Twisted Up in You

by Dawn Martens

  “Do we know anything about the baby?” I ask him.

  “We tried getting him out, too, but they had documents claiming that they were that child’s biological parents.” Angel’s face turns dark. “How often do you remember being drugged in that house?”

  I rub my temples and lean forward. “Most weekends. They wouldn’t drug us during the school week because they didn’t want questions asked. But I don’t remember anything that happened over the weekends. From the time I ate supper on Friday to Sunday afternoon, it’s all a blank during the year I was there.”

  Angel clears his throat after a few moments of silence. “Reaper is tracking down every boy that lived in that house during that time. That means, man, including you, we’re gonna need a DNA sample. Unfortunately, what we don’t want Cori to know right now is that the child died.”

  “Fuck,” I whisper out in torture. I wonder how possible it is for me to be the father of that child. “Do we know if they’ve done this before? Any of the kids housed there ever get pregnant besides Cori?”

  Angel nods grimly. “Four more girls that we’ve managed to dig up have had children. We don’t need you for those, because it seems that they only bred one girl at a time. You weren’t in the house for those other girls.” Angel tugs at his beard. “You are gonna have to talk with Cori, man. If you don’t, I will have to, and that is one conversation that could push her to the breaking point.”

  “You said something about a DNA sample? How? You said yourself the child is dead.”

  He looks away for a moment before speaking. “We kept the blanket they wrapped that boy in when he was first delivered. It was the only thing they allowed Cori to keep, besides the photo. She had her friend, Chelsea, give her a Ziploc bag, and she put it in there. We have DNA from that.”

  “When can the tests be done?” I ask him.

  “We can’t get Moira do to this again, so we need to go to Thrane. He’ll pull rank. Because of the club, and who Moira is married to, they are making sure she doesn’t abuse the hospital for anything.”

  “Take it, then. I want to know. The minute you know, I need to know,” I tell him.

  Chapter 32

  Cori

  Blake was acting off all day at work, barely spoke to me. We decide to go home together since I let Melissa have my car today. The whole ride home, he’s quiet. “Is something wrong?” I finally ask him.

  He glances at me and turns back to the road. “No, why?”

  “You’ve just seemed off all day.”

  “Just a case I’m working. It’s stressing me out.”

  I don’t say anything more, and we make it to our condo building in silence. He walks me to my door and gives me a kiss. “I’ll talk to you later,” he says abruptly, dismissing me.

  I stare at his retreating back. “What the hell is going on, Blake?”

  He stops and hangs his head down. “It’s nothing, okay? We’ll talk later.”

  I stamp my foot. “No, we’ll talk about it now. What the hell is wrong?”

  “Cori, just go in your condo. Get something to eat, a drink, whatever. I have shit to do right now, okay? I’ll talk to you later,” he tells me, still not turning around.

  “You walk away from me right now, Blake, I won’t talk to you later.”

  He shakes his head. “Cori, I’ll talk with you in the morning.”

  He hits the button on the elevator.

  He wants to act like a jackass and not talk to me, fine, but he won’t be talking to me later, either. I open my door and slam it shut, locking it. Melissa and Chelsea are in the kitchen and come out.

  “What’s with the slamming?” Chelsea asks.

  “Nothing,” I grumble. “Blake is just being a turd today. I’m going to bed early. He comes by, tell him to get lost,” I say, walking toward my room.

  I close my bedroom door and dig my phone out of my purse.

  “Hello?” Lilly’s voice sounds on the other end.

  “Hey, want some company this weekend?” I ask her.

  “Yeah, sure, bring Melissa!” She hangs up quickly, saying that Rose is getting into her make up.

  Chelsea comes in. “What’s going on? You’re in a pissy mood.”

  “Nothing. Blake was being a turd today.”

  “Wanna talk about it?” she asks.

  “No,” I grumble. “What I want to talk about, though, is where the heck you’ve been lately? What made you take off so fast the other night?”

  Her face goes red. “I was just meeting up with someone.”

