Page 97 of Cash

“What are your real names?” King asked.

When Mimic stayed quiet, I nudged Rosie. “Thorne and Rosebud Peterson.”

“Rosebud,” Mimic hissed.

“I can’t lie to him, Thorne,” she clipped back.

“Where are your parents?” King asked.

The rest of us waited, and no one made a sound when Mimic finally answered, “No fucking clue. Our dad was never around and our mother took off and left us.”

“She had to,” Rosie argued. “She was protecting us.”

“Bullshit.”

“Mimic,” Sam barked. “We talked about this.”

“Fuck!” Nav groaned.

“What?” I asked carefully. What I saw on Nav’s face had me dreading the answer.

“Mimic, do you know who your father is?” When Mimic shook his head, Nav asked, “Do you know his name?”

“No. Our mother never told us.”

Rosie reached for her brother’s hand and he scooted closer to her.

“King, we have a problem,” Nav said, closing his laptop.

“Of course we fucking do. Who is their father?”

Nav was silent as he looked between Mimic and King. He shook his head, letting us know he wouldn’t tell us with them in the room.

“Zach, don’t do that,” Mellie chimed in. “Do not keep information from them.”

Mellie was Ghost’s old lady and Gunner’s baby sister. She went to college and was a board-certified child psychologist. I wondered why Sam asked her to come in and not Haizley. Then I remembered what Rose had told me about Valhalla finding her behind a dumpster when she was eleven.

Sam knew Mimic’s story. She must have known they were on their own as children.

“This has repercussions. There are things we have to discuss before we can tell them.”

Mimic looked at Nav. “I don’t care who he was. He was no better than her.”

“Thorne, stop,” Rosie cried. “She was protecting us.”

“She wasn’t!” He slammed his hands on the table and stood.

Sam stood with him, only slower. “Mimic, honey. Why don’t we go somewhere and talk? Kytten can come with us. And Melissa. If you don’t want to know, you don’t have to. But your sister is here and you’ve been looking for her for a long time.”

Mimic looked at Rosie, then back at Sam. He nodded and held out his hand to Rose. She turned to look at me with fear. “I can’t do this without you,” she whispered.

“You can. I have to stay here and find out what’s going on. This is your brother. Don’t you want to know what happened?”

“I do.” She clutched her hands on my cut. “But I want you to come with me.” I looked around the room and when my eyes landed on King, he shook his head.

“Baby, I have to stay.” I kissed her forehead and told her, “You’ve got this. I’ll come find you as soon as we’re done.”

“I can stay here. This is about us. Dr. Jefferson is right. We should know.” She was talking fast, and I didn’t understand what she was afraid of. “Tell me what’s going on.” She looked at her brother. “I-I’m scared.”