Tirone (The Night Skulls MC #2)(50)

My blood simmered, but I managed to keep my face neutral. I watched her reaction to his touch. She didn’t flinch. It wasn’t the first time he touched her hand. But she wasn’t feeling guilty about it to try to hide it from me. That was a good sign. It was just a comforting touch from someone she considered family.

Or she just didn’t give a shit about you anymore and didn’t care if you saw someone else touch her.

“I’ll be fine,” she sniffled, returning the hand squeeze. Then she wiped under her eyes with both thumbs. “Please continue, Laius.”

“Seeing her like that reminded me of everything I hated about my father. I was angry. Angry that I left her to meet a destiny that was like my mother’s. I talked to her, but I was smart about it so we wouldn’t get caught. She opened up to me. She told me he didn’t want the baby and intimidated her to make her get rid of it. I begged Madeline to let me help her. She kept saying she was scared for me, but I didn’t care. I loved her. She said she did too, but she couldn’t risk it. We’d…spent a few nights together, and then again every month I was in New York.”

“You slept with my mother…more than once.”

“While you’re inside her,” Rex said.

I swore. “Can you act like a fucking grown up for a second and stop pouring gas on fire?”

“I’m just stating the obvious. I don’t know what you’re hoping to achieve with the sudden outburst of honesty or the sad story about your father. It doesn’t change the facts. It emphasizes them. You grew up to be an abusive ass like your dad was, and you lied to Jo about the nature of your feelings for her, which can’t be real after your blatant, very late confession.”

“You’re wrong. When you listen to the whole story, you’ll know how fucking wrong you are.” I gazed at Jo. “I begged her again to come away with me. I offered her a place at the Night Skulls where I could have protected her.”

She winced. “Then why didn’t you?”

“Because she chose to leave with someone else.” Madeline probably never knew I saw her, but I did. He was opening the door of a black sedan for her, and he kissed her hand before he told the driver to go. “An Italian man in a suit. It wasn’t hard to know he was Mafia. I was too hurt to even find out who he was. It didn’t matter. What mattered to me then was that she left me for another man because she thought he could protect her and I couldn’t.”

Jo swallowed, averting her gaze. She looked like she was remembering something. Did she know about that man?

“My pride was bruised, and I left New York, vowing never to go back or think about her ever again. I smothered the pain with anger, smoke, booze and pussy, which seemed to make it even worse. I was uncontrollable for a while. The club liked it, though, and I earned my colors in no time. Then…I found out that piece of shit who called himself my father laid a hand on my little sister...and not just to beat her.”

Rex jumped to his feet. “Fucking what?!”

“Oh my God, Laius, that’s horrific,” Jo said.

“I’d never felt more useless. I couldn’t save my mother or the only woman I’d ever loved then, and now my baby sister.”

“Tell me you did something!” Rex barked.

“Oh, I did. I made sure he’d never lay a hand on anybody ever again or even breathe again.”

Shock crossed Jo’s face. “You killed him?”

I fucking enjoyed every scream and blood drop as I tortured him to death. “I have no regrets except not doing it earlier.”

“He fucking deserved it,” Rex said.

“Laius, why are you telling Ty this?” The concern in her eyes didn’t go unnoticed. She was worried I was giving him ideas, making it sound okay to murder your own dad, when he’d just tried to murder me.

“I want him to know I understand what he’s feeling, and if I were the man Delilah said I was, then maybe I deserved it, too.”

“Mom never said you touched little girls,” he said.

“But she said I always cheated on her because I never wanted her or you, and that I beat the crap out of both of you. She even went to the police, and I got in prison for it.”

“Don’t even think about denying it. I remember.”

“What? What do you remember?”

“She was beaten. Her face was all black and blue and her hip was broken. She had blood everywhere and she was screaming at you to let us go.”

“Did you see me do it? Did you see me beat her?”

He paused. “Who else could have done it?”

“Eugene Flores. Bandidos.”

“The MC?”

“Their former president.”

He snorted with an eye roll. “Why would he?”

“Listen, I never said anything to you because she’s your mama, and I know how much you love her. I met Delilah at one of our parties. She was…something. I liked her right away. We had a nice night, and she kept coming back. I had no intentions of having a wife, but that woman had her way with things. I’d give her that. She was so ambitious, and when I was voted president she never left. She loved the life, kept the sweetbutts in check, and I thought she’d be a good queen. We got hitched. She got pregnant. I was over the moon.

“Then, after you were born, things got weird. She wanted…more. She kept complaining that I wasn’t giving her enough money, and the other clubs were richer and their ol’ ladies were fancier. We started fighting, and then…”