Unbeautifully (Undeniable, #2)(75)

I knew.

I knew he knew everything.

Several heart-pounding moments passed before he finally spoke.

“You know why I kept you away from the club, Danielle?”

Danielle. Not good.

“Because I’m a girl,” I whispered.

“No,” he growled. “Because you were better than this shit. Too f*ckin’ good for it. Knew it from day one. Took one look at you and knew you had it in you to get the f*ck outta here and make somethin’ of yourself.”

I didn’t say anything. I didn’t have anything to say. My father had never said anything like this to me before.

“Knew Cage was gonna be followin’ me to hell whether I wanted him to or not. But not you. Not f*ckin’ you. You were gonna be the one West to make a decent life for herself. The kid I was gonna be proud of, not for followin’ me into the life but for makin’ it out.”

“Daddy,” I whispered, needing to say something, anything at all, before I burst into tears. “I’m sorry, I—”

“No,” he said gruffly, shaking his head. “I’m sorry. I’m your old man, you were my responsibility and I f*cked up. Now you’re just like the rest of ’em. Been just like ’em for a while now. My baby girl’s got blood on her hands. And that shit’s on me.”

Then he turned around, pulled open the door, and left.

I slapped my hand over my mouth, muffling a sob as sharp pains shot through my chest, making breathing difficult and painful.

He didn’t hate me. He didn’t even hate Ripper. He wasn’t even mad. He was disappointed. I had disappointed him.

It was infinitely worse.

“Danny!” Tegen bellowed. “You do realize I have a mother in the f*cking hospital with a hole in her skull!”

I winced as everyone inside the station gaped at Tegen.

“Let’s go,” I said, slapping Tegen’s bag against Cage’s chest. “Before Tegen starts airing all the club’s dirty laundry in the middle of the bus station.”

Cage grimaced. “How about you drive her back to the club. I think I’d rather walk.”

“Welcome to my world,” I told him, tugging him forward. “We made our beds, Cage. Now, we both get to lie in them.”

Cage frowned at me. “When did you get so f*ckin’ smart? What happened to my little sister, always talkin’ about stupid stuff and wearin’ pink shit all the time? I liked her better.”

What happened to her?

She had an affair with a man fourteen years older than her and then made the mistake of falling in love with him.

She killed a woman.

She had to abort her child.

She allowed a man she didn’t love to fall in love with her. A good and decent man who’d deserved a woman ten times better than she was. Then she’d broken his heart.

Shrugging, I gave my brother a sad smile.

“What happened? Cage…life f*cking happened.”

Blowing out a breath, Cage glanced up at the ceiling and shook his head.

“Fuckin’ truth, little sister. Fuckin’ truth.”

? ? ?

Inside the clubhouse, Ripper glanced up from his channel surfing, watching as Cox slowly approached the couch he’d been calling home for the past two days.

“Yo,” he said.

Cox dropped down beside him. “Yo.”

Silence.

“Just say it, dude.” Ripper sighed. “Whatever the f*ck it is.”

Clearing his throat, Cox shifted in his seat so he was facing him. “Brother, I’ve kept my mouth shut a long time now, ’bout Nikki, ’bout Danny, and then Hawk told me about the baby, and still I kept it quiet. But seein’ as how all your dirty f*ckin’ secrets are becomin’ public knowledge, now I gotta say this shit.”

Great. Where the f*ck was Hawk anyway? Knowing how the brother felt about Dorothy, one would have thought he’d have hauled his ass back to Montana by now.

“So spit it the f*ck out,” he said, glaring at Cox.

“Come clean to Prez,” Cox said. “And I don’t just mean about you and Danny, I mean, come the f*ck clean. Tell him what happened with Nikki, with Danny, tell him you didn’t f*ckin’ know about the baby, tell him all of it.”

He wanted to laugh but his split lip was preventing that. “Dude,” he said, shaking his head. “How do you think I turned f*ckin’ purple? You think I beat myself half to death?”

Cox blinked. “I thought Cage and you—”

“Yeah,” he interrupted. “Then Prez. Twice.”

Unlike his run-in with Danny’s punch-happy brother, Ripper hadn’t fought back when Deuce had come at him. Actually, he hadn’t really fought back when Cage had pounded on him either. He was bigger than Cage, and a f*ck of a lot stronger, but he got why the brother needed to beat on him, so he let him get some of that anger out before tossing him across the room.

But Deuce. Ripper knew he deserved worse than a beating from Deuce.

Especially after he’d spilled everything.

He’d begun with Frankie, told Deuce how he’d tried to kill himself trying to escape the crazy f*cker, and the miserable years that had followed.

He told him how he’d been blaming Eva for everything bad that happened. Then he told him it was Eva who’d inadvertently saved his life.