“Well, you say to-ma-toe, I say to-ma-toe.” He shrugged. “But yes, it sounds like that’s him.”
Then he let out a huge sigh.
“What?” I leaned forward.
He shook his head.
I pushed his shoulder with mine, grinning at him. “Come on.”
He shot me a funny glance that I was unable to read, but then explained it.
“I haven’t seen you smile like that unless it was pertaining to Linnie in years,” he clarified softly.
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I didn’t say anything at all.
He was right.
I didn’t smile often. There wasn’t much reason for me to smile.
I mean, what would be the point? Smiling meant that I was happy, and I sure the hell wasn’t happy.
“He brought me a cupcake yesterday, and a muffin today,” I shared.
He made a sound in his throat, causing my eyebrows to raise. “Tell me before Linnie gets back from the bathroom.”
He sighed in a resigned way, then leaned back so that his back was resting against the bench that Liner had sat on hours earlier.
“Had a feeling he wouldn’t leave you alone.” Tyson sighed. “So I had him investigated. He came back clean. He’s part of a motorcycle club…the same one that Rome’s a part of.”
My heart skipped a beat when Rome’s name was mentioned.
My hopes, what little that I had left, took a drastic plunge hard right.
I wasn’t sure what I was expecting.
It wasn’t like Liner would fall in love with a woman accused of doing what I’d been accused of. It wasn’t like he was there because he wanted to be there. He was part of a therapy group. He was there because he loved his dog. Not because he had any desire to see me.
Sure, he’d brought me a muffin today.
Big deal.
Chapter 5
I would have called you sooner, but I had a frog in my throat.
-T-shirt with Ms. Piggy on it
Liner
The next day loomed even darker and muggier than the day before.
The storm that was hours away from hitting us dominated the mid-morning sky, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt that it would only be a few more hours of peace and quiet before my day got really busy.
I could feel the storm in the air, and I knew that at this time twelve hours from now, I’d be cold, wet, tired, and hungry.
I’d also be in the middle of a storm, thirty feet up in the air, trying in vain to fix a power line that might or might not restore electricity for fifteen thousand people.
Monster walked in at my side, and I smiled at the front desk receptionist, collected my name badge, and nodded at the doctor that asked me to continue to visit Theo.
He nodded back and I sidestepped the grouchy nurse that had asked me to leave a half hour early yesterday.
I was pretty bitter over that thirty minutes.
I wasn’t sure why, nor was I sure that I should care, but I did. I cared quite a bit, and I was pissed at her that she caused me to miss thirty minutes with a woman that I couldn’t get off my mind.
I found Theo in her usual spot, out by the gardens, this time on the ground with her back to the bench.
She was sitting on a folded-up blanket, her feet tucked into her body with her arms wrapped around her knees. She was staring at the sky with a look of rapt awe on her face.
When I arrived at her side, she looked over at Monster and me and smiled.
Her hand went out to Monster, and he took the invitation for what it was and laid at her side, flopping his chin down on her bare feet.
It was cold out today, and she was in sweatpants and a t-shirt. I assumed her knees were up to her chest and she was hugging herself because it was cold.
Instead of asking her why she was sitting on the ground, I sat down on the bench behind her and said, “If you sat on this padded bench and then wrapped that blanket you’re sitting on around you, you wouldn’t be cold.”
“True,” she agreed. “But that bench is super uncomfortable, and it’s wet.”
I felt the wetness from the wet fabric seeping into my pants, and I cursed.
“You could’ve told me before I sat down,” I accused, joining her on the ground.
“I could’ve,” she agreed. “But then I wouldn’t have gotten to see your face as your butt got wet, and I only get so much enjoyment out of this place.”
I felt my belly clench at her teasing words for two reasons.
One, because she was beautiful when she smiled, and two because I hated that she was here.
I stretched out my legs and found myself saying something I hadn’t intended to say.
“I want to tell you a story about my friend,” I said softly. “Do you mind listening?”
I wasn’t sure what made me think that now was the best time to tell her why I was really there, but I didn’t want to leave tomorrow and not see her for a week without her knowing. I knew that she’d need to process everything, and to process it she’d have to have time to think. And me being in the middle of clean up from a wicked storm was a good opportunity to give her that time. I wouldn’t have any free time myself to think about leaving her here by herself, either. I was fairly sure that she was safe, despite her being in this place when I knew that she shouldn’t be.
“I saw you once before,” I whispered.
She turned her head so that she was staring me straight in the eyes.
“What?” Her breath started to come in soft pants.
I looked back up to the sky and began my story.
“Years ago, I met a man,” I said softly. “That man was an ex-football player, and had a son that became really, really sick.”
The woman beside me stiffened almost imperceptibly.
“For a year that boy lived next to me,” I continued.
I felt her head turn, and her eyes on my face.
