Rex
When I pulled up outside Storm’s place, he greeted me with a twelve-gauge.
Not sure that I blamed him for his anger, considering the circumstances.
Storm and I were close. Closer than fucking close, in fact. I hadn’t talked to him since Dad died though. Hadn’t mentioned shit to him about where I was, hadn’t said dick period.
I watched him study me and had to grimace.
I knew he’d probably have been able to forgive me if I’d looked like a pile of shit, but I was mostly clean-shaven—was getting into the habit because I knew I was gonna spend the rest of my life making sure I in no way looked like Grizzly—and I even had a tan from the California sun.
Was I surprised when he stormed out of the front entrance and before I had the chance to greet him, he punched me in the shoulder? Nah. I was surprised that he hit me hard enough to shove me on my fucking ass.
As I went flying, he loomed over me, snarling, "Well? Where the fuck have you been?"
I didn’t bother standing. If anything, I didn’t have the energy. The ride from Cali had taken its toll, sure, but leaving Wynter behind in that den of soul-sucking fuckers had drained me more than anything else had.
I’d left a piece of me back there, just as I’d left a piece of me in Jersey, and it didn’t feel right.
I didn’t feel whole.
I was tired of feeling like that as well. I’d spent most of my adulthood knowing I’d lost a piece of me, and it shouldn’t be that way now.
Uncaring that I was lying in the snow, I stared up at him, watching him watch me. Maybe he’d kick me, maybe he’d smack me around some, but at that moment, I didn’t particularly give a fuck.
Maybe I even wanted that.
Storm was part one of my coming home.
I knew that for part three—when I went back to the MC—I’d be in for a doozy of a greeting as well.
Only part two wouldn’t suck donkey balls.
Disappointingly, Storm didn’t beat on me further, just sighed then plunked his ass in the snow beside me.
Not only that, but he joined me by lying back on the frozen grass and staring up at the miserable sky.
It was a shitty day, in a shitty week, in a shitty fucking month.
The only thing that had gone right was Rach and me, but the world was so much fucking bigger than us. If it wasn’t, everything’d be right in it, but nope, we were just two small cogs in a bigger fucking machine.
I wasn’t sure why the first thing I said was, "Kendra’s my half-sister," but damn, it felt good to get that off my chest.
There was Wynter to discuss, Rachel too, but Kendra was a mutual sore spot between Storm and me, and this confession felt like a load off.
Unfortunately for me, Storm didn’t leap to his feet and start screaming and shouting about Dad being an adulterous fuckwit. Neither did he defend him.
He stayed silent.
Fucking silent.
"You knew?" I rumbled after a few seconds, head rocking to the side. A part of me hoped he’d say he didn’t know dick, but he just released a long exhalation.
"Found out a few years back."
Like he’d shot a lone bullet into the sky, one that had all the birds in the vicinity darting into flight, my brain raced. Each bird a memory. Each memory revolving around the many times I’d grumbled about throwing the bitch out.
"That why you never let me toss her out?" I groused.
"Well, it wasn’t because I was in fucking love with her."
"I thought that was why." I’d been half-certain at one point he had deep and real feelings for the bitch.
"I know. It was easier to let you think that."
I rolled my head to stare at him. "I can’t believe it."
"Trust me, Bear didn’t believe it either—"
"Why did he confide in you and not me?"
"Because I asked him if he’d ever cheated on your mom, and I wanted to know how he made it right."
"Christ," I said with a hiss. “I-I guess I thought he was faithful, which is crazy—"
"Why is it crazy?"
"The point is moot considering he did cheat on Mom."
"No. It isn’t inevitable that people will cheat. You think Nyx is gonna cheat on Giulia?"
"No, she’d chop his dick off. He ain’t as insane as everyone thinks he is."
He snorted. "Link wouldn’t cheat on Lily, Sin on Tiff, Mav on Alessa, Steel on Stone… They’re in it." He emphasized the word ‘it.’
"Never seen a man more all-in than you, Storm. But you fucked it up." I still wasn’t sure how he’d done that when he was obsessed with Keira, but fuck it up he had.
"I did," he agreed grimly.
"Anyway, I thought he’d have wrapped that shit up at least. Christ." I grunted under my breath as I rubbed my eyes with the butts of my hands.
"That why you always steered me away from her?
Not that I liked her toxic cunt. She was always mooning after you, anyway. Those fucking cow eyes were a turn off.
"Plus, I’ve always been more discerning than most of you bastards." My dick was one and done for Rach, after all.
I’d never been more grateful for that than right this goddamn second.
"You never fucked her? Ever?"
