21. Rex
REX
Sunday didn’t end how I hoped it would, and Monday’s start wasn’t great either.
Waking up with Rach put a smile on my face, at least, but after she went to her office to prepare for a morning in court in Manhattan, and I had to head to the clubhouse, my good mood had already waned.
It seemed ridiculous to ride my bike down the hill to the compound, when it was less than a five-minute walk, so I determined that I’d keep my hog parked up there and would return home on foot.
The Prospect manning the gates greeted me with wide eyes, and the few men clustered around the garage area—a new space that was set to the side, away from the clubhouse itself and nearer to the road—watched me ride up with bug eyes too.
Like a game of Telephone with teenage girls messing around at a sleepover, the message somehow had been passed from one side of the compound to the other.
By the time I was parking and nudging my kickstand into place, Nyx had stepped out too, with Link, Sin, and Steel rubbing shoulders alongside him.
Nyx greeted me with a clap to the back, Link in a bear hug. Sin dragged me into one too and Steel punched me in the gut.
“Fucker. Don’t you dare leave for so long without telling us where the fuck you’ve gone, you hear me?”
“Yeah, Mom,” I mocked, rubbing my stomach with a scowl until he pulled me into a half-hug.
“It’s BS about you wearing a tux, ain’t it, Rex?” Sin demanded.
Ignoring him and the question, I shoved him aside and found Maverick was watching us, leaning against the doorway, and I nodded at him before I caught sight of the many, many faces behind him.
I’d wanted to catch up with the council first, wanted to tell them about what we’d uncovered in Dad’s room yesterday, but that clearly wasn’t to be.
For all that I could see my men were relieved I was here, there was a lot of malcontent in their expressions too.
Deciding that I was better off nipping that in the bud, I told Nyx, “Get everyone here for general church.”
Whispers sounded, spreading amid the crowd like VD in a whorehouse.
General church, AKA ‘Mass,’ was rarely called in the Sinners.
I wasn’t like Dad. I led the place democratically in a sense, but I used my council more than he had. That meant Mass was a rare occurrence because, to be frank, I didn’t see the point in getting the opinions from a bunch of dumb fucks.
I’d go to war for my brothers, would kill for them, but rely on their smarts?
Nope.
Because being gawked at for twenty minutes wasn’t my idea of fun, I headed to my office. It was warm in here, a fire burning in the hearth, and I noticed that a laptop was running on my desk too—Nyx had clearly been making use of this space.
Another Prez might have been pissed, but I wasn’t most men. Nyx had held the fort down for me, the least he could enjoy was the spoils of a comfortable office.
Rubbing my temple as I collapsed in the desk chair, already wishing this were over, I glanced at the computer screen. I saw he had a bunch of spreadsheets open, but they weren’t for Sinners’ business.
My lips twitched as he strode in, slamming his laptop lid down with a force that couldn’t be good for it.
“Rachel told me you were looking for your own place. Didn’t think I’d live to see the day.”
He grunted. “Had to happen at some point.”
“Not hygienic to have a baby roaming around the clubhouse,” Sin pointed out as he settled himself in one of the chairs around the conference table at the other end of the room.
In fact…
Was that conference table different than the one I’d picked out? Not that I’d seen it in person. But I’d have sworn the one I selected was a deep mahogany, not a brassy oak.
“Nyx’s never worried about hygiene before,” I remarked, my gaze drifting over the wood as I tried to figure out if I was losing it or if it wasn’t the same table as what I’d selected online.
“Wasn’t liplocked with Giulia before.” Link cackled. “You should have heard her whining when the brothers hazed Harlow.”
“What did they do?” I wasn’t altogether interested, but there had to be a reason Harlow was living at Rachel’s and not at the clubhouse.
She’d said it herself—her place was turning into the YMCA for my men, and I was about to nip that in the bud.
That place was ours.
“Set fire to dog shit on the front stoop,” Nyx rumbled.
I winced. “Jesus. Our new fucking stoop?”
“Apparently you and Giulia are likeminded. That was her first thought,” Sin said with a grin as he steepled his fingers together. His gaze was watchful. “You okay, Rex?”
“Been better.” I scratched my chin then my eyes bugged. “What the fuck is that?”
Link followed the direction of my pointer finger. He smirked. “Posse.”
“Like that says it all?”
I strode over to the side table where there was some JD and a couple glasses waiting for me to crack the bottle open. What offended me was the goddamn pink tapered candle in a stand. Upon my approach, I realized it stank of flowers.
Picking it up as if it were the aforementioned dog shit, I threw it at Nyx. “Get rid of it.”
Nyx stormed over to the door and threw the candlestick out into the hall. All of us ignored the subsequent yelp as, clearly, it collided with someone.
