Chapter 54
Chapter Fifty-Four
MILES
It hadn’t taken me long to know West and Blue were full of shit.
On the way to Loxley’s show a few weeks back, I rode with Grams and Gramps, and they said the same thing.
They thought there was more to it, too. But the truth was, West never did things the way people expected him to.
And if West was finally feeling something real, then he needed to figure that out for himself.
So we let him. We treated their relationship like it was real because when it came down to it, it was.
Everything had been going well. But I knew the day would come when he’d get stupid, and I’d have to help pick up the pieces. That was just what we did for each other. It happened to all of us eventually. But leave it to West to throw in a plot twist none of us saw coming.
“You fucked Blue’s sister?”
“Twenty years ago, apparently. I found out tonight that she’s the girl I was with… that night…” West swallowed hard, refusing to finish the sentence, but Easton and I both knew exactly which night he was talking about.
The night our parents died.
He’d never talked about it. Not where he’d been, not what he’d been doing. But we always knew he’d snuck out and met up with a girl.
West glanced between us like he needed confirmation we were tracking what he meant without him having to spell it out. I gave him a slow nod, letting him know I understood.
“So wait.” I cleared my throat, trying to bring this back to the actual story. “Are you trying to tell me you’ve got a kid? Who’s not really a kid, because it’s been twenty years?”
“No.” His voice came out as a low grit. “I’m telling you I have a complication. A girl I had sex with twenty years ago is calling me, for what I suspect is backpay on child support.”
Easton leaned forward, brows up. “Isn’t that the same thing?”
“Not even close,” West snapped. “Because I don’t have a kid with her. And she damn well knows it.”
“You sure?”
He shot me a look like I’d just insulted his IQ. “I was young and horny, not stupid. I knew how babies were made, and I know I didn’t leave anything behind that night. I was too damn messed up by the sirens I could hear in the distance.”
That shut me up.
“So why is she calling now?” I finally asked. “And what makes you think it’s about a kid?”
“The calls started right after I married Blue. Her dad still talks to her sister, mostly when she needs money, so maybe he told her we were married. I don’t know.
I thought the calls were spam, so I never answered.
But after seeing her picture in Blue’s house, I asked about it.
Blue told me that was her sister. Then she mentioned that her sister had a kid right after she left town, out in North Dakota. It all clicked.”
He didn’t give us every detail, but it was enough. Enough to see how rattled he was, enough for me to know we’d need to help him figure this out before it blew up with Blue.
Easton rubbed a hand over his jaw. “Then she’s probably calling because she thinks you and Blue have money.”
“What did Blue say about all this?” I added.
West sighed, and dropped his head onto the bar.
“I didn’t tell her. Didn’t tell her any of it.
I know you guys have been able to let that night go, but I still relive it all the time, mostly in my nightmares.
Finding out she was Blue’s sister was a lot.
Because if I want Blue in my life, I’ll have to come face-to-face with the only person, besides myself, I associate with Mom and Dad’s death. ”
The words hung heavy.
West opening up this way left me feeling like I was meeting a different version of my brother. I always knew he carried the heaviest load when it came to our parents’ death, but I hadn’t realized he was still living there, stuck in the same night two decades later.
“I’m not really sure how to handle the fact that this girl’s calling after all these years,” I admitted. “But Blue’s mature enough to see that you hooking up with her sister twenty years ago is in the past. She shouldn’t hold that over your head.”
West snorted like I’d completely missed the point. And maybe I had. I wasn’t him, I couldn’t know how deep that night still cut.
I poured him another glass of bourbon, and he sat up, downed it in one swallow, then dragged his hand through his hair. I was about to tell him we should head back to Blue’s, let them talk it out, figure out a plan together—
But then glass shattered.
All three of us spun toward the front door just in time to see it rain down in glittering shards. We pushed to our feet as Easton came around from behind the bar.
The Murphy brothers strolled in, one of them stooping to pick up the brick they’d thrown. Buddy sneered like this was all some great surprise. “Well, imagine our luck, drivin’ by our old haunt and seein’ three of our best friends together all in one place.”
Instinctively, my hand went to my hip where my gun used to sit. Empty. A hard reminder that I wasn’t a cop in this town anymore. I couldn’t flash a badge or haul them out of Fiddlers the way I used to.
This time was different. The bar was closed. It was midnight. They hadn’t walked in, they’d broken in.
I pulled my phone from my pocket, thumb flying to type out a quick text to Linc and my old captain.
Then I set it back down and crossed my arms over my chest, frustration burning hot.
“I knew you guys had gotten worse since I left town, but this is a new low.” I gestured to the shards of glass crunching under their boots.
“You ain’t seen anything yet,” Huck sneered, spitting on the floor like that was supposed to prove his point.
West exhaled, more frustration than fury, but I could see the itch in him. Between the drinks and the night he’d had, he was practically looking for a fight.
I rolled my eyes, almost laughing. If he swung, I wasn’t about to let him swing alone. If the Murphys wanted trouble in West’s bar, I was damn well going to handle it with him.
“Mind if I sit this one out?” Easton lifted a hand, grinning. “Not really a fighter. I’m more of a lover. And honestly, three on two feels unfair.”
“Yeah, I got it.” I clapped him on the back, resigning myself to being West’s tag-team partner.
I popped my neck, stretched out my arms, making sure the Murphys noticed how little I cared about their tough-guy act. They only got angrier.
But I felt calm. Ready. Because this was the kind of thing I could never do as a cop. Now, I was just a regular citizen. And I was about to help my brother kick those idiots asses.