“Yeah, it clearly did that,” she agreed.
“I hate that it’s your job, but outside is where he put himself, with you, your dad, Haley and the girls, and he needs someone to show him the way in.”
“Yeah,” she muttered.
“But if you decide to do that, you should do it only when you’re ready,” he added.
“Mm,” she hummed, looked to her phone, hit some buttons, and when he heard it ringing, she put her finger to her lips.
He grinned at her.
Apparently, she was ready.
“Thanks for returning my call,” was her brother’s greeting.
“Please don’t make me regret it,” Archie replied.
A beat then, “What I did last night was messed up. It was completely out of line.”
Even through the phone, it sounded like that was painful for him to say.
Which gave Jag more insight into Elijah because the pride was definitely strong with this one.
“It was,” Archie agreed.
“I’m sorry about that,” Elijah said tightly.
“Apology accepted.”
“I think…I need…to take some time…to take stock,” Elijah admitted like he was being tortured for those words.
“Mm-hmm,” was all Archie gave him.
Elijah came to his end.
“Jesus, I just miss her, Arch,” he spat.
“I do too, Eli,” she said gently. “So does Dad. You can’t think just because he has Haley that he doesn’t. He loved Mom. He’s just not one of those guys who can be alone. He likes company. He likes taking care of people. He’s loving and social. He’d be miserable if he spent his life all by himself, honoring their marriage when half of that marriage is no longer of this world.”
Elijah was quiet.
Archie kept going.
“You’ve hurt Haley. Also Hellen and Liane.”
“I—”
“You can’t deny it and you can’t excuse it. I’ve seen it,” she cut in quickly. “She’s great. Those girls are great. We can never have Mom back, but they aren’t chump change, Eli.”
“Like I said, I need to take stock,” Elijah reiterated.
“Right,” Archie said.
“And I can’t lose you while I’m doing it.”
There it was.
Archie locked eyes with him.
“Right,” she repeated, but this time it was softer.
“I don’t…all I can say is I’ll be working on it. All of it. Just…give me some patience,” Elijah not-quite asked.
“I’m going to point out you’ve already had a lot of that, Eli, but I’ll give you more because I love you, because you’re family and because that’s what Mom would want me to do.”
Utter quiet from Elijah after that.
Archie moved on.
“I’m not managing this building without your help, Eli. So you either pay me to manage it or you help.”
“You were right about all of that. I was just being a dick. No clue why.”
Jagger had a clue.
Like Mal, or anyone who felt lost to their pain, Elijah needed to be seen.
The thing was, in Elijah’s case, he’d been seen so much, Archie, and probably Andy too, had put up with his shit so long, he was addicted to it and he didn’t know how to operate any other way.
“Deduct what you need to deduct for me to pay you back and for you to do what you have to do to keep things good,” Elijah went on. “I can’t help right now, with school and work, I can’t add on. We’re preparing a brief at work and I’m working eighty-hour weeks and still have to hit class and study. I’m barely sleeping, and shit is intense.”
“You could have told me that, Eli.”
He sounded impatient when he replied, “I guess I’m not a great communicator, Archie.”
“Trust me, take stock on that too, brother,” she advised. “Not just for me, Dad, our family, but anyone in your life. You acting like an asshole to get your way is going to get old real fast with people who are not bound to you. You with me?”
“I’ll take stock.”
That sounded like it was gritted through his teeth.
Archie grinned at Jag.
And that was a little sister who liked to make her big brother squirm.
Jag smiled back.
“Though, your big takeaway from this is that I love you,” she said. “I’m done putting up with your shit, but I’ll never be done loving you. You dig?”
“Dig?”
“You hardly need me to define that slang, bro.”
“You’re such a hippie,” Elijah muttered.
“I’m not a hippie. I’m not anything. Why do people need to label? It’s gross.”
“Okay, I have thirty minutes to write a five-thousand-word paper before I have to haul my ass back into the office, so I don’t have time for this. Your takeaway is, I love you too. And you’ve been heard. It’s time I try to be the son my mother raised.”
“Your father too,” Arch pushed.
It took a second before he said, “My father too.”
“All right, go get at that paper. Love you, bro.”
“Love you too, you goof.”
Hearing that, Jag let out a breath.
Archie also relaxed on top of him.
“Later,” she said into the phone.
“’Bye, Arch.”
They disconnected, she tossed her phone to the floor at the side of the bed and smiled huge at him.
He gave her a squeeze. “Happy?”
“So happy, I’m give-my-guy-a-blowjob happy.”
For fuck’s sake.
“Baby, I just came not twenty minutes ago.”
“Bet I can make you come again.”
He wouldn’t take that bet because he’d bet she was right.
He also was never gonna stand in the way of a blowjob.
Twenty minutes later, she proved they were both right.
Chapter Eighteen
That Is Everything
Tack
Thirty years before…
The lights of Denver lay out before them.
“She’s the one.”
“You haven’t hid that, brother.”
“I can’t go on.”
A beat.
Two.
Three.
All loaded.
Then the response…
“Nope.”
“Gonna fill her up with babies, and I’m not giving them this, Tack. I’m not givin’ them the Club like it is. They’re not inheriting this block of pure shit from me.”
They’d rode together, side by side, up to Lookout Mountain so they could see this view.
It was Black’s idea.
He’d met Keely.
The fall had been hard and swift.
But they both already knew where their path led as brothers.
Keely just solidified it for Black.
“Getting the Club right needs patience,” Tack told him. “This is gonna be slow, Black. We can’t make any sudden moves. Every step planned out, purposeful.”
“You need to cut Naomi loose.”
That made Tack look to his left.
To his brother.
To Graham Black.