Chapter 31
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
P lanning for the Ascension Ball was intensive as they covered every contingency, and in the shuffle, Kaine had not sat down with his siblings to let them know what Detective St. Claire had found.
It had been a week since their meeting and he was still trying to process how to feel.
Josiah was still working on the money trail and the phone numbers had been a dead end.
They had come from one of the conference rooms and the camera outside of that room had been malfunctioning at the time.
He was back at square one.
Despite what the official report said, Kaine knew there was no way a human had taken out his grandfather. He was sitting in the living room of his suite, his bible in his lap, when the front gate pinged his phone. He frowned.
“What’s wrong?”
“There are five SUVs waiting outside the gate,” the security officer reported.
“What kind of SUVs?”
“Aye, man, open this gate before I show my ass. My pregnant mate has to use the restroom,” Devon Edwards shouted into the speaker.
Shit. Sunday dinner.
With his mind all over the place, for a moment, he’d forgotten that it was Lucky’s turn to host.
“Let them through,” he ordered the guard.
He looked down at the navy cotton shorts and matching button-down shirt he had on.
His mate had approved it this morning before she went down to start cooking.
Hustling down the stairs, he rounded the corner into the kitchen to find the counters covered in food.
His mate and sister were chatting as they cut up vegetables for what looked like a salad.
“Lucky, how many people are coming to this thing?”
Evie smiled at him. “This thing is Sunday dinner. Cheer up, brother, it should be fun. We can finally use all the chairs at the table.”
He sucked his teeth. “Your family is on the way up the driveway,” he told his mate.
Lucky squealed and rushed for the door. He stood back with his sister, texting Easy to come down from his suite of rooms. If he had to attend family dinner, then his brother did too.
They gathered in the foyer and Lucky was already opening the door to her family.
She jumped into her father’s arms the moment he came through the door.
“My baby,” Sin said, kissing her face.
Kathleen approached Kaine, shaking her head as she pulled him down into a warm hug.
His tiger reacted, greeting the older woman’s animal.
He liked Lucky’s parents especially for the way they received him in their daughter’s life even after knowing what he did for a living.
Her mother had even gone so far as to give him permission to use the nickname her kids and mate called her. He was officially a part of the family.
“Ignore those two,” Kathleen told him. “They are ridiculous. Your kitchen?”
“I’ll take you, Ms. Bryant,” Evie volunteered.
“Get your grown ass down,” Richie fussed as he came in the door, carrying dishes.
“Where the bathroom in this big ass museum?” Devon called, walking his pregnant mate inside.
Keisha slapped his arm. “Act like you got some sense.” Lucky’s cousin greeted him, rubbing her cheek along his.
“Down the hallway to the left,” he told her, holding her steady.
The rest of the family piled in; most he recognized from the kickback he’d attended. Lucky’s aunts went straight for the kitchen, her cousins following behind with coolers and trays.
“The hell is going on?” Easy asked, coming down the stairs.
“Family dinner,” Kaine muttered, his tiger unsure how to react to his home being taken over by so many strangers.
Easy chuckled, counting under his breath. “Fifteen strangers in your sacred house. This should be fun.”
Declan dapped up both brothers as he came over. He had a child cradled in his arms and a little girl trailing behind him, her curious gaze taking in everything.
“Is this normal?” he asked the wolf.
Declan snickered. “You’re lucky some of them didn’t feel like driving the hour.”
“Babe, you remember everyone,” Lucky said, not bothering to wait on his answer. “I’m gonna take them on a tour.” He opened his mouth and she cupped his cheek. “Trust me.”
He nodded, knowing his mate wouldn’t take them into any of the areas that were overly private to him, namely his darkroom.
“Ezra,” Kathleen called from the kitchen.
He excused himself and went to find out what Lucky’s mother needed.
The kitchen was full of women, his chef smiling as he sat at the kitchen island.
He didn’t remember all the names for her cousins, but her aunts stood out.
His tiger was warm toward the three women, something that didn’t happen often.
“Where are your parents?” Ms. Patrice asked. She was Keisha’s mother.
He looked at his watch. “Maybe church.”
“That’s right. I forgot your daddy is a preacher,” Lucky’s aunt they called Scooter commented.
“Did you invite them?” Kathleen asked.
All eyes turned to him and he froze, unsure how he wanted to answer that. Did he want his parents in the house full of Lucky’s relatives? Did he want them to see his father’s disdain and his mother’s icy mannerisms? In comparison to this family, it would stand out.
“I can call them,” Eve volunteered.
Kaine tried communicating with his eyes for her to abort, but pretending not to notice, Evie shot him a smirk and left the kitchen. He swallowed down a sigh.
“Do you need help with anything?” he asked Kathleen.
Though he’d spent time with them when he was in Eastfield, he still found himself at a loss for how to act around the women.
Once Henry had announced that Kaine would be his successor and his siblings would work within the organization, all the warmth their parents had treated them with vanished.
Jeffrey and Vivian had become strangers overnight.
Though their affection had been sparing to begin with, upon learning his children would potentially kill people for money, their father let loose his cruelty.
Shaking off the memories, Kaine pushed down on his tiger, who had risen in reaction.
“We can figure it out. How was work this week?” Kathleen asked.
No one outside of his mate had asked him that. He thought about his meeting with Saint and the information he was hunting down.
“It was long, actually,” he found himself confessing.
