Chapter 28

Beard the fuck up, then we’ll talk.

-Ghost to his father

Ghost

I looked at Lynn. And by look, I meant really looked.

I’d seen the resemblance, of course. At least in our eyes. But now that I studied him, knowing that he was my uncle, I noticed that we were a lot more alike than either one of us had realized.

I’d seen him once a month for going on six years now. I’d never once suspected that we were anything other than boss and subordinate.

Just five minutes ago, I’d asked Silas if he could help me find my real family. Sure, I’d had a lot of other things I’d needed to take care of, but since I was sitting in a hospital bed with nothing else to do but think, I’d asked.

And had been rewarded.

Though, not by the person that I’d expected it from.

Lynn sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“I can’t help with Audrey’s family,” Lynn said carefully. “From what I remember, the woman was an addict. He used her, kept her clean while she was pregnant, and then took the child. From what I remember, her mother was back under the influence of drugs before her episiotomy even healed.”

“Shit.”

That was from Audrey.

“I’d been harboring hope that I was some filthy-rich, multi-millionaire’s daughter who was stolen at birth, and now you tell me that I am some drug addict’s kid?” Audrey teased. “Well, that’s just rude…but a great deal better than having that woman as my mother. I suppose I can live with him as my father, but only if he stays in jail for the rest of his life.”

Lynn had, apparently, already taken care of that. Not only did my father get charged for kidnapping my sister, me and Mina, but he’d also been charged with attempted premeditated murder.

Holding us there was only to have been a temporary thing. They didn’t actually expect that we’d make it through the night, but my father had gotten overconfident thinking that his operation was more covert and clandestine than it actually was. He’d made a rookie mistake by not thoroughly searching Mina. He’d vastly underestimated her since he hadn’t expected her to be able to conceal a phone in her tight jeans and shirt, and in doing so, his cronies hadn’t realized she even had the phone on her until they’d already arrived at the house they were temporarily using as a base. When it was found, they’d made another mistake by leaving it on instead of turning it off, which enabled Lynn to tap into her cell and access the GPS to find her location within an hour of our abduction.

Lynn got to our location within hours of our arrival there, followed quickly by the Dixie Wardens.

While I’d been busy freeing myself, Lynn got my father talking and waited for him to admit to a few things.

My father, being the arrogant prick that he was, obviously thought Lynn was incompetent, because he’d talked and talked, and in doing so, he had shown his hand, giving Lynn all he needed to arrest and convict his stupid ass.

Once he had what he’d needed, he’d given a signal to the boys who were undercover in my father’s operation, and they’d helped arrest him.

Men who were, unfortunately, absent during my torture and unable to get there in time to stop it.

Seems that my father was smart enough not to trust them completely because he had them doing other things that kept them busy on the other side of the compound.

Who knew he had it in him?

At this point, I couldn’t help but wonder why we hadn’t been able to nail him sooner, but I knew that it was mostly due to my pseudo-mother’s involvement.

It was obvious that she was the brains of the operation.

Speaking of my pseudo-mother, seeing Mina go off on her was enough to make me giddy. I’d held off on telling her about my mother’s offer because at the time, I hadn’t wanted to worry her. Sure, I could see the error of my ways now, but when Candace made that disgusting offer to me, I’d been a younger, more naïve man. I thought that simply being a police officer was enough protection for me and my family.

I was mistaken.

I now knew that nothing was sacred to these people. It didn’t matter if you were an officer of the law or not. If they wanted you dead, no one could stop it unless that individual knew how to protect themselves.

Something I hadn’t realized that I needed to do six years ago.

Now, though? Yeah, it would be hard to get the drop on me.

Today though, I hadn’t really showed that I had improved my ability to pay attention to my surroundings.

When I’d seen that gun in Mina’s mouth, my heart and my breathing had both stalled in my chest.

Then Mina had thrown up, and I’d taken advantage of the situation by tackling my mother to the ground.

I’d suffered even more broken ribs thanks to that move, but it gave Mina enough time to get herself together as well as giving me the chance to regain control of the situation.

“As for your mother…” Lynn hesitated, breaking into my thoughts. “She’s dead. I was there the day that she delivered you. I tried to gain custody of you, but your father was a prominent member of the community. I was only your uncle and a minor myself. There was nothing I could do but watch. I’d made a promise to my sister that you would be protected, but I completely botched that. It felt like I was always two steps behind when it came to your father.”

I smiled wryly at him, the first smile to land on my face since the whole thing had gone down this morning.

I looked down at my wife, who had Sienna in her arms where they were sitting in the seat next to my bedside, both asleep, and realized that I needed to make another promise.

“We finally got him.” I looked up at my uncle. “Now it’s time for you to have the family that you always deserved.”

Lynn laughed.

“I’m not a family man.”

Silas started to chuckle now, too.

“It looks like you are now, Joker.”

Audrey broke in then, her voice cold and unyielding.

“Yeah,” Audrey said. “You can be my uncle. And your first act as my official uncle will be you telling me what room my rapist is in so I can go shove my foot up his ass.”

Lynn coughed, looking at Sienna to make sure that she was still asleep.

“You don’t have to worry about him,” Lynn promised. “I’ve got a special place in Hell just for him.”

Audrey smiled. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.”