long, the cop Matthew James was gone. I was ready to walk away. The Serpent’s issue had been dealt with. The only reason we were kept in our roles was because of the information we were able to glean as Carnage presidents.”
“So you and Coil fed information back to the cops?” Priest asks, looking appalled.
“We were the cops, but yeah. I thought I was doing the right thing, and we did put some evil men away because of the things I was able to find out. When Saint was born, it seemed to chill Garrett out. It wasn’t lost on me that the biker lifestyle seemed to suit him. Saint was born to be a biker, he lived and breathed it. By the time he was ten, Garrett and I knew we had to make a choice, so we talked and decided we would quit the force and stay with Carnage.”
“But something happened?” I ask him softly as a wave of regret washes over his face.
“Saint’s mother was a club girl. I was pissed when she left Saint, but not surprised. The biker lifestyle is hard on club whores.”
I look at Saint, who doesn’t react beyond a tick in his cheek.
“But Garrett had another life outside of Carnage, another woman besides Saint’s mother, and another child. When Jackie, a mother who would burn the world to the ground to keep her kid safe, supposedly up and left without a trace, I knew something wasn’t right. I did some digging and didn’t like what I found, so I went to my handler. Because Garrett had struck up a deal with an arms dealer they had been after for years, they refused to pull him in for questioning. Everything I had on him was only circumstantial, but they did offer me an alternative.”
“Witness protection,” my father answers quietly, having likely already been over this with him.
“Yeah, they let me take the kid, gave us new names, and relocated us. Then they faked our deaths to look like a rival club had taken us out. Coil omitted telling you the part about his kid being killed because none of you knew about his other family.”
“Why would they let you take another man’s kid, a cop’s kid at that? A man who was innocent until proven guilty?” Tate asks curiously.
“Because they knew the kid was in danger,” Derek admits softly.
Saint seethes. “So I have a brother out there that you chose over me? Do you even care that a young girl was raped at Carnage because you let a reckless man remain king of the very castle he was betraying?”
“Stop,” the girl speaks up, stepping forward, her voice shaking with nerves. “You have a sister he chose over you because the first girl he raped was me. I know I’m a stranger to you all, but Derek gave up not just one world for me, but two. He gave up who he was so the man who used to slip into my room in the dead of night couldn’t hurt me anymore. You can hate him all you want, but he will always be a hero to me,” she says softly, tears running down her pretty face. Her words are like a gunshot in the room, making every man tense.
My eyes, however, are all for Saint, who walks hesitantly toward her. She looks down in defeat, missing his approach until he stops directly in front of her. She looks up, startled, shame coating her features, making me want to kill Garrett myself.
Saint makes a choking sound and reaches out to pull his sister into his chest, banding his arms tightly around her as she sobs into his shoulder.
I turn to Derek, who is watching the scene unfold with tears in his eyes before he turns to look at me.
“The last I heard was that Coil had been killed. It was the happiest day of my life because it meant Ava was finally free, but too much had happened for us to return home. Plus, Ava was finally sleeping. We just wanted to get on with our lives and keep to ourselves, which we did. I opened the garage and Ava had just left for college. Everything was good until—”
“Until I mentioned Garrett,” I finish for him. “You sent me to Carnage, thinking it would be the last place Garrett would look for me. He wouldn’t come to Carnage because he couldn’t come to Carnage.”
He nods. “I panicked when you told me who you thought