“You see, Mary-Beth and Gregory Moore couldn’t have children, so they turned to adoption.”
My heart fucking stops before it begins to ricochet off my ribs. “Chief Moore?”
“Yes, William Moore, named after Constance’s deceased husband. Strange but true.” Talia nods.
“I thought his name was Bill?” Emmett asks and I’m too fucking shocked to make fun of him right now.
“Bill is short for William.” Adri tells him.
The room is just buzzing around us, we’re all so quiet I can hear the hum of the fridge and the whirl of the ceiling fan above our heads. Even Vin under me is tense with shock.
“He’s my uncle.” He finally says something.
“Yes,” Talia answers him. “But no one else knows that in this town but us here and himself. He became chief and got his hands on his closed adoption papers. He’s known this whole time who you were,” she says to me and then looks to Vin. “And what he was to you.”
“He’s our uncle, too.” I say to Emmett and his face turns a weird shade of green.
“You and Vin?” He’s trying to find a connection in his head.
“No.” I shake my head. “We’re not related.”
“You said ‘opponents’.” Travis reminds her.
“I did.” Talia looks at me. “This may be a hard pill to swallow.”
“None of it has been easy. I can handle it.” I assure her.
“I recently found more on William and knew I needed you out of prison and safely at home. So, I found surveillance that was deleted by William in his computer’s trash bin at work. It showed him shooting Andrew point blank and then he deleted another video of a house that gave a perfect view of Andrew Cox’s brain splattered head resting against the glass before you even got to his car. I’ve kept the shooting one to myself but used the latter to have you acquitted.
“I will give it to you if you want his justice served in a courtroom. But, I think I know you well in that you would want to serve your own particular brand of justice. Am I right?”
“Yes.” I answer her.
“William’s life hasn’t been a walk in the park. His foster parents died when he was seventeen in a tragic robbery gone wrong and that’s what encouraged William to join the force. The real story is he killed them to inherit their riches. He was soon to be a father and the mother was a pitiful woman, a prostitute by the name of Tonya.”
“Marlana’s mother?” I quickly look up at Vin. “Did you know Marlana had a brother?”
Before he can answer, Talia cuts in. “No one knew, his good friend Robert put him in touch with me and I took the child once he was born and placed him in foster care. A good place in New York city. They were a little crowded but I didn’t have a family who wanted a baby boy at the time.
“He continued to flourish in the home and stayed there even when he was past the legal age to leave. He helped with his foster siblings and took to one in particular. A troubled boy who reminded him of himself, Jason.”
“Jason?” My mind is running on high speed as it tries to connect every fucking dot.
“Thomas Williams. I gave him that last name so his father would forever know who he actually belonged to.”
“Tommy?” His name is heavy on my tongue and the grief I’ve been tampering down, threatens to surge.
“Yes.” Talia looks at me sadly. “It’s actually amazing you guys found each other.”
“He’s not my opponent.” I tell her. “Tommy is dead and buried in my mausoleum.”
“Is he?” She asks.
“I saw Carm shoot a bullet into his skull, I saw the blood on the mat.” I growl.
“Yes, all that did happen. Carmelo grazed his skull right here.” She points to her right temple and drags her finger to the back of her head. “Carm thought he was dead and asked one of his men to drop his body off at the foster home to be found. The man he asked was actually one of my men and he called me immediately because he knew who Tommy was in relation to me.
“He told me that Tommy was actually still alive and would recover from the wound, although it did look bad. I asked him to bring me the boy and I called the foster home to tell them that I found Tommy a job overseas. I housed him and called doctors in to assess him and make sure he was healing fine.”
“I don’t believe it.” I stand up from Vin’s lap, anger making my limbs vibrate. “Tommy would’ve come to me, we were best friends from children. He wouldn’t stay away from me.”
“He would if he knew his family story, he would if he knew you were trying to kill his father, and he would if he knew that your family wanted him dead.” Talia counters.
“I have his ashes in my crypt!” I yell. “The foster home is the one who told us where he was buried.”
“That woman works for me, I asked her to tell everyone that he was dead to give him a fresh shot at a new life overseas. I provided a fake funeral for his foster home siblings and even buried ashes.”
“Whose fucking ashes are in my crypt?!” I scream and Vin clasps my hand.
“Anthony’s dog died of cancer that year and we had him cremated.” She looks remorseful but also not at the same time.
“That’s fucking messed up.” I say as I drop Vin’s hand and begin to pace the kitchen. “So where is he then?”
“Trent has him held at the Rampage compound. Ember, he’s not the same man he was before. He knows who his
