moved in different circles and took different classes, however his older brother Ashton was a creep. I’d mistakenly thought him harmless until one night when I was on my way home from a friend’s house and he attacked me. I tried to fight him off, but I was powerless. I’d told my parents, but they said because the Whitmores were so wealthy I couldn’t go to the police. They told me I had to put the whole incident out of my head, but how could I? I was a wreck.
I couldn’t face Ray, I couldn’t bear to see the look on his face, so like a coward I ran off to college. It was when I started vomiting six weeks later that I realized the truth. I was pregnant and it was Ashton’s baby. It had to be, because Ray and I had always used condoms. I returned home on winter break not knowing what to do. I needed to speak to Ray and tell him what happened and see if he would take me back, that’s when my parents told me he’d died. I’d refused to believe it until they showed me his grave.