Still did.
Just had a better mask now.
"About eleven months into that, your dad got a girlfriend. Got her a place in town—"
"Holy shit," he rasped. "How do you know this?"
"We only ever talked about cheating that once. Second your mom was back to herself, he got rid of her. Paid her to leave. Kendra came back because she said she was the daughter of a clubwhore