His brows furrowed at what he shared. The women in Lucky’s family had to be witches because why would he share that?
“Lucky told me you take pictures,” Scooter brought up as she stirred at the stove.
Once again, he was the center of the women’s attention. He cleared his throat and nodded in answer.
“Here is where you’re supposed to expand, Ezra,” Kathleen teased with a soft smile.
“It’s mostly landscapes, abstract. Just something to clear my mind.”
“Are you gon’ show us?” Scooter asked.
He froze because it wouldn’t have crossed his mind to tell them, never mind show them his work. But they were all looking at him expectantly, so he shrugged.
“Umm, yeah, I…I have a few pieces hanging around the house.”
The women followed him and again, Kaine found himself puzzled by why he was acquiescing.
He stopped at some of his pictures and his chest expanded with pride as they oohed and aaahed, complimenting his talents.
Against his will almost, he led them to his office.
He had forgotten there were pictures of Lucky in there.
There was a large portrait of her that he’d hung the moment he developed it.
The poster-sized image of her hanging behind his desk was a side profile.
Her hair was up in a messy bun, a mass of curls barely tamed with tendrils hanging around her face.
She wore a halter, so her shoulders were bare.
The soft smile on her face as she peered at him quickened his breath every time he looked at it.
It was a little soft and unfocused around the edges because he’d tried to get her picture unaware. She’d turned right as he was snapping. Her beauty was on display, along with the mischief that naturally lived in her gaze.
Her aunts and mother gasped.
“Oh my, you love my niece,” Ms. Patrice said softly.
Her mother hugged him tightly. “Don’t let Sin see this picture, he’s gonna?—”
“Steal it and hang it up right in the hallway,” Lucky’s father finished as they crowded into the office, coming from the tour of the house. “My baby looks beautiful! You gotta come up off that pic, man.”
Sin walked closer to the image, a smile that matched Lucky’s on his face. “You’ve captured the very reason we’ve called her Lucky.”
Kathleen came up to her mate and hugged him as they looked at the portrait.
That was one thing he’d admired when he spent time with the family, their obvious love for one another.
The care and affection the mates had for each other was equally shared between their children.
Even now as adults, Richie and Lucky were loved out loud.
Kaine had never seen that type of unfettered love before.
Both his grandparents and parents were cautious in the way they expressed loved between each other.
Their positions kept them circumspect in the what they showed the world.
“I’ll make you a copy,” he said.
What were the words spilling out of his mouth?!
“Man, hell nah. Don’t send them this big ass size,” Richie complained, and everyone laughed.
“Get out of my mate’s office,” Lucky fussed, shooing everyone out. “Dinner should be ready soon.” Once his office was clear, she turned to him. “You okay, babe?”
He nodded. “Your family is special,” he told her in earnest.
She nodded. “I told you that last time.” Smiling, she kissed him, nuzzling his cheek. His tiger preened under her attention. “If you want to stay in here for a bit, I’ll cover for you.”
“No, I’m good, my love.”
He walked out to find her family scattered in his den, watching a game.
“Let me see the outside of this hotel,” Sin joked, walking up on him.
Kaine chuckled, guiding Lucky’s father out the back onto the grounds.
Her father whistled. “All your siblings live here, Lucky said.”
He nodded. “Safer that way,” was his answer.
“I like that. If it were up to my mate and her sisters, they would probably be all up under one roof. You mind?” her father asked, pulling out a blunt.
Kaine waved it off as her father offered him some.
“I was wary about you,” Sin admitted, “but that picture… My baby girl been here only a couple of weeks and you’re already different than the last time we saw you.”
He gave her father a startled look. “You think so?”
Sin snickered. “That tiger inside you is a lot more relaxed, let me tell you. I thought I was gon’ eventually have to shoot you behind that feral animal you toting.”
The laugh that left Kaine’s mouth surprised him. It was a full belly laugh that he hadn’t heard from himself in years.
Sin joined him. “I don’t play ‘bout my baby girl. I can trust you now. That eases me.”
They stood outside in silence, each of them with their thoughts.
“You figured out why that jit tried to kill you?”
Kaine sighed. “I got an idea and a plan.”
Sin nodded, satisfied with that answer. “I ain’t worried about it. Either you or that tiger gon’ handle it.”
Kaine’s chest tightened, his tiger freezing at the confidence Sin had in him.
Even though he’d had a father and grandfather, neither man was soft with him.
He didn’t have father figures, he had mentors, teachers…
torturers. This casual faith Lucky’s father displayed was humbling.
He’d spent his life telling himself that he didn’t need softness, but being with his mate was showing him to be a liar in that regard.
Even his tiger mellowed around these people.
As Easy had teased, his tiger would usually be pacing in his chest at the number of people in his house.
“Thank you for the scotch, by the way,” he managed after he swallowed down the lump in his throat.
Sin chuckled. “The streets for sure know not to play with baby girl. Word spread fast.”
Rah rolled his shoulder. “She’s the most important person to me. If anything happens to her, just know that it’s not from lack of me trying. I’ll lay down my life to keep her safe.”
Sin nodded. “Alright then. Preacher man gon’ be here?”
Kaine snickered and it finally clicked why he was so comfortable with Lucky’s people. There was no pretense. It relaxed man and tiger, making it easier to be around them. He needed to thank his mate for bringing that into his life.