“I saw a woman that was that little boy’s mom every day for a year after they moved next door to me. She was a mean, cunning, crazy, backstabbing woman that I didn’t like at all. The woman would go from cold and calculating to angry and venomous, all the way to a blank canvas in about two seconds flat. She was literally the worst kind of woman because you could never, ever predict her moods. But one thing she wasn’t, was nice. She wasn’t considerate. And she always fucked with Rome, the father of that sick little boy, as much as she could just because she enjoyed seeing him suffer.”
I didn’t look down at her despite wanting to.
“Then one day, during a random visit, that sick little boy’s mother turned into a sweet woman. For about eight hours. She was nice, kind, compassionate, and most importantly, she was accommodating. She had turned into a woman that I didn’t recognize,” I said. “And later that night, I saw that woman crying on her bed, seemingly broken.”
Theo’s breath hitched.
“She disappeared a few hours later, but for a while, I’d watched her from my back porch,” I explained. “And I felt this hole in my heart where that woman remained until I saw her a few months later, again, at the funeral for that same little boy.”
She made a sound under her breath that sounded like she was about to start crying.
I wanted nothing more than to bring her into my arms.
“You’re her, aren’t you?” I whispered.
She didn’t bother denying it. What would be the point?
“I’m her.” She startled me into admitting. “Theo Threadgill, Tara Threadgill’s non-evil twin sister.”
“How did you end up here?” I asked bluntly. “You’re the sanest sounding crazy person I’ve ever heard.”
She laughed humorlessly at my admission.
I saw the decision in her expression the moment that she decided that she was going to tell me it all.
Her face cleared, and a look of determination filled her face.
She wanted me to know.
I could also tell that she thought what she was about to say was going to scare me away.
It wouldn’t.
Not much would at this point.
“I’m not crazy,” she admitted. “My sister is.”
I frowned. “What?”
She looked at the wall of windows that separated her from the inside of the building. She gauged that there was no one else around, then she told me the most awful story she could ever have uttered.
“My sister fucked up when she was having Matias,” she whispered. “She fucked up bad.”
I frowned. “What? How?”
“Tara got pissed. Or maybe felt like she should be pissed. And overreacted, like always. She’s not too sure if she should or shouldn’t be having those thoughts, so when she decides that she should, her reaction to said ‘slight’ is over extreme. Well, when Rome told Tara that he couldn’t make it to the hospital because he was over two thousand miles away at a game, she got pretend-pissed.”
I waited, eyes on her.
“When she found out that he wasn’t coming, she did what ‘any woman would do,’” she began.
I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes. “Let me guess, what she did wasn’t what ‘any woman would do.’”
“Not even close,” she admitted. “She took it out on me—and Linnie. Mostly Linnie. I didn’t even realize she was in the room with me until I heard muffled screams. Linnie’s screams. I reacted without thought. Tackled Tara. When I got up to check on Linnie, to pull the pillow away from her face, she screamed that I was suffocating her. A nurse just so happened to be walking past at the exact perfect time. Right when I was taking the pillow off…and I was tackled to the floor.”
I had a feeling I wasn’t going to like where this was going.
“Nurses and doctors came into my room, and Tara puts on a really good show. Me, confused and not understanding that I should be defending myself, I get taken away forcefully only to find out that everyone now thinks that I tried to kill my baby.”
Silence.
Utter and complete silence.
“But, like always, my family swooped in and fixed everything. For her, at least,” she whispered.
I was afraid that I wouldn’t like what I was about to hear.
I hadn’t liked what I heard then, either. NOT even a little bit. But knowing that there was more? That was making my belly ache.
“Needless to say, it was an easy thing after the dust settled. Theo Threadgill became an attempted murderer and Tara Threadgill went home with her baby, happy as could be. Tyson went home with Linnie.”
“I don’t think I like where you’re going with this,” I murmured, my mind racing.
“My father was nice enough to get me into a mental health facility. Tyson fought tooth and nail for Linnie…and you probably know the rest.” She finished on a whisper.
“How come I didn’t hear about this from Rome?” I asked curiously.
“I have no idea,” she admitted. “That would be something that you’d have to ask my dad or sister. Because I honestly have no idea how the hell Tara kept all of that quiet.”
I made a mental note to look into it all.
“Why do you stay?” I asked softly. “They’re convinced that you’re well enough to go.”
She looked toward me, and I saw the sad look in her beautiful blue eyes.
“If I stay, Tara, Andy, and my dad can’t really touch me,” she explained. “Here, I’m protected. Tyson has Linnie. Everything is okay. But if I leave? Tara will decide to start her experiments again, and my dad will allow her. Right now, I’m boring to her. If I leave? She’ll remember that I’m not a completely useless waste of space like she thinks I am right now.”
I wanted to throw up, but I knew that I couldn’t stop myself from asking.
“Experiments?” I asked carefully.
She smiled sadly.
“Linnie was one of her experiments,” she informed me. “I was supposed to be the one who seduced Rome.”
That information dropped like a bomb between us.
“And why didn’t you?” I questioned, feeling something close to jealousy stirring in my gut.
“I didn’t want to,” she admitted. “I was a virgin. There were only so many things left that Tara hadn’t ruined when it came to my life. And that was one of them. I just…couldn’t do it.”
