Chapter #3
***
Kimber
Seeing his sister curled up in a ball on his front porch for the third time in two days, I tightened my hold on his hand.
“It’s the bitch,” she slurred.
I tensed.
Well, at least it wasn’t the whore she had used earlier.
Grey growled, “Kacie.”
She laughed.
Fucking laughed.
Then I looked up at him and said, “I know I said I would try, but this...” I said as I gestured to Kacie and the white powder under her nose and the fresh tracks on her arms, “I can’t be around this.”
“You fucking serious?” he asked so low I almost missed what he said.
I swallowed, “Yes, Grey. I know she’s your sister, but...”
“You don’t know what the fuck you're talking about,” he growled.
I felt my eyes go wide and my temper start to flare.
“Like hell I don’t. I know what being around something that is wrong can do to a person, Grey. You know I know.”
I looked at Kacie, who was snickering and scratching at her arms.
Then she pulled out an injector from her pocket, lined it up with her vein, and pressed it.
I stared, then I looked up at Grey, “This has been going on for years. She needs help.”
He growled, “Don’t you think I know that? I’ve done everything I can think of to get her help, but it doesn’t work.”
I nodded, “Did you give her money last night?”
He sighed, “She’s my sister Kimber. I can’t just turn my back on her.”
I whispered, “She turned her back on you when all you did was try to protect her when you were sixteen, honey. She doesn’t deserve your loyalty.”
He sighed, then dropped his head.
Then he looked at me, “Give me time. Okay?”
I sighed, then, like a fool, I nodded.
Because deep down... if I judged him for this... then that made me a hypocrite.
I helped him get her inside the house.
Helped him give her a shower.
Helped him make her food.
That night, I lay in his bed and waited.
He came to bed after I fell asleep.
The next morning... his wallet as well as mine was empty, and empty liquor bottles littered the kitchen and... vomit puddles covered the hardwood floor in the living room.
***
Grey
The Next Day
My phone rang.
I saw Kacie’s name.
I answered, “Yeah?”
“I need you to come to Mitch’s.” she said.
I sighed, then looked at Kimber.
She lifted a brow, then mouthed, “What?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and mouthed, “Kacie.”
Her lips tightened.
“Be right there,” I said, then hung up.
“I have to go,” I told her.
She stared up at me.
Worry. Fear. Anger. Pity.
Those were the four emotions reflected in those pale blue colored eyes of hers.
Eyes that I thanked my lucky fucking stars I got to see.
I got to watch them as I made her cum.
I got to watch them flare every time I told her that I loved her.
I got to witness the way little sparks of white flashed when she was riled.
Like they were doing right now.
“You do this, and she turns her back on you again, something I know she’s going to do, I....” she trailed off.
At her words, my spine snapped straight.
I inhaled deeply, trying to shove down the worry that her words had called out in me, then I asked, “You what?”
“I don’t know if I can take your back in this.” She said as she bit her bottom lip.
“Then you don’t truly love me,” I told her like a fucking dumbass.
She shook her head, “No... It’s you who doesn’t truly love me, or else you would tell her no.”
Then she moved to the door, opened it, and, without a backward glance, she left.
I sighed, then I pinched the bridge of my nose.
She wasn’t right.
She didn’t know my sister as I did.
And after events unfolded, I would have given anything to go back and change my decision.
Because my third mistake almost cost me her.
***
I reached Mitch’s and then waited.
And I fucking waited.
Then I called Kacie.
No answer.
I waited.
Then called her again.
No fucking answer.
I growled.
Then I looked for her.
Nothing.
I sighed as I drove to the clubhouse four hours later.
Then I climbed out of my truck and stalked into the building.
Chin lifts greeted me from my brothers.
I checked my phone to see if Kimber reached out to me.
And nothing.
I sighed.
Just then, the door to the clubhouse banged open and there Kacie stood.
She looked for me, and so I stood up.
Her eyes came to me, unclear, glassy, fucking hell.
She was right.
Fuck me.
Kacie stumbled her way to me.
“I need some money,” Kacie hurriedly said.
I crossed my arms over my chest and asked, “How much?”
“Ten grand. I want to get out of here,” she said as she fidgeted and then scratched at the skin on her forearms.
“No. You need it to pay off your drug dealer.” I heard my woman’s voice.
And something about it made the hairs on the back of my nape stand up.
And when I got a good look at her.
Blood roared in my ears.
“What the fuck happened to you?” I roared as I stepped around my sister and moved to Kimber.
I brought my hand up to cup the side of her face.
It was bright red.
She flinched, then she snapped, “Don’t fucking touch me.”
“Kimber...” the fact that she wouldn’t let me touch her, gutted me.
Fucking gutted me.
“I told you. I’ve been telling you. Is this what it will take for you to let go of some misguided guilt you feel towards her?”
“Baby,” I said.
She shook her head. “No. You need to stop and think about shit right now. She set you up at Mitch’s, Grey.
She was supposed to be there screaming and acting like she was being attacked again, so you would walk in there and get her out.
Like you did years ago. And when you beat the shit out of the guy, an anonymous tip was going to be called.
She wanted you back in jail so she could get all you had out of the bank. ”
She swallowed, “The guy she was working with to set you up didn’t want to wait. But he didn’t mind waiting to try to rob me, too.”
I looked from Kimber to Kacie.
To see her smirking.
“Is that right?” I asked.
Kimber stiffened.
I looked at her, “Trust you, baby. Always. For my own mind, I need her to say it.”
She looked up at me, searched my eyes, and then she nodded.
Then I looked at Kacie to see her nodding, “It’s true, big bro. Come on. Seriously? But hey, it’s okay.”
Then she pulled out her phone and showed me a video.
Of a man who looked like me beating the fuck out of someone. And I realized it was the guy who had messed with Soraya weeks ago.
I growled, “Where the fuck did you get that?”
She snickered, “We had a backup plan.”
The video had been doctored not to show the rest of my brothers.
I growled at Kacie, “You’re a fucking bitch.”
Just then, we heard screeching tires.
I pulled my wallet out and handed it to Kimber, “Get my cards out.”
She did, then Merlin stepped forward and took them and nodded.
Nuke glared at Kacie, “What do you want us to do?”
I looked at Kimber and said, “Protect my woman.”
He nodded, then he jerked his chin at Kacie.
I glared at her, “Get her the fuck out of my sight.”
“Well, well, well, look who we have here,” the cop who had arrested me years ago said in front of me as he walked into the clubhouse only moments ago.
“Yeah, yeah, motherfucker.” I said as he stepped toward me with his cuffs already pulled out.
***
When the judge banged the gavel, I looked over my shoulder and locked eyes with my woman.
I tried to show her how sorry I was that I hadn’t listened to her.
And in a way... I think she got it.
She stepped forward and said, “If I judged you for having your sister’s back, then I’d be a hypocrite. Because I overlooked my family's flaws for years. Until enough was enough.”
I winked, “Had that moment when I saw the red mark on your cheek. After this, I’m done.”