  I narrow my eyes at her. “Please tell me it’s not Keller,” I practically beg.

  “Pfft, no. Hell no. Although, bad news is he moved to town. How much bullshit is that?”

  “Okay, then, who were you with.”

  “Promise you won’t get mad?” she says, chewing her bottom lip.

  “As long as it’s not Keller, I won’t be.”

  “Randy.” She says the name so fast I almost I almost miss it.

  “Wait, Randy? Club owner Randy?”

  She nods.

  “That’s great!” I say happily. “He always wanted more with me, and I always felt bad I couldn’t do that with him. You’re amazing. He’s amazing. Best match ever.”

  Most people would get all weird about this kind of thing, but Randy has been more of a great friend to me than anything. I just want him to be happy, and Chelsea, well, she is great, so I know they will be awesome together.

  Chelsea laughs. Just then, Melissa comes in.

  “Melly, get packed. We’re going to Airdrie for the weekend,” I shout out my bedroom door.

  “Woot! Awesome,” she says.

  I look to Chelsea. “Want to come with us?” I ask her.

  “Nah, you guys go. Have a blast. Be nice to be alone for once,” she jokes, laughing slightly.

  Thirty minutes later, Melissa and I are packed and driving off.

  On the drive up, we sing and eat snacks, having a good time naming off random baby names for her peanut.

  I thought she was going to spew pop out her nose when I suggested Harriet for a girl. We made a game out of coming up with the worst names.

  BLAKE

  I should have talked to Cori. But I couldn’t. This is something she seems to want to hide from me. I need to be patient with her, and let her come to me on her own. It sucks, because everything in me wants to shake her until she tells me everything.

  I almost want to ask Marcy to talk to Cori to see if she’ll open up to her and so she can try to convince her to talk to the counselor we have in the building.

  A text comes through just when I’m about to call Marcy.

  All set up here. How about your end? – Angel

  Making the call now. – Blake

  Normally, I would get Cori to make the call, but I don’t want to talk to her right now. We need a break.

  I call up the town office, but remember they close early on Fridays, so instead, I call up the Mayor at home, talking to him about the bake sale, asking for a location, and telling him it will be run by the Angels Warriors. Once I say that, he says I don’t even need permission for that sort of thing and gives me the go ahead to get it going.

  I lay in bed. Sleep seems to be taking forever for me to find, but finally, I drift off.

  “The drugs are wearing off already?” a woman says.

  “They are, but we can’t give him more right now. We’ll just have to get this over quickly,” a man tells her.

  Where the hell am I? I don’t recognize this room, and I’m so fucking tired I can barely stand up.

  “Get over here, boy,” the man says sternly.

  Arms grab at me, moving me forward. I then realize I’m naked, and my dick is hard. What the hell?

  I squint around the room and see a small blonde girl tied to the bed. What?

  “We need to give him another dose.”

  “Fuck. Okay, kid. Go get the case over on that table,” the man says. Then the man comes at me with a needle.


  I bolt up in bed. “What the hell was that?” I say out loud. I wipe the sweat from my face and lay back down. “Fucked up dream,” I mutter to myself and get back to sleep.

  Chapter 33

  Cori

  Melissa and I head to Airdrie for the weekend to hang out with the club and the women. I didn’t bother telling Blake because, honestly, I need away from him since I’m pissed at him for last night. Years I’ve worked for him, by his side, a friendship, all of it, and now that we’re together, it’s still so crazy to me, and his aloofness last night, not wanting to be together or talk, has me worried.

  We pull into the compound, and Angel comes out, grinning at us. “Hey, girls. Leave your stuff in the car. You can stay at Lilly’s place this weekend. We have a full house this month.”

  We hang out for a bit at the clubhouse. Trevor comes in pissed off as fuck and walks straight to his room, slamming the door.

  “What’s up with that?” Melissa asks.

  “He’s just pissed off that Tori spends too much time with Scraper,” Angel says.

