Chapter Fifty-Two
King
I sat at the bar waiting for the men to file out of my clubhouse. Morpheus hadn’t come back after he stormed out when Jackson called him on his shit. Snoopy sat at a table with Popeye. I knew they wouldn’t leave. Not before I brought Grace home.
I considered sending Jingles to go get her and sneak her in upstairs in our room and let the bastard stew while he waited all fucking night. But I couldn’t help the curiosity that ran through my head knowing that the woman who gave birth to me was a few miles down the road.
“What are you gonna do?” Reaper asked. He sat on one side of me, and Montana sat on the other.
“Who the fuck knows.” I sighed. “It all had to happen on the same fucking night.” I downed my whiskey and stood. “First thing I need to do is go talk to my brother.”
“Which one?” Montana asked with a smirk.
I smacked the back of his head as he took a drink. “Don’t be an asshole.”
“It’s the only thing he’s good at,” Reaper teased.
“When Brandy gets back over here, have her find you two a room. Jackson is in the one you used last time.”
“What the fuck?!”
I shrugged. “Brother trumps president.”
I walked away as Montana laughed and Reaper cussed me out. Making my way upstairs, I knocked on the door to my brother’s room and was surprised when Karlyn answered.
“I didn’t know you were back.”
“Eros brought me in through the back. Jackson called.”
I nodded. “Is he awake?”
“Yeah, I’m awake. I don’t want to talk about him.”
“Good, ’cause that’s not why I’m here.” I sat in a chair in the corner of the room.
My forearms rested on my thighs as my hands hung clasped together between my knees.
Jackson was propped up in bed. Some of his color had returned, but he shouldn’t have come downstairs.
“Did you pull any stitches with that fucking stunt?”
Jackson rolled his eyes at me. “My stitches are fine. Why the fuck are you here? Just spit it out.”
I looked at Karlyn and nodded toward Jackson. Her eyes widened for a fraction of a second before she sat on the bed next to him and took his hand.
“I don’t even know how to say this shit. So I’m just gonna rip the Band-Aid off. Our mother is alive.”
I saw my brother’s body stiffen. “What the fuck?!”
“Yeah,” I sighed, rubbing my hands over my face. “I called the Twisted Dragons a few weeks ago and asked Dread to locate her grave and our brother’s grave. Well, he found her. Alive and well.”
“Is she downstairs?” he asked, his voice just above a whisper.
“No. I sent her to Dec’s house. Her brother Duncan is there. And I needed to deal with this shit first.”
“So you haven’t talked to her?”
I shook my head.
“Are you going to?”
I looked up at him. “That depends on you. I can wait, and we can talk to her together. But I have to pick up Grace. She’s over there too.”
“Why? I thought Grace was at the house with the others?”
“She was until her fucking father showed up. It’s been a hell of a night, brother. I’ve got parents and siblings coming out of the fucking woodwork.”
“Siblings?” he growled.
I blew out a breath. “I’m gonna need you to sit on his lap, Karlyn.”
“What?” She looked at me like I’d just asked her to sit on mine.
“Jackson, I need you to promise to control your shit.”
“Depends on what you’re about to fucking tell me.”
“Do you remember a brother named Shamrock?”
Jackson cocked his head to the side and stared at me. “Reaper killed him. He was passing messages to Reaper’s mother when all that shit went down.”
“Did you ever meet him?”
“Once I think. Remi was real close to him. I think that’s why Reaper took his betrayal so hard. Why?”
“He was our brother.”
“Fuck!”
“And he has a twin. Hemlock. He’s downstairs.”
Jackson and I stared at each other. Neither of us knew what to say, how to deal with this shit.
“Who’s his father?”
“I think it might be Snoopy. As soon as she walked in the door, he knew who she was. Well, he knew her as Bridgit.”
“How many fucking names did she have?”
I didn’t have an answer for him. I hadn’t talked to the woman and honestly, I wasn’t sure I wanted to. I had a mother for ten years. A woman who loved me. Who’d given up everything for me and never once gave me any reason to question her. Even after I learned the truth.
Jackson never had that. Sure, he had his aunt Roxy, Sypher’s mother. But it wasn’t quite the same, and we both knew it.
“What are you going to do?” he asked.
“Damned if I know,” I answered honestly. I had a feeling when Sal left, he’d gone to Dec’s house to confront the woman. “I thought about sending Jingles over to get Grace and sneaking her up through the back. So we could both avoid dealing with our missing parents.”
“Who is Grace’s father?”
“Popeye.”
“Jesus fuck.”
Karlyn was quiet. I hadn’t asked her if I could speak to Jackson alone because, frankly, I knew he’d tell her everything, anyway.
She was his Grace. She centered him, gave him peace.
I understood their relationship. I’d learned a lot from my little brother in the short time I’d known him.
He’d known what had happened to Karlyn before he got involved with her.
He didn’t let it stop him from loving her.
He saw something in her I assumed most people didn’t.
