“All I’m willing to share right now, is that I have an inside informant. He’s not part of either of the tribes, but does some trades with them. His brother is the one who accidentally spilled the beans to Dagon that he had a doppelganger. That is how communication between the two began. When he heard about our recent troubles, he reached out to me.”
“Why did he wait so long to tell you?” Gunner asks.
“Because it took him a bit to put two and two together, son.”
“If we’d known, we could’ve ended that motherfucker a long time ago,” Kruger rumbles.
“How many fucking versions of Jamie are we fucking looking at here?” Country inquires, scrubbing his hands down his face.
“Just the two that I can ascertain,” Pops answers.
“Let’s hope another one doesn’t come slithering out of a dark hidden hole somewhere,” I sigh. “So now, we need to find him and bring him out. Any ideas of how we can do that?”
“We need to draw him out,” Gunner encloses.
“This is gonna be a long year,” Kruger rumbles.
If we only knew….
Now…
My bike glides smoothly on the asphalt road as I head out to check on Stella’s sister, Star. Her pictures stay present in my mind as I eat the miles up between us. She looks so defeated in each one I saw, that I want to ride in and be her savior. I want to be the one to chase all of her ghosts away.
Why did just seeing her picture affected me so much? I have no clue. No one’s ever made my body jump to alert the way her face did… does.
The spike of blood flow through my veins is a steady continuance. It’s never wavered, there’s just something about her that calls to me. It’s as if a magnet is pulling me to her. I can’t help the compulsion behind it.
The need to protect her is prudent, it’s something I can’t control within myself. When something pulls you so strongly, you don’t fight it. There’s a mapped course for everyone in life; this seems to be mine.
The fact that we killed the wrong brother sits heavily on my soul. We killed an innocent man who did nothing wrong outside of having blood ties to Jamie. But why did the fucker sit there and pretend to be his brother? Why would he take the fall for someone, knowing that he was going to die?
I know they were twins who had some kind of bond in the womb, but they didn’t even meet one another or know the other existed until they hit their teenage years. Was Jamie’s twin just as ugly and evil as he is? If that’s the case, my guilt would be severed, but not knowing has me internally beating myself up. We should’ve known, mistakes like that aren’t forgivable. If I had a twin, and he’d been killed for one of my transgressions, I would’ve done everything within me to right that wrong. Instead, all we managed to do was give Jamie more ammunition to use against us.
Star
Swinging around this pole, I take myself mentally to another world. Instead of these nasty fuckers trying to feel me up as they place bills at my feet, I make believe I’m dancing for my man.
A man I’ve made up in my head.
He’d be tall, built, and love me unlike anyone ever has in my life. I’d be his everything, no other woman outside of me would ever catch his eye or cause him to stray. His heart would belong solely to me. I visualize his body, but never get a clear face in my mind's eye. For some reason, his facial features are blocked from my imagination; he comes across as hazy.
Is it because my mind doesn’t want to bring forth the most handsome man I’d have ever met, and when reality comes, he won’t meet my expectations? I honestly could care less about his looks, it’s his heart and soul I long for. My hips automatically gyrate to the music surrounding me, I imagine the man I long for’s eyes glued to my every move. I’m playing a game of seduction; one I’ll ultimately win.
I will utterly wreck him for anyone else.
It’s a fantasy I portray in my mind every time my stilettos hit the stage’s floor. If I didn’t have this imaginary man of mine, I wouldn’t survive a single night dancing.
When my sister, Stella, and I parted ways, I never imagined in a million years this would be the life I was leading. I trusted the wrong man to help me get up and dust myself off. Begin my life anew. He had a golden tongue that uttered the sweetest words I’d ever heard.
I was used.
He used my lack of street knowledge to bring me into a false sense of trust. He promised me such a glamorous life, and I fell for it. Hook, line and sinker. For months I lived with him, he even helped me get my general education diploma so that I’d believe him when he said his only intention was to get me enrolled in school and help me make something of myself.
Lesson learned.
Never trust the words of a stranger again.
My life has been nothing but a lie since the second I allowed him into it. I was such a shy, impressionable kid. Now, I’m void of any emotions. I have placed a large, boulder wall up against my trust.
I hope to God that Stella has made a better life for herself than the one I’m forced to lead. You see, not only did he lure me into a false sense of security, he got me pregnant so that he could hold my daughter over my head and force me to do as he wishes. I thought we were in love, I thought we were building a life together, forging ahead with a family. I thought everything was tied up