  Shoot, I’d be spending time with that man, too. He is FINE! He’s huge, so damn huge. Plus, he makes Reaper and Angel look like choir boys. And he’s bald, no hot man is bald, but yeah, he pulls it off. Just looking at Scraper makes my panties wet.

  “Why haven’t you picked a new name yet?” I ask Reaper.

  He shrugs. “It puts fear into the bastards we help take down. May as well keep it.”

  “What about Scraper, then? You all said he’s from the Untamed Angels. I think I can piece together what his name means,” I say, wrinkling my nose.

  “He’s thinking of giving the nickname up all together. Just go by Anthony.”

  I shrug. Lame name for such a hottie.

  “How are you and Blake doing?” Angel asks me.

  I feel my face heat up and shake my head, not wanting to talk about it with him.

  “It’s good, then, I take it. Boy better treat you right. Otherwise, he’s gonna see my fist,” Reaper grumbles.

  “So, uh,” I start, wanting to change the subject. “Melissa’s pregnant and all, so how come you haven’t threatened the baby daddy?” I ask them.

  Reaper tenses, and Angel glares at me. “What makes you think I haven’t?”

  “Oh,” is all I say.

  We all just talk about random things, and when we finish eating, we drive off to Lilly and Vinny’s place.

  *~*

  The next morning, Melissa and I are helping Lilly get the girls cleaned up since they decided they wanted to wear their food instead of eat it.

  I give Melissa a pointed look. “And you actually want to do this?”

  She just smiles at me.

  “Looks like my mom is taking the girls tonight, so we can do something fun,” Lilly declares, coming into the bathroom.

  Rose and Elizabeth run out of the bathroom, giggling. “They are your demon spawn. You can chase their naked asses down,” I tell Lilly.

  Melissa laughs. “I hope I have a little girl.”

  “You would,” I tease. She snaps my butt with a towel. “Girls are drama and trouble.”

  “You’ll change your mind one of these days,” she says dreamily, rubbing her stomach.

  I seriously doubt that.

  I walk into the living room and flop down on the couch to watch a movie with the kids.

  “They love the hell out of this freaking Frozen movie,” Lilly tells me, rolling her eyes. “Trust me. That song will get stuck in your head, and you will be threatening to burn the DVD before you leave.”

  Lilly was not wrong. I want to trash this movie.

  *~*

  Half way through helping Lilly pack things up to send the girls to her mom’s for the night, a knock comes at the door.

  “I’ll get it,” Lilly says, already walking out of the room.

  I zip up Elizabeth and Rose’s bags and am carrying them out of the room when I hear yelling. I drop them and run.

  “You need to leave! You are not welcome here.”

  “I will be here if I want to be. My son lives here, and so do my bastard grandchildren,” some nasty lady says, sneering at Lilly.

  “Actually, I haven’t put Vinny’s name on the deed to the house, so it’s still just mine,” Lilly points out, standing firm. “It also is a fact that your son has said many times, the last time six years ago when you tried to screw with us, that you were not welcomed in our lives.”

  I enter the room, wanting to help out Lilly, when the nasty bitch turns to me, fire burning in her eyes when she sees me. “Oh, look, another of Samuel’s spawn,” she spits out.

  “What?” I ask her, confused.

  She lets out a bark of laughter and looks to Lilly. “Oh, you didn’t see this? She looks just like your father.”

  My face pales, and I turn to Lilly, who looks so upset I almost think she’s going to pass out.

  “Mom, what the fuck are you doing here?” Zippo says, coming into the house.

  “I wanted to spend time with my son, of course, and those things,” she says in disgust, motioning to the girls.

  “No, you didn’t. Let me guess. You ran out of money? No, wait. I know what it is. Bryce called. He’s taking you to court. Seems like you are in a shit load of trouble for taking his trust fund,” Zippo says with a nasty grimace on his face.

  “Well, okay, I was coming to you for money, but it seems another opportunity has presented itself to me,” she says, looking at me with a grin.

