CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Kye
MY EYES BURNED LIKE SOMEONE HAD DUNKED THEM IN GHOST pepper juice, and my entire body ached as if I’d gone a few rounds with Anderson Silva in the ring.
But I still trudged my ass to Haven. I’d missed the last couple of sessions with our kids and wouldn’t let myself miss another—even if I’d only managed an hour or two of sleep the night before.
Worry about what the hell had happened with Oren had swirled through my brain as I struggled to find rest. But I probably would’ve been better off with no sleep at all.
Because when I finally managed to fall into unconsciousness, Fallon ruled my dreams. The taste of her haunted me like the ghost of everything I wanted.
And in my dreams, I let myself give in to that. I let myself have every part of her.
I’d woken with a raging hard-on and enough guilt to strangle one of those sasquatches Lolli said roamed the woods around Sparrow Falls. And I’d been in a piss-poor mood ever since waking up and realizing none of it was real.
As I hauled open the gym’s door, the sounds of kids and people working out met my ears. It was only three in the afternoon, but the place was busier than usual.
Serena hurried through the entryway, shooting me a grin. “I’ve got a pile of paperwork and checks for you to sign.”
I sent her a salute. “You got it, boss.”
She rolled her eyes. “You’re looking a little haggard. You burning the candle at both ends?”
“Something like that.” I knew I needed to fill in the rest of the people in my life about my engagement to Fallon and my sisters, but I didn’t have it in me after Cope’s response last night. He’d come around, but his initial reaction still stung.
“Well, look who the cat dragged in,” Evan said as I made my way into the main gym. “Damn good to see you, stranger.”
It had only been a couple of days, but I was usually here every day—even multiple times.
“You might take those words back.” Mateo shot me a grin. “Kye is a special kind of cantankerous today.”
“Dude …” Evan sent me an exasperated look. “Come out with me tonight. We’ll hit up The Sage Brush, have some beers, meet some ladies.”
“I still can’t believe you’re old enough to drink,” I muttered.
Mateo wrapped Evan’s neck in a fake choke hold. “They grow up so fast.”
Evan shoved at Mateo. “You can come, too, Gramps.” He glanced at me. “What do you say?”
“I’d say that’s probably a bad idea since I just got engaged.”
Mateo’s hold on Evan slackened as Evan’s jaw dropped. Mateo made a show of twisting a pinky in his ear as a shit-stirring smile spread across his face. “I’m sorry. What did you say?” His gaze lifted behind me. “Did you hear that, Jer? Our little Kye Kye got himself a ball and chain.”
I turned to see Jericho moving toward us, shadows so similar to mine under his eyes. I knew the news about Oren was weighing on him, too. The man Oren had become might’ve been a stranger, but he’d once been a friend.
Jericho forced a smile. “Getting married? You don’t say. And you weren’t going to share this news with the class?”
I fought the urge not to scowl at my friend since he damn well knew there had been a chance of this happening.
Serena moved into our huddle. “I’m gonna have to second that question. This is something you tell your best friends.”
“For real,” Evan muttered, looking a little hurt.
Shit. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt any of them.
“I’m sorry. I just … it was delicate. I wasn’t ready to share. The fact that I’m applying for custody of three half-sisters I just found out about sped things up.”
“Wait. Did you just say you have three half-sisters?” Serena asked.
“And that he’s applying for custody of them. Daddy Kye Kye in the house,” Mateo added with a grin.
Evan shook his head as he scrubbed a hand over a cheek he was trying to grow stubble on. “You’re straight out of a soap opera, dude.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Serena waved her hands at both Mateo and Evan. “You two are asking all the wrong things. Who did you ask to marry you? And then I also want to know when I get to meet the mini-Kyes.”
A wave of nausea passed through me as I braced to tell them, waiting to hear a whole rain of bullshit. “Fallon. I asked Fallon to marry me.”
All four of them went quiet. Jericho had a knowing glint in his eyes, but a huge-ass grin on his face, and Serena’s eyes instantly filled as she threw herself at me. “Finally! I’ve been saying you two were star-crossed lovers forever. And now, Evan owes me twenty bucks.”
“You two bet on me?” I asked as I released her.
Evan sent me a sheepish smile. “I really just thought you had the protective-big-bro thing going on there. I stand corrected.”
“And twenty dollars poorer,” Serena added.