"No. Can’t say I picked up on a vibe or anything, just always hated the bitch. Thank God, huh? Man, that’d be fucked up. Even for the Sinners."
"True dat."
"Storm?"
"Yeah?"
"Why did you do that? Why did you fuck it up with Keira?"
His mouth tightened. "Didn’t mean to."
"Just fell on Kendra? X marks the fucking spot?"
"No. I didn’t fuck around as much as everyone thinks. It happened, often enough that I’m goddamn ashamed, but it was never me just getting off for the sake of getting off. I was always high.
"Don’t forget, I wasn’t using all the time. Most of my marriage didn’t pass by in a fucking blur."
"No. Because I used to throw your ass in the Fridge," I reminded him.
He pulled a face. "Thanks?"
My laugh was short. "Trust me, I hated doing that as much as you hated me for it. Wasn’t about to let you ruin your life though."
"I appreciate that, brother," he rasped, meaning it less in the MC way and more fraternally.
I knew that because I rumbled, "I wish you hadn’t messed shit up with Keira."
"Me too."
"I don’t even know why you fucked them. You had blinders on ever since you met her anyway. Never seen a dipshit more head over heels than you."
"I used to think I was fucking Keira," he managed to choke out.
I stilled. "You kidding me?"
But, fuck, there was a bizarre kind of logic to that, wasn’t there? Storm was as insane for Keira as I was for Rachel.
Christ, I breathed Rachel, and Storm was the same. My security efforts could be considered moderate in comparison to his. I just had her driver guarding her. Storm had someone tailing Keira at all times. And I meant at all times too.
"No. Wish I were," he said gruffly, making me realize how hard this had been to tell me.
"That’s messed up." Beyond messed up.
"I know."
"Jesus."
We shared a look. A single fucking look. It was loaded with his discomfort, his shame, and I knew.
I knew what he wasn’t saying, what he couldn’t verbalize. Knew what he wouldn’t say because this shit ‘didn’t happen’ to men.
Men weren’t raped.
My hands tightened into fists.
That bitch. That goddamn bitch.
My blood. My fucking blood. She’d done this to Storm. She’d raped him.
I’d hated her before—hell, hatred was too small a word to encompass the feelings that woman triggered in me—but now, I could have slipped my hands around her neck and choked her to fucking death.
She’d raped my brother.
The man who wasn’t my blood but might as well have been. I felt more for him than I ever would for that cunt with whom I shared DNA.
Silence fell between us, and I let it because I wanted so goddamn badly to jump on my hog and hunt that cunt down.
My fists tightened as I fought the urge. I was exhausted—that was one of the reasons I’d stopped here. I wanted to catch up with my brother, a fellow Prez, but also, I needed a break.
I didn’t have the energy to play Whack-a-Mole with my half-sister.
Not yet anyway.
"You remember when your mom had that miscarriage?"
Surprised at the change of topic, I hissed out a breath. "Yeah. I remember. She froze us all out."
Christ, that year had been hell.
One of the worst in my childhood.
The MC life might have been crazy, but my family was happy. Always had been. Mom and Dad had been tighter than tight until she’d gotten pregnant and had lost the kid.
We’d almost lost Mom too.
She’d gone so far in on herself that I didn’t know if we’d ever get her back.
She’d lie in bed most days, either staring at nothing or watching endless amounts of daytime TV. I knew more about Days of our Lives because of her than I wanted to.
Back then, I’d given a damn about school and homework, so I’d go in there, sit on the floor next to her bed, and study.
To this day, I didn’t know if she’d ever even noticed my presence.
"About eleven months into that, your dad got a girlfriend. Got her a place in town—"
"Holy shit," I rasped. "How do you know this?"
"We only ever talked about cheating that once. Second your mom was back to herself, he got rid of her. Paid her to leave. Kendra came back because she said she was the daughter of a clubwhore. She didn’t tell him until after Rene died."
"Christ."
"Yeah."
"How old were you when you found out?"
"Twenty-seven?” I could tell it was a guess from his tone. “It was a few months after Keira gave birth."
"When Keira left you again?"
He sighed. "Yeah."
"Why did she keep leaving you?"
"Because she had sense?"
"Bullshit."
"Because life wasn’t as pretty as she thought it would be," he said simply.
"What happened? Why did she come back?"
"I don’t know. She just came back like she usually did."
Yeah, Keira was like a yo-yo.
I’d say it was weird how Storm and his wife were around each other, but who the fuck was I to judge? Rachel and I had never fallen out of love and yet we’d spent the last two decades apart. It wasn’t as if we were going to win an episode of The Newlywed Game.
Still, this wasn’t about Rach and me. Wasn’t about him and Keira. It was about Dad.
My cheating fucker of a father.