“Why did she want it done?” I asked curiously.
I’d always wondered what was in it for Rome.
I mean, when she left after Matias got so sick that his death was imminent, she hadn’t demanded anything, which wasn’t her normal operating procedure. Over the years that Tara had been in my life thanks to Rome, I’d not seen one second of time where she wasn’t calculating her next move. Where she wasn’t demanding something of Rome.
“My sister is, by definition, a sociopath.”
That tidbit dropped like a lead balloon in between us.
“What?”
She nodded. “My sister is an expert at her craft. She shows zero emotion, and honestly doesn’t even have a conscience. However, she does have an innate ability to put on a good show. And she enjoys making people think that she has one.”
“You were talking about an experiment,” I found myself saying. “What kind of experiments?”
She blew out a breath and dropped her head to her knees for a few seconds before picking her head back up.
“She wanted to cover all her bases. If she wasn’t able to carry to term, or if Matias somehow passed away, she’d always have a backup…me.” She smiled sadly at her lap. “Artificial insemination. Tara found the absolute perfect donor. God, she had to have it planned months in advance to have gone to such lengths.” She shook her head. “I have never prayed as hard as I did for a baby of my sister’s to live.” She looked up then. “And I feel horrible, because the moment that baby did live, and Rome knew of him, I prayed for his death.”
I stiffened.
“I prayed that either he went to live with his father, or that the little boy would die because I didn’t want him to have to live the life I lived,” she whispered. “Rome might’ve been aware…but he might not have. My brother, Tyson, lived next to me for fifteen years, and he never once knew that anything bad was happening to me. Never once knew that every night since she was ten, Tara would lock me in the closet and leave me there all night. Or that she would knock me out with whatever household chemical she could find that would do the job long enough for me to be unconscious. I’d wake up, and I’d be in the dark again.”
I was going to be sick.
“Rome wouldn’t have been able to protect that boy from harm,” she whispered. “And I knew it. I couldn’t even say a thing because I was stuck in here.”
“And the times that you were able to get out? I remember you covering for her at least once,” I said softly. “The funeral, I was sure that was for just you.”
She smiled then. “She threatened Tyson and Linnie. I’d do anything for Tyson and Linnie. Even spend a few hours pretending I was her soulless self so she could do God knows what.” She paused. “I spent a total of forty-nine hours with that kid, at different times. And he knew when it was me. I’m not sure how, but he knew.”
I remembered the way he spoke of his mother, and there toward the end, Matias had explained that Tara wasn’t all bad.
But sociopaths were all bad. There wasn’t a single thing about them that was redeeming.
“I’m not sure that she was as bad as you think…”
Theo burst out laughing.
It wasn’t a nice kind of laugh, either. It was one that hurt physically to hear.
“Why do you think she ran experiments on me?” she asked quietly.
My stomach clenched and my back stiffened.
All of a sudden her ‘experiments’ started to make sense.
“She needed to know how to react in any given situation,” she said softly. “From the
age of about ten, she started. She wanted to know what made me tick. Why I cried. Why I was pissed. What made me pissed. How to manipulate people with emotions. How to put on a good act. Trust me when I say, she became an expert all because of me.”
I closed my eyes as realization dawned.
“I’ll spare you the gory details, but any time that you think that Tara has an emotion or is feeling something?” she whispered softly. “That’s probably because she’s used me as a guinea pig to show her how to react.”
I swallowed hard, and a line of lightning streaked across the sky.
“My brother, though not soulless like Tara, wasn’t much better. He could definitely feel, but that was where that ended. Nothing made him ‘care’ at all. Not unless you triggered him into caring. And trust me when I say there wasn’t a single thing that I would ever want my brother caring about.” She paused. “At least not when it came to me.”
She took in the stiffening of my body.
“Your brother tried to ruin one of my friend’s lives,” I said softly. “Let’s just say he’s not my favorite person either. Between Tara and Andy? Y’all have a really shitty family.”
Her eyes bored into mine, and she didn’t flinch at my blunt words about her family.
“You have no idea.” She whispered those words. They were barely audible, but I’d heard them. Just as she’d intended me to. “My family? Other than Tyson? They’re the worst people I could ever dream up. However bad that you think they are? Multiply that times ten. Then square it.”
My jaw clenched. “I don’t know much about them at all…at least not beyond what I told you.”
She looked away, her eyes studying the streak of lightning that pierced the darkening gray sky.
“Big storm,” she whispered.
“Big one,” I agreed, looking at the rolling clouds. “Are you safe?”
She looked over at me and then shrugged. “As safe as one can be with a sister, brother, and father like mine.”
Her cryptic words made me want to pepper her with more questions, but then my cell phone went off with my father’s ringtone.
I sighed.
“I have to go,” I said softly as my phone started to buzz consistently. When it stopped, it just started right back up again. “I work with the power company. I’m the guy in charge and if they don’t have my direction, they’re like chickens in the rain.”
Snitches Get Stitches (The Bear Bottom Guardians MC Book 8) Page 5