“What’s going on, Rex?” Sin queried.
“Why’d you think something’s going on?”
“You look stressed as fuck?” Link countered, rocking back in his seat and resting his ankle on his knee.
My jaw worked before I admitted, “Dad left me a letter with the key to this place he was staying. Visited there yesterday.”
Link arched a brow. “Packing up his stuff can’t have been fun. You should have called us in. We’d have helped.”
I knew he meant that.
Fuck, I had the best family.
“Thanks, bro, but his stuff wasn’t what he left behind.”
“What do you mean?”
“Bear went in deep,” Maverick rasped, his voice low and husky as he settled in a chair too. “Don’t even know how he found out half the shit he did.”
“What did he leave behind?” Nyx demanded, folding his arms across his chest and wincing as he did so.
Rachel told me the beating he’d gotten during his arrest hadn’t been terrible, but that wince told me he’d fractured a rib at least.
“I’m not even sure how to describe it,” I admitted. “I’ve never seen anything fucking like it in my life.”
“Think 3D murder board for anything and everything related to the Sparrows,” Maverick explained.
“You saw it?”
At Link’s query, Maverick nodded. “Rex called Star and me in.”
“Why?” Nyx asked. “Why not all of us?”
“We’re the ones running point on most things Sparrow-related,” Mav excused. “Plus, it was… It was intense.”
Understatement.
I cast Mav a look. “We already knew Dad had been investigating the Sparrows, but this shows he went in far deeper than we realized. He had photos and news reports and all kinds of shit that he’d tied to Sparrow activity.
Names we know from Amara were there… I don’t have a clue how he found out all this stuff. ”
“He dedicated the remaining years of his life to the hunt,” Maverick drawled, cracking his knuckles. “Every year spent without Rene did not go to waste.”
As mad as I was with my father, the words resonated.
I sucked in a breath, nodded, then muttered, “You guys handled Inked?”
“Cruz did that,” Sin mocked.
“Good. Good.”
When no one asked me why I’d murdered a brother, I had proof of their trust in me.
Staring at the laptop, I asked, “Nyx, you don’t need help financing a place, do you?”
He squinted at me. “Got plenty of money.”
“What was with the spreadsheets?”
“Kids cost a lot.”
Rolling my eyes, I said, “You can afford a kid and a house.”
“I know I can.”
“Then,” I repeated, “what was with the spreadsheets?”
“Wanna buy a plot of land from you.”
“Where?”
“On the compound. Near the Fridge.”
Link snorted. “So you and Giulia can hear our enemies cry at night? That your idea of a serenade?”
Nyx just shot him a glare.
That he didn’t argue or deny it had me shaking my head.
“You don’t need to buy land from me. Pick out a plot and you can have it.”
“You sure?”
Mav elbowed Nyx. “Told you he’d say that.”
Nyx wasn’t the most emotional of men, but even with his face downturned, I still saw his Adam’s apple bob. “You did. Thanks, Rex.”
“No need to thank me. Same goes for all of you. You want land, we got plenty of it. Only problem is you’ll need to use Sinners for construction, so don’t all land grab at once.”
Steel scratched his chin. “I’d be game for living on the compound. We can wait until Nyx’s place is done though.”
I shrugged. “Fine. Got plenty of it. You know we own most of this hill.”
“You gonna be living with Rach?” Steel questioned.
“Yeah. You got a problem with that?” I grumbled.
He smirked. “Only that you didn’t move in sooner.”
Link cleared his throat. “She told us what she went through, Rex.”
I eyed him. “I know.”
“We learned you have a kid too—”
“Don’t start,” I sniped at Nyx, glowering at him as he glowered at me. “Wynter was… I didn’t need to talk about her. I didn’t need you guys to know.”
“Why the fuck not? We’re your goddamn brothers.”
“Yeah, you are, but I didn’t talk about her with her mother, never mind with you.” I tightened my jaw. “I was hoping she’d come back with me, that you’d get to meet her, but that wasn’t to be. Yet. I’m hoping she’ll come to the city for college. Maybe then you’ll get to meet her.”
Link rubbed his hands together. “Baby Rachel. Betcha she looks just like her.”
“Yeah? Fifty says she’s all Rex,” Sin jeered.
Nyx sniffed. “I got a hundred that says she looks like Rene.”
I shook my head at them but had to hide a smile.
All the while they were bitching, each of them dropped a snippet of info about what the last couple months had been like. When Kendra’s name kept cropping up, I knew I was backed into a corner.
“Got news about Kendra.”
Nyx turned to frown at me. “What about the bitch?”
“Dad…” I pursed my lips, unsure of how to even start this conversation. Because I was still in my feelings over the situation, I blurted it out.
I was almost relieved to see they were as stunned as I’d been.