Chapter 16 #3
Grayson stared after his father, the caustic feelings of old resentment and anger settling into worn grooves, and wondered when watching the man walk away would no longer matter. The door closed with a deafening snick that echoed through the tense quiet.
Cass turned to him. “What was that about?”
Unable to stand still, he let her go and started to pace.
“Burton called him, told him I was hooked up with you, which is guaranteed to get his panties in a bunch. Then he saw the books, jumped to the wrong conclusions—which he’s good at—and tried to reclaim a role he lost the rights to a long damn time ago.
” He dragged a hand through his hair then grabbed the back of his neck and squeezed.
“Why did I open the damn door?” he muttered with his back to Cass.
“Because he’s your dad?” Cass offered softly.
He laughed bitterly. “I buried my dad with my mom, Cass. That man, he’s nothing to me.”
“That may be, but you mean something to him.”
He couldn’t afford to believe her. “That’s his problem, not mine.”
“Okay, I’ll give you that.”
“That’s gracious of you.” The spiteful words escaped him before he could check his mouth. He winced and turned to face her. “Dammit, Cass, I’m sorry. That was uncalled-for.”
“It was. However, you’ve met my family, right? So I get it.” She then surprised him with a small grin. “But does it make me weird that you being mean makes me feel better?”
The riot of emotions his father’s presence had evoked eased. “Uh, yeah?” he said, bemused.
Cass’s giggle was quiet as she headed for the kitchen. “It’s nice to know you’re not perfect.”
“Not even close,” he murmured as he followed her. He took a seat at the counter.
She grabbed the kettle and started to pour. “So, what’s his problem with me?”
“Apparently, he knows your family, and he’s not a fan.”
She raised a brow and set the kettle aside. “Did they do something to him?”
“Probably not.” If he hadn’t been watching her, he would have missed the slight tremble in her hand as she dropped the teabag into the mug. “It’s more likely he’s lumping them in with all the Families.”
She opened a couple of cabinets until she found his plates and grabbed a saucer. “Ah, so more like a basic disdain of the OGs, then?” She set the saucer on top of the mug, holding the teabag in place as it steeped.
“It’s a little deeper than that.”
When she looked at him, he knew it was time to share, so he settled in.
“Remember the story I promised?” He waited for her nod.
“Well, once upon a time, my dad was a well-regarded Sentinel, and my mom was a highly respected Key. While my mom was happy working for the Guild, Dad preferred being able to pick and choose his own clients.”
“As a Sentinel, going solo couldn’t have been easy for him,” she said, settling into a lean against the counter.
She wasn’t wrong. When it came to personal security work, whether close cover or covert, most Families preferred a Guild-backed Sentinel. “It wasn’t, but he had a solid reputation and, more importantly, an exclusive offer from one of the Families.”
“That would do it,” she said. “I’m guessing he didn’t want to pay the Guild their cut.”
Grayson shook his head. “I remember him and Mom discussing it one night, and he told her he’d already paid the Guild back and then some. It was time to earn what he was worth.”
“Did your mom not want him to take the job?”
“She wanted him happy. Things had been tough at the Guild. I’m not sure what was going on, if it was a shitty boss, or a midlife-crisis thing, but whatever it was, Dad wanted a change.”
“And when the offer came, he took it.”
Grayson nodded. “And for a couple of years, things were good. Then the Family he worked for decided to partner on a real estate development deal here in Vegas.”
“Let me guess. A casino?” Cass set the saucer aside and removed the teabag. She took her mug and rounded the counter.
“A private one,” he confirmed, picking up the books and setting them on the seat behind him.
As she settled onto the barstool next to him, he angled so they could face each other.
“Plans were underway, things were moving along, but then Dad’s client discovered money was missing.
An investigation was started, and then the client had a string of bad luck resulting in a couple of near misses.
Dad started to hunt and narrowed in on a suspect fairly quickly, which was when things got messy. ”
“Your issues with Muses,” Cass guessed—accurately—a slight frown marring her forehead. “Was that the suspect?”