Evan pulled me into a back-slapping hug. “Happy as hell for you, man.”
“Me, too.” Jericho gave me an extra hit for good measure.
“I’m a little fucking jealous—” Mateo began, only to be cut off.
“Mr. Kye,” a young voice interrupted. “Why’s everyone hugging you? Did you run away from home and come back? My mom hugged me like crazy when I did that. She also said a whole lotta bad words ’cause I scared her. My dad just said I was grounded till I’m twenty-five, but he still loves me.”
I turned from my friends to see Benny gazing up at me with genuine curiosity. In for a penny, in for a pound. “They’re hugging me because I asked someone to marry me.”
Benny’s eyes narrowed on me. “It’s not Miss Arden, is it? I told Linc he could marry her for now, but you can’t have her, too.”
I couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped. “Rest easy. It’s not Arden. It’s Fallon.”
Another kid behind Benny scrunched his nose. “Isn’t she your sister?”
Here we go.
“Nope, she’s not. We’ve actually been friends since high school.” I didn’t need to make my case to an eight-year-old, but here I was.
A six-year-old powerhouse named Isabella let out an audible sigh. “That is soooooo romantic.”
Evan tapped me with a set of mitts. “See? You’re romantic.”
Jericho snorted. “If romantic means long walks through a maze of heavy bags and brooding for hours.”
Serena choked on a laugh. “He’s got you pegged. I need to get back to work. But, Kye?” She pulled me into another hug. There was a lot of touching happening for someone who wasn’t all that crazy about displays of affection. I took it anyway. “So damn happy for you.”
“Thanks, Ser.” I slid out of her embrace and straightened. When I turned, Isabella was still looking up at me with hazy eyes.
Benny, on the other hand, stared at me studiously. “You think you can teach me how to get Miss Arden to marry me?”
Evan patted the kid on the shoulder. “Benny, I’m pretty sure if you bring her a Ring Pop, she’ll say yes.”
I chuckled. “I have no doubt.”
He looked back and forth between us. “If you’re wrong, you gotta help me drown my sorrows in Yoo-hoo.”
Mateo let out a strangled sound. “I’m sorry, did a six-year-old just say he might need to drown his sorrows?”
Benny looked up at Mateo. “I’m very mature for my age.”
Mateo shook his head. “I got no doubt, little dude.”
After we assured Benny that we’d be there for him with Yoo-hoo if heartbreak ensued, we got back to work.
There was something magical about introducing kids to mixed martial arts.
It gave them so many things I’d wished I had growing up: self-defense training, a healthy respect for the human body, practice in controlling your temper, and other physical and mental health benefits.
If my introduction had been something like this and not in the fight ring, things might’ve turned out differently.
But it was more than just the training. It also plugged them into a community and gave them a set of adults beyond their parents who checked in. After everything that had happened lately, I found myself looking at each child more carefully.
I thought about their parents and caregivers. Were the kids too skinny? Did they have any unexplained bruises? Were they overly nervous?
As the class wrapped up, I’d come up empty when it came to any who might need intervention. But I would keep an eye on the parents.
Jericho held up a large blocking pad as the kids lined up to give it a punch and kick combo. It was one of their favorite parts of the lessons because it made them feel like they were taking on someone four times their size.
Isabella came forward, giving a jab, hook, then snap kick. She punctuated the moves with a sound fit for some over-the-top kung fu movie.
“God, she’s fuckin’ adorable,” Evan said, coming up beside me.
“The sound effects are something else.”
Evan laughed. “This is my favorite gig.”
I glanced over at him, really taking in his words. “You mean that?”
He looked back at me. “That really so surprising? I just keep thinking how things would’ve been different for us if we’d had something like this.”
Everything would’ve been different. Sometimes, I wondered if I would’ve stayed away from all that MC mess if I’d been taken out of Renee and Rex’s home earlier. Maybe I’d be more like Shep, who’d been adopted by the Colsons at birth. He’d always had his shit together.
I shoved those thoughts out of my head. “We might’ve had our knocks, but we made it out the other side. And that means we’re here to show others the path.”
Evan’s gaze moved back to the kids. “You’re right. Hopefully, they’ll never have to go through what we did.”
“You know,” I began, my wheels turning, “I’d like to expand the programming we offer at Haven. I’ve been thinking it might be nice to team up with DHS and maybe a few other county programs to offer some more classes for at-risk youth. That something you’d be interested in heading up?”
