Page 20 of Riot’s Thorn (Sons of Erebus: Reno, NV #4)

CHAPTER TWELVE

RIOT

“ I killed her,” I say, not wanting to keep secrets. If I’m going to keep Parker, I don’t want anything between us, so I need to tell the truth, no matter how ugly it is or how uncomfortable it makes me.

“I’m sorry?” Parker chokes and sputters, her hamburger falling to her plate.

“I’ll get you a drink.” I jump up from the table, ignoring the prying eyes around me. I get they’re shocked since I don’t attend any of the social gatherings and I’m hardly ever seen with a partner, let alone one as beautiful as Parker. I just wish they’d be a little more subtle.

I stare at the cooler and realize I don’t know what she likes. I’ve only seen her drink coffee and water. I’d better bring her choices, so I grab two beers and a water before returning to the table and offering her both.

“Thank you,” she says, pounding on her chest.

When she grabs for the water, I’m quick to unscrew the top for her before handing it over. “Here.”

I watch as she tips her head back, elongating her delicate throat still wearing my mark, which makes me frown. It reminds me of my slip-up, something else I need to be honest about.

“What do you mean you killed her?” Parker says through a lingering cough.

“I strangled her and set the trailer on fire.” I pull out my pocket knife and dig into the wooden table with the sharp tip. If my hands are busy, it’s easier for me to stay present, especially when talking about her .

“Why?” Her voice cracks. For the first time, she looks at me the same way everyone else does, and it makes my belly burn hot. I know what she’s thinking. She’s thinking I’m a freak, a sociopath, an unhinged killer.

“She wasn’t a good person.”

She pushes her food away. “But she was your mother.”

“There are no external qualifications to become a mother. A biological male and a biological female have sex at a time when the female is fertile. That’s it. No guarantee the person who births you is maternal in any way.”

“How old were you when you. . . you know?”

I guess it’s a good sign she’s not running over to Navy and begging for help. Not that it would matter; I’d just steal her back. She’s mine now.

“Eighteen.”

“What did she do to you?”

I gouge out a chunk of the wood, digging a large hole into the top.

Sugar won’t be pleased with me, and without me saying a word, she’ll know it was me.

That woman knows everything and has eyes everywhere.

As I push into the soft pine, I think about how to explain the way Mom made me feel.

She beat on me, of course, but that wasn’t what made me snap.

It was the psychological warfare that did it for me.

“When I was four, Mom lost her job. She was always losing her job, but this is the first time I remember. Whenever this would happen, she’d get so sad, she wouldn’t get out of bed for days.

At some point, I got so hungry”—I dig the knife deeper —“that I dragged a chair to the kitchen counter to look for food in the cupboard. The only thing in there was a box of rice cereal.” I stop digging to glance up at Parker. “Do you know what a weevil is?”

“A weevil? No, what is it?” Parker rests her arms on the picnic table, leaning toward me. Around us, people are drinking, eating, smoking, and dancing, but I can’t hear any of it because I have her attention, and the look I hate so much is gone. I like her like this.

“It’s a small beetle that likes to infest food.” I twist my knife, widening the hole. “They can also lay eggs, which then hatch into larvae that look like a grain of rice.”

Parker’s hand covers her mouth. “Or like rice cereal.”

“Yeah. I was four and starving, so I didn’t know to pay attention to my cereal moving until I had already stuck a fistful into my mouth. I felt something crawling on my hand and looked down to see a little white worm.”

“Oh my god.”

“That’s not the bad part. The bad part is that Mom was so sad, she stayed in bed for four more days. The only food in the house was that cereal and a bottle of ketchup.” I squint into the setting sun. “It’s crazy the things you’ll do when you’re hungry.”

“Riot.” She covers my hand with hers, and I swallow hard. If it were anyone else, their touch would feel like a butter knife dragging over and over, not exactly painful but unpleasant all the same. “What about your dad?”

“He only came around when he needed something. Instead of blaming him, she blamed me each time he left. I was too loud or too needy. When he was gone, she’d treat me like her best friend. Then he’d come back, and she’d beat me and tell me I was a piece of shit. I never knew who I’d wake up to.”

She pulls her hand away, and my body turns cold. “So you killed her?”

“Yes. I wasn’t strong enough to turn my back on her and knew if she was alive, I’d never leave. She made me drop out of high school, and I couldn’t have friends because she thought that meant I was abandoning her. She wanted me to have nothing and no one but her.”

“But you can’t go around killing someone just because they’re toxic.”

