Chapter 28
This $5 can either get you two flowers from a florist, or an entire rotisserie chicken. That’s all I’m saying.
— Text from Shayne to Quinn
SHAYNE
I waited for my brother to enter the courtroom.
The moment he was there, I couldn’t stop the small tear from streaking down my cheek at the sight of him.
Costas … God .
He looked rough.
No longer the beautiful man he’d once been.
Unbeknownst to us, he’d been housed with a few rival gang members who thought it would be the perfect street cred to take out the leader of another gang.
He’d suffered
He’d suffered badly.
He was now sporting a brand new scar down the middle of his face. It went from eyebrow to chin, and was definitely going to be a gnarly scar when it healed all the way.
Quinn had told me about it when it happened, but I hadn’t realized how bad it actually was.
Again , my belly clenched.
Garnett , who’d been one of the Carters to come with me, caught my hand and squeezed.
Ande , who technically wasn’t a Carter anymore, took my other hand.
Gable crossed his arms over his chest and extended his feet on the other side of me, there not only to help support me, but also because he’d eventually have to testify.
My brother’s gaze swung around the courtroom, and it landed on me.
His shoulders slumped when he saw me there.
As much as I’d tried to get in to see him over the last couple of months, he’d refused any and all visits from me.
It’d hurt, but I’d understood.
He walked over to me and gestured with his head to come closer.
I got up and moved, my hands going out to reach for him before I thought better of it and dropped them.
“ Hey ,” he said softly, his eyes going to the room behind him. “ I have a favor to ask you.”
I leaned in close and listened to what he had to say.
When I fell backwards a step, my hand over my chest, I stared at him in shock. “ What the hell, Costas ? How ?”
He swallowed hard. “ I didn’t know. Not until a few days ago. I didn’t know .”
The devastation in his face… it nearly sent me to my knees.
Tears welled in my eyes for my poor brother. “ I don’t even know what to say.”
“ Say you’ll do it. Say you’ll fight for them,” he pleaded.
The look on my brother’s face, so devastated and so broken at the same time… How could I say no?
“ I will,” I promised. “ I totally will.”
The trial was brutal.
He didn’t deny a single charge that was set upon him.
When the day ended, and I was finally free to talk to Quinn , who’d showed up hours and hours later, I was numb.
“ Quinn ,” I said as I turned to look at him. “ We need to talk.”
He froze, his eyes worried, as he moved in close to me and pulled me into his arms.
Again with the tight hug.
“ What’s wrong, Soleada ?” he asked.
I looked around the empty parking lot to make sure we didn’t have any unwanted eavesdroppers before saying, “ Costas talked to me before the trial started.”
He let me go, but only to grab my hands seconds later. He guided me to the truck as he said, “ Okay ?”
“ He told me something,” I explained as he opened my door for me and helped me inside.
“ Yeah ?” he pushed.
“ He , uh, told me that he wants me to get his kids and make them my own.”
He blinked at me. “ He said what ?”
I pulled out my phone and went into my email.
The email I had from Costas ’ lawyer was lengthy, but I went to the first picture that I got to and said, “ These are his children. Catherine and Cillian .”
Wide -eyed, Quinn stared at the screen for a long time before saying, “ He didn’t tell you?”
I then went on to explain everything Costas had said in the short time allotted.
“ Apparently , he was with a woman pretty consistently for a few years,” I explained. “ Then one day, she started seeing this rival member, and he stayed away from her. He only found out about Catherine and Cillian a few days ago.” I rolled down to the next photo of Selene , Costas’s baby mama.
“ I know her,” he rumbled. “ You’re right. She bounces around from gang member to gang member. Shit .”
“ Costas said that he paid his lawyer to help us,” I explained. “ He wants us to fight for them.”
I could see the pain in his eyes as he asked his next question. “ And after he gets out? What then?”
“ He said that he wants us to raise them like ours,” I whispered. “ He wants us to be their parents. He wants them safe, and happy and healthy. He says when—if—he gets out, he wants them to know about him, but he says they’ll stay with me. But he doesn’t feel like he’ll get out early, and it won’t matter anyway.”
Quinn rubbed his chest before looking at me and saying, “ If you want them, baby, we’ll get them.”
Days later, the end of the trial happened.
My brother was sentenced to twenty years in prison, with the chance of parole at ten.
And I was sitting in the living room, explaining to the Carter clan how I needed their help.
“ Of course,” Garnett said at my question. “ But what is the problem?”
I looked over to Quinn , who’d been very supportive of me and my request— Costas’s request—since I’d told him two days ago.
“ My brother told me that he found out while he was in jail that he has a son and a daughter,” I murmured quietly. “ Cillian , who is two, and Catherine , who is three.”
There was a collective breath taken from the room at large.
“ And he asked me to fight for custody from their mother.”
“ Is she unfit to care for them?” Germaine asked, sounding shellshocked.
I pulled out a file that I’d had my boss, Silas , pull some strings for.
“ This is Selene Chancelor .” I introduced them to the horrid woman my brother had somehow gotten pregnant not once, but twice. “ And she’s the reason he stayed in the gang so long.”
Germaine stood up and walked to me, placing both of his hands on my shoulder before saying, “ We’ll fight.”