Evan’s head snapped back in my direction. “Head up?”
I nodded. “You’ve been doing amazing with these little ones, and I think having someone closer to the teens’ age might be an asset.”
One corner of Evan’s mouth kicked up. “You callin’ me a youngin’?”
“Yeah, ya little whippersnapper.”
Evan barked out a laugh. “I think your grays are showing.”
“Harsh, kid. Harsh.” Movement caught my attention—Trace moving into the gym through the gathering of parents waiting for class to end. He didn’t come straight for me, so I knew it wasn’t an emergency, but dread still pooled.
He leaned against the wall in full uniform, watching with an amused look as Benny attempted a roundhouse kick and took a tumble.
Jericho moved forward to help him up. “Good try. Let’s give it one more. Pay attention to that center of gravity.”
Benny nodded and tried again. The kick was wobbly at best, but he did it.
I let loose a whistle. “Way to go, Benny!”
He grinned so wide the smile took up half his face. “You make sure to tell Miss Arden about that.”
“You know I will.”
The last few kids went through the line, and then I moved to the center of the mat. “Amazing job today. You were focused, kind, and you seriously kicked booty.” I’d learned the hard way that some parents were even opposed to the word butt.
The kids cheered.
“Have an amazing night, and keep up all the hard work at home,” I said. “Class dismissed.”
The kids ran for their parents, and Trace slowly made his way over to where I stood with Jericho and Evan. It was Jericho who spoke first. “You find out what happened to Oren?”
Trace was wearing his sheriff mask, making it hard to tell exactly what he was thinking—or know what he might be about to drop on us. But the slight flutter of the muscle I saw along his jawbone told me it wasn’t good. “He was found out back behind the Steel Horse Saloon in Eagle Crest.”
Eagle Crest was one town over and the Reapers MC’s home. Steel Horse was a bar frequented by the MC for meetings with other clubs since it was considered neutral ground.
“What happened?” I asked, keeping my voice low.
Trace’s expression went even more blank. “He was stabbed five times in the chest. The blows were brutal. Medical examiner says whoever did it must have a hell of a lot of strength.”
Jericho paled and scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “Could be a rival club.”
Trace lifted his chin in assent. “We’re looking into that.”
“Could even be internal tension,” I added. “For Oren to be harping on me and Jericho to come back, something was going on. He knows we’ve been out since we were seventeen. Coming back around reeks of desperation.”
“He probably knew that you and Jericho still have skills,” Evan said. “It’s no secret, given you guys do the exhibition matches here.”
He had a point. Part of the reason I’d started Haven was to turn something that had been so destructive for me into something positive. And doing the occasional exhibition match was me proving to myself that I could fight and be in control.
Trace shifted his weight from one foot to the other, and his gaze zeroed in on me. “I’m sorry as hell to have to do this, but I gotta ask you and Jericho what you were doing between the hours of three and six p.m. yesterday.”
The dread that’d pooled in me earlier turned ugly now. “We’re suspects?”
“Respectfully, Trace,” Evan began, his voice going hard, his hazel eyes along with it.
“That’s a bunch of bullshit. Anyone who’s dealt with the rougher side of Sparrow Falls for a second knows Oren Matthews was a piece of shit with more enemies than I have parking tickets.
And you know how many of those I’ve racked up. ”
That muscle in Trace’s jaw started fluttering again. “I’m asking because I don’t want them to be suspects.”
My throat suddenly felt dry as I focused on a spot on the wall that was no longer damaged from my explosion of rage the night I’d found out about my sisters. This could ruin all of that and send my dreams of giving them a home crashing down.
Jericho gripped the blocking pad so hard I wondered if it would leave permanent damage, but I understood his anger.
Oren had been messing with our lives for longer than I could remember.
“I had my last client at three,” Jericho said, tension radiating through each word.
“I went home after that, but I don’t think anyone saw me. ”
My voice didn’t sound like mine as I answered. “I picked up Fallon around four-thirty. Before that, I went for a drive. It’s possible someone saw my truck somewhere, but I doubt it.”
Trace glanced between us. “It helps. And it’s a hell of a lot better than nothing. Getting to Eagle Crest and back in enough time would be hard with no one seeing you.”
But he didn’t say it was impossible. Because it wasn’t. If a judge found out I was a murder suspect? There was no way he’d give me custody of my sisters.