  “Why do you keep looking at me like that, and will someone tell me who the hell Samuel is?” I demand.

  “Oh, this is so great. You didn’t know? Really, truly didn’t? You and Lilly are sisters. Isn’t it obvious?”

  “What?” I whisper out. There is no way. If Lilly and I are sisters, there is no way in hell she or Mona would have let me live the way I did, right?

  “Oh, God,” Lilly chokes out.

  “No, she’s wrong, right? Lilly, tell me she’s wrong!” I plead with her.

  Lilly looks at me, tears in her eyes, looking at me in a completely new light. “It can’t be,” she whispers.

  “Get out. Now!” Zippo roars at his mother.

  “Fine. Don’t come crawling to me when you need something.”

  “Trust me. I never would,” he sneers at her.

  The front door slams shut. Lilly and I are still staring at each other—shock, tears, everything. “Please, tell me you didn’t know,” I beg her.

  “We don’t know anything for sure, Cori,” Zippo says gently. “Should we call him? Have a meeting or something?”

  “If you are my sister, oh my God, what you went through… I could have helped sooner,” Lilly chokes out.

  I back away slowly, and Zippo rushes to me and grips on my waist, pulling me tight to him. “It will be okay, Cori. We’ll talk to Sam, find out the truth.”

  If this is true, how come it took that evil woman to notice it? Why didn’t anyone else? I feel as if my heart was just ripped out of my chest. They knew. They had to know. I run from the room, Lilly and Zippo both calling after me, and go into the guest room. Slamming the door shut, I lock it and fall to the floor, tears running down my face. Fuck them all.

  No one ever really wanted me.

  Not my mother or my father, whoever he is or was…

  BLAKE

  I haven’t heard from Cori since Friday after work, and I’m worried. This is the first time since we’ve been together that we haven’t talked at least once a day. The last four months have been amazing. Fuck. She’s the perfect woman in every way. I leave my condo and make my way down to hers, knocking on the door. On the second attempt, Chelsea opens it, looking like she just woke up. I know I need to apologize for what happened Friday night, but I didn’t think it would take this long for me to get over the shit going through my head. And I thought she’d at least come to me.

  “Uh, hey? What’s up?” she asks.

  “Where’s Cori?”

  H
er head rears back in shock. “Uh, she didn’t tell you?”

  I shake my head.

  “She’s in Airdrie for the weekend, visiting the club.”

  “Thanks,” I say, storming off. Why the hell didn’t she tell me?

  Just before I get to the elevator to go back up to my place, my phone rings. Zippo’s name flashing on the screen. “Yeah?”

  “Shit just went down. Need you here. Cori needs all the support she can get.” He hangs up. Fucking vague asshole.

  I walk back to Cori’s condo and knock, again getting Chelsea. “Get packed. Something has happened. You’re coming with me to Cori,” I tell her and go to my place for my own bag.

  We both meet in the lobby, not saying a word as we get into my car. “Do we know what we’ll be walking into?” Chelsea finally asks after driving for a half an hour.

  “I wasn’t told, just to get there as fast as possible. Cori needs me.”

  “I hope everything is okay. At least I can tell her about the letters. If she’s already gotten bad news, may as well get it all out.”

  “What letters?” I ask her.

  She sighs. “For the last three weeks, every day, a letter addressed to Cori arrives. Same as before, when we were in college and she got them, so I knew what they were and just took them before she knew about them.”

  “Spit it out, woman!” I say, getting impatient.

  “Her mother is writing her again,” she says after a moment of silence. “The last time, it was bad. The letters only happened for about a week before the woman showed up, trying to cause all kinds of hell for Cori and Melissa. It took Jasper and Mason giving her some money to finally get her to go and stay gone. I’m thinking the bitch ran out.”

  I grip the steering wheel, knuckles going white. I don’t say anything; nothing needs to be said, not right now. I pull into Zippo’s drive and shut off the car. “Wait,” I call to Chelsea as she starts to get out. “Don’t tell her. Not right now.”