“Anyone can kill anyone if they try hard enough.”

“That doesn’t make it right.”

“I didn’t say it was right.” Her eyes meet mine, and I quickly look down at the gaping hole I’ve dug into the wood. She’s probably disgusted. She probably thinks I’m psychotic. I won’t let her leave me even if she does, but still, I have to know. “What are you thinking?”

“When I made you mad, you put your hands on me. And now, after finding out about this, it makes me wonder if I upset you again, will you kill me too?” I hear the fear in her voice, and all it does is excite me.

Yes, I want her sweetness. I want to hold her hand each day and feel her weight across my chest every night.

But I also want other things, things that’d make a good girl like her cry.

“It wasn’t you I was putting hands on. It was my mother. When you slapped me. . .” I pause to think about how to best explain. “Sometimes something will happen, and I’ll forget I’m not still there. What you said, followed by the slap, fooled my mind and?—”

“So what you’re saying is, there are three outcomes for me.

” Her voice quavers, which draws my eyes to her solemn face.

“The first is you letting me go, and a man I’ve known my whole life will kill me.

The second is that if I’m not careful, you could snap and kill me, thinking I’m your mom?

And the third is you not wanting to release me in case I tell someone you murdered my dad, and you kill me?

No matter how I look at it, I’m a dead woman. ”

“No.” I shake my head vehemently. “I hadn’t decided what to do with you before. But now I know, and it includes you being very much alive, Little Thorn.”

“What did you decide?”

“Riot,” someone interrupts. Lucky approaches, plopping down next to Parker. “Killer says you know how to use throwing stars. That true?”

I glare at him and growl. “Not fuckin’ now.”

He throws an arm around my woman. “Oh, come on. Parker doesn’t mind, do you, Parker?”

“I don’t mind.”

“See?” He pulls her into a headlock and rubs his knuckle over her scalp while she flails, shoving him away. “Feel like she’s like my younger half-sister I never knew about. Wait a minute.” He releases Parker and looks around until he spots his target. “Hey, Rigger! Come here.”

“Get your fucking hands off her before I cut them off,” I saw lowly.

“Chill, chill. This’ll only take a sec, and I think little sis here needs to know all our family drama before she commits to being one of us.”

“I don’t want—” Parker starts, pulling out her messed-up braids and smoothing her hair down. I ready myself to get her back to the safety of my cabin, but then I notice her amused expression. Cautiously, I allow this insanity to continue.

“What’s up?” Rigger asks, one hand resting on Navy’s ass and the other wrapped around the neck of a beer.

“So you know how Navy’s your stepsister?”

Rigger rolls his eyes. “You’re an idiot. Of course, I know.”

Parker’s eyes go wide, taking in the pair as Navy steps up, looking embarrassed. “It’s not that scandalous. We only knew each other for two years before—” She cuts herself off with an exasperated exhale. “Whatever. Yes, we were stepsiblings.”

“Okay, so, my question is this: would you still have hooked up with her if she were your half-sister?” Before Rigger can respond, Lucky points at him. “Now, be honest. Because I’m not gonna lie, I don’t think a little shared DNA would keep me away from Tinleigh’s fine ass.”

“You’re one sick bastard,” Rigger says, pulling Navy away from the table. “Tinleigh, come get control of your man.”

“What’d he do this time?” Tinleigh storms over. “Babe, you can’t scare away the noob. We talked about this.”

“You were talking about me?” Parker asks.

Tinleigh tucks her blonde and pink hair behind her ears. “I just didn’t want him to embarrass you, that’s all.”

“No, that’s not all. You said she’s. . .

.” Lucky’s words trail off when Tinleigh plants her hands on the table and leans over, putting her tits, which are overflowing from her tank top, on display.

Her expression says she knows what she’s doing.

“Maybe Riot’s only. . . . Sweetheart, have I told you how sexy you look tonight?

What do I gotta do to motorboat those babies? ”

Since the only tits I want to see belong to Parker, I turn my attention to her, glad she’s smiling at the couple’s antics. Since I take pride in caring for the things I own, I’ll gladly set aside my own discomfort and attend these parties from now on. Anything to see that look on her face.

“Hey, brother. Not used to seeing you here.” Mustang, the club’s secretary, claps me on the back and sits next to me. The touch was brief, but I’ll feel it long after. It’s an annoying sensation I wish they understood so they wouldn’t do it.

“Goddamn shameless pricks,” I mutter, knowing my brothers aren’t flocking over here to talk to me. They only want to meet my woman.