24. Deacon
As we walk outside, I’m immediately drawn to the table by the outdoor kitchen where Scarlet stands between three men, a bottle of bourbon between them that costs more than my first car. Cade St. James doesn’t look much different than he did a decade ago. A little more gray in his hair, and a few more lines on his face don’t change the fact that this man is an MMA champion, who, even past his prime, could still stand toe-to-toe with me, and I’m no fucking slouch.
I easily recognize the man next to him as Senator Becket Kingston, which means the third must be Sam Beneventi. Between these three, one is going to want to kill me, one probably wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger, and the third could probably make it look like an accident.
I’m used to walking into tough rooms. A hockey locker room is full of fearless men. But they play with rules. The collective power between these three kings means there are no rules, and I’m about to steal the princess out of the tower.
“Daddy.” Brynlee hesitates as we stop next to the table.
Jesus Christ, she just called him Daddy. I’m fucking screwed.
Cade looks from his wife to his daughter, completely ignoring me, and I notice Killian out of the corner of my eye, grabbing a beer from an outdoor refrigerator. The fucker smiles from ear to ear. Yeah. He’s looking forward to this.
“Brynnie. I didn’t expect to see you tonight.” Cade lifts his glass and looks over at the way my hand is holding Brynn’s and lifts his brow. “Didn’t expect to see you either, Kane.”
“Kane,” Becket says. “The kid from Block Island?”
Scarlet leans her hip against her husband’s chair and smiles condescendingly at her brother. “Do you even read the King Corp. emails, Becks? Deacon is the Revolution’s new head coach.” Her words may sound like she’s not upset that I’m here with her daughter, but the look on her face says otherwise.
“Why’s the coach holding Brynn’s hand?” The third guy asks and puts his cigar down with an underlying anger in his words.
And I wait for it.
Because I know it’s coming.
Tick. Tick. Boom.
“And why the fuck is there a diamond ring on her finger?” Sam points out as he leans back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest.
“That’s why we’re here,” Brynn tells them, then looks at her uncles. “We were hoping to talk to Mom and Dad alone.” She squeezes my hand, and I’m not sure if she’s trying to comfort me or herself.
I drop her hand and wrap an arm around her waist.
She doesn’t need to comfort me. I can hold my own, and no one at this table is changing anything between us. When I go to bed tonight, it’ll be with my wife.
“Not a chance, Brynn.” Becket grins and sips his bourbon as Killian pulls out a chair that his mother immediately pushes back in.
“What?” he asks, and Scarlet shakes her head and points at Brynn’s uncles.
“They get to stay. You go inside.”
He shakes his head and looks at his dad and uncles. “If it makes a difference, he was ready to come to blows with me earlier if I even looked at her wrong. And I’m a scary motherfucker.”
“I’m scarier,” Sam says quietly, and Cade glares at his son.
Killian turns back to Brynn. “I tried.”
“Go,” she whispers to him.
Brynlee waits until her brother is inside before pulling out her own chair across the table from her uncles and taking a seat. “You aren’t surprised.”
Well, damn . . . I wasn’t expecting that.
“The fuck I’m not, Brynn.” Becket laughs, but Scarlet and Cade just look at her. “You knew.”
“The second Judge Guiliano got your call, she called me,” her mother tells her before finishing what’s left of Cade’s bourbon and pouring another glass. “There’s nothing that happens in this city that one of us doesn’t know, Brynlee. No more questions from you. Now it’s our turn.”
I stand behind Brynn, watching the dynamic play out. This family is complicated as hell, but I won’t hesitate to take her out of here if they upset her.
“Why did we have to find out from a friend you were even seeing someone, let alone getting married? Really, Brynn. What’s gotten into you?” Scarlet nails her daughter with her words.
“I know what’s gotten into her,” Becket snickers, and I clench my fist.
“Out,” Cade barks, and Sam grabs Becket’s shirt.
“Dumb fuck,” Sam groans. “I’m going to remind you that you said that one day when it’s Kenzie seeing someone. Let’s go.”
“And miss this?” Becket argues but stands up anyway, then points a finger at me. “Keep in mind I can erase any trace of your existence if you hurt my niece, Kane.”
“Lay off the bourbon, Becks,” his sister chastises as she watches the two men join Killian in the house.
“Are you happy?” Cade asks. “They’re gone. Now start talking.”
I’m already over this whole shit show. “I love your daughter. Do I wish I had come to you first and asked your permission to marry her?” I want to tell him fuck no, I don’t, but he’s Brynn’s father, and I owe him more respect than that. “As a father of a little girl, I’d like to think I should have. But in reality, I don’t need it. I need hers. She needs to know I’m a good man. She needs to believe I’ll protect her with my dying breath. She’s the only person who matters, and that’s how it should be.”
Brynn grabs my hand and squeezes again.
“Does he know?” her mother asks, seemingly dismissing everything I just said.
“He does,” Brynn tells her with a shake in her voice, which kicks my protective instincts into overdrive. “He’s taking me to get the test.”
That’s when Scarlet’s perfect facade cracks. Her face falls, and a gasp gets stuck in her throat as she lays her hand on her husband’s and looks at me with tears quickly filling her eyes. “And you’ll be there, no matter what those results are?” she asks as her first tear falls.
“Yes,” is the only word I manage before I blow out my own breath, trying to maintain some sense of control over the consequences she’s concerned with.
“We just wanted to get married. Just us. But we were thinking about doing something small that would include Deacon’s daughter, Kennedy. Just us and our families,” she tells them both, and Cade groans.
“That’s not small, Brynn.” He shakes his head.
“What if we did it at your parents’ inn, Deacon?” Scarlet asks as she silently looks at me with something like approval in her eyes.
“Whatever Brynn wants,” I answer with eyes only for my wife.
“Brynnie?” Scarlet asks, waiting not so patiently.
“Something small, Mom. And maybe wait until I get the results. I don’t know that I’ll want to do anything after that if they’re not what I want to hear.” The elephant in the room just trampled over my fucking heart with one fucking sentence.
“I’d like to do it before the season starts next month.” I sit down next to Brynn and force her to look at me. To really listen to what I’m saying. “No matter what the test says. You can’t live your life in fear, baby,” I tell her, completely ignoring anyone else listening.
“Perfect, I’ll call your mother, Deacon.”
Brynn throws her mother a look, then leans her forehead against mine. “Do you realize what you’ve done?” she asks me, and her father laughs... hard.
“You’ve unleashed a kraken, son. Don’t say you weren’t warned.” Cade pushes Sam’s still-full glass of bourbon my way and holds his up, waiting for me to do the same. “Welcome to the family, Deacon.”