“It was. She managed to get her hooks into Dad’s memories and started to twist them. Her plan was to get him to protect her instead of his client, but she overreached.”
Memories crowded in. His dad putting in longer and longer hours.
His mom trying to share her concerns, only to have the conversation devolve into cold arguments that ended in colder silences.
The way his father would sometimes look through him and his siblings, and eventually, Grayson’s mother.
Tension had seeped into their once happy, normal home, fracturing their family and Grayson’s heart.
Horrified understanding flashed across Cass’s face. “Oh my gods, she didn’t!”
“She did,” he said grimly. “She warped his memories until he barely acknowledged us, but my mom…” The pressure on his chest deepened, tightening his throat, and his eyes burned.
Cass covered his fisted hand with hers, watching him with concern.
He swallowed once, hard, and got the rest out. “Mom knew something was wrong. She followed my dad one night when he was meeting the Muse. There was a confrontation, and when the dust settled, both my mom and the Muse were dead, and my dad was nearly catatonic.”
“Oh, Gray.”
Her compassion eased the ache of memories, and under her warm touch, he forced his hand open. “Without Mom, it fell on me to keep Shep and Rae safe because after he finally woke up, Dad was useless. He buried himself in a bottle and eventually stopped coming home.”
“Now I get what tonight was about,” she murmured as she played with his fingers. “Did you ever find out where he went?”
“I don’t know, and I never cared to find out. I had enough to worry about. I was fifteen going on twenty-five and had to figure out how to keep the three of us together.”
“But you did it.” There was no doubt in her voice.
“I did, but not without crossing the line.”
“Your less-than-legit sources.”
He inclined his head. “I’d been training with the Guild before things went to shit, but afterward, I needed money fast.” He looked up, and it was hard to hold her gaze, especially since he was about to admit to things that might extinguish the soft light of something beautiful.
“It started with a few off-the-book jobs. The pay was good, especially since I didn’t have to hand over the Guild’s cut.
Word spread, and more jobs popped up, each one a little more slippery than the last, but the money kept going up.
Pretty soon, I was doing risky jobs no sane Key would consider with clients that were more likely to take their cut literally. ”
There was no condemnation as she studied him, just tender empathy. “You went dark.”
He’d never admit it out loud, but he’d played in the inky depths until he almost disappeared. “It’s how I met my source.”
Apprehension colored her eyes, and when she spoke, it was cautiously. “I’ve got to ask: Do you still work in that arena?”
He didn’t take offense at her question, because he understood what drove it. He gave her fingers a gentle, reassuring squeeze. “No, but the contacts I made, the skills I earned, they’re still useful.”
“I bet.” She brought his hand up and brushed a kiss over his knuckles in silent apology. “I’m grateful, then.”
“Grateful?”
“Yeah.” She cocked her head. “Did you think I’d judge you?”
In a moment of clarity, it hit him that yes, he had, which was why he’d held off sharing. “Most would if they found out someone was messing with dark magic.”
“True, but you did what you had to do to survive.”
He found it hard to accept her understanding. “It’s dark magic, Cass.”
She let him go but not for long. She cupped his jaw in her hands, her touch gentle but firm as she held his gaze. “And I break the rules and use less-than-legal resources on the regular to help those the law won’t. Does that make me a bad person?”
“No.”
She smiled at his quick answer. “I remember someone telling me that life is a series of choices, good, bad, and everything in between. Regardless of which way you went, in the end, what matters is whether you can live with the ones you made.”
The last of his tension eased at what she was offering him. It was there in the warm light in her eyes, her soothing touch, and the sincerity of her voice.
He felt her slip deeper into his heart and dropped his forehead to rest against hers. “Is that your roundabout way of telling me the ends justify the means?”
Her hands slid around his neck as she angled her head to press a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth. “What do you think?”
“I think…” He pulled her closer, the slow burn of hunger that had simmered for days igniting under her teasing touch. “I’ve got another choice to make.”
Her eyes darkened. “Yeah?” she asked huskily.
“Yeah.” Then he captured her lips with his, utterly content to follow this woman into the flames.