It was the same with Grace.
Everything she’d been through didn’t mean shit anymore. Who her father was didn’t mean shit either. She was mine. I wasn’t letting her go.
“You should send Jingles,” Karlyn said. “You should all take the night before dealing with any of them. After a good night’s sleep, if you don’t want to talk to any of them, then don’t.
” She shrugged. “You don’t owe them anything.
They weren’t there for you. You don’t need to bend over backwards for them. ”
“It’s not the same thing, baby,” Jackson said. “She didn’t have a choice.”
“For you,” I muttered.
“What?”
“For you, she didn’t have a choice. She either let you go or she died, and I died. Me? I’m the child she gave up. She made the choice to walk away. There was no threat involved.”
“Because your grandfather didn’t know about you. Who knows what he would have done if he had,” Jackson pointed out.
Maybe he was right. But we’d never know because the motherfucker was dead already. Sal killed him. I sent Jingles a text asking him to go pick up Grace and sneak her in through the back.
“Your girl’s right. Let’s take the night and see how things look in the morning. I don’t think I can deal with anything more tonight. I just want to hold my woman in my arms and forget about the fucking world outside.”
“Goodnight, brother.”
“Goodnight.”
Karlyn walked me to the door and followed me into the hall. “King.”
I turned to look at her. She looked back at the door before she spoke.
“Jackson asked me about the video from Trudy’s bakery; he wanted to know what Grace said to upset me. I don’t want to lie to him.”
“You don’t have to lie to him, Karlyn. Grace was hurting badly when she came here.
Her mom had passed away not long before; she thought Steele was her father, and he ignored her.
Hurt people do hurtful things to others.
I’ve forgiven her. If Jackson can’t...” I stared at the door behind her.
The one separating me from my brother. “It’s his choice to make. ”
Karlyn smiled. “Goodnight, King.”
She slipped behind the door, and I went across the hall to my own room and waited for Grace. We were taking tonight for ourselves. Fuck everyone else.
I left the door cracked open and climbed into the shower, letting the hot water wash away the day. If only it could wash away the shit we were dealing with.
I turned off the water and heard the door close. It took longer than I expected for Jingles to bring Grace back. I walked out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around my waist, and I smiled when I heard Grace gasp.
“Hey, baby.”
“Hi,” she said, her eyes locked onto my chest. “Colleen is here.”
“Why?” I asked as I moved closer. I could grab a pair of boxers and go back to the bathroom and throw them on, but the way Grace was looking at me, like she was starving, had me ready to take a chance.
I wouldn’t push. I wouldn’t even make a move, but I would make myself available to her if she wanted to touch me.
“Your mo— I mean, Darcy is staying at Maureen’s tonight. I offered Colleen the room I had been using. I hope that’s okay.”
“Of course that’s okay.” She still hadn’t looked up at me, and now she was biting her lip. She was so fucking sexy, and it took every ounce of willpower I had not to throw her on the bed and fuck her.
When I stood toe to toe, she reached up and traced the tattoos on my chest. I stood as still as I could, trying not to spook her.
“I want you, King.”
“I’m right here, baby.” My hands went to her hips, but I didn’t pull her close. I let her lead.
“I don’t know if I can.” She finally looked up, her eyes filled with tears.
“We don’t have to do anything, baby. I just want to sleep next to you. I want to hold you in my arms. Can we try that?” Her eyes dipped down to my lips and then back up a moment later, and she nodded.
“Let me put something on.” I grabbed my boxers and turned my back on her, dropping the towel and pulling them on. I heard the tiny whimper, and I smiled. “Go change, Grace.” I swatted her ass as I scooted by to get into bed. Her body jumped, but she chuckled.
It was progress.
She came out of the bathroom in my T-shirt, and it was ten times sexier than any skimpy lingerie she could wear. I held the blanket up, and she crawled in and settled herself against my side. Her hand over my heart.
She laid her face against her hand, and I listened to her breathing as I stroked my hand up and down her back, my other arm up behind my head. I didn’t want to crowd her but damn, it felt good to finally have her in my bed.
“I don’t think my mother was who she said she was,” she whispered.
I thought about what Reaper said. About Grace looking so much like his mother. “Reaper thinks you might be related to his mother.”
“That’s what Donna thinks too.”
Donna was James’ old lady. I didn’t realize they’d had a chance to talk. But they were all over at the house together earlier; it was only natural the women would talk to each other.
“Popeye’s the only one who has the answers.”
“Popeye?” she asked, looking up at me.
“Uncle Stephen. He’s retired, but he was once the VP of the Soulless Sinners.”
“So my father was in a club; I just had the wrong club.”
“It doesn’t change a damn thing, Grace. Nothing that has happened changes the way I feel about you. Or the fact that you’re my old lady.”
“King?”
“Yeah, baby?” I looked down at her. She was so fucking beautiful.
“Will you kiss me?”
“Baby, you don’t even have to ask.”