“Who?”he asks, climbing to his feet.
“Diamond.”
“She left right after you did.It was the one request she made when I asked her to help me.”
“So, she knew everything?”
“No, not everything.She knew what I was asking her to do was to protect you.That’s it.She loved you as much as I do, Birdie.Just differently.She thought she was doing the right thing.”
I scoff.“Yeah, well, you were all wrong.Do you know where she’s at?”
He shakes his head, shoving his hands in his pockets.“I don’t, but Rack does.He’s kept in touch with her.”
“Bring her back because I have things to say to her, too.”
Pope nods at Rack, giving a silent order.
My eyes fall to Dimples and Spunky and narrow.I’d like to say it’s surprising that they’re still here, but it’s not.The club rarely gets rid of club girls unless they do something that warrants it.Spunky shakes in her shoes as I hold her stare, but then I move to Dimples.Her face is pale, her eyes wild with some undefined emotion.My smile forms slowly the longer I glare at them.Amusement spurts through me when they grab each other’s hands and back out of the room.
Not yet.It’s not time to deal with them yet, but soon.
But it has unwanted questions running through my head that I need Pope to answer.
Most of the club members have dispersed, leaving me and Pope to ourselves.
“Have you been with them?”I ask him.
“No.Never,” he answers without having to ask who.
“Have you been with any of them?”
“Little mama,” he says warily then sighs when I shoot him a look.“Yeah, Birdie, a couple of them.Didn’t really like using the sweetbutts, though.Most of the time it was townies.”
There’s this broken feeling inside me.A sadness that settles into my core as my eyes scan the faces of the girls roaming around the club.He said it wasn’t Dimples or Spunky.Was it Bunny, who constantly likes to fuck and wear bunny ears around the club?Maybe it was Hoover.The guys always talked about how her mouth was like a vacuum.I know how much Pope loved to have his dick sucked.It could be Squirt, whose pussy comes like a geyser when they get her off.My eyes rake over the one who was helping Pope when I came in.She was definitely one of them.
Pope’s fingers grasp my chin, turning my head back to him.“Stop.None of them matter, little mama.They never did.They were just a warm hole to land when thoughts of you nearly drowned me.You’re exhausted.I’m fucking exhausted.I want to see my kids, and I want to hold the three of you tightly.I promise we’ll talk more, and we’ll work through this more.Can we just go home so I can be with my family?”
I pull away from him.“Yeah.Let’s go.I suddenly don’t want to be in here anymore.”
This place was once my home, but it doesn’t feel like it anymore.It feels like another chain around my heart.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Thingshavebeentensearound the house since Birdie confronted the club.Valkyrie offered to take the kids to Manic’s house today because they were feeling the tension between us.
The madder she gets, the more my anger toward her grows.
I’m not the only one who fucked up seven years ago.She kept two very fucking important things from me.I’ve been too concerned with making sure she’s healed from the fucked-up shit Frankie put her through.
That shit is done for.I’m tired of fucking walking on eggshells with her.I deserve to know why she never told me about my kids.
I get it.I fucked up by betraying her, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t deserve to know about the twins.Everything I missed out on over the last seven years is constantly playing on a loop in my head.Watching her grow round with them, seeing her give birth, their first fucking everything.I’ve missed it all, and it kills me inside.
There’s so much about their lives that I know nothing about.
Birdie opens the dishwasher forcefully and then places the dishes she rinsed on the racks.Dishes clang together as she slams them in place.She’s fucking excelling at ignoring my presence and frankly, it’s making me angry.
I should walk away because my mouth tends to get me in trouble when the rage rushes through my system.Everyone knows I never do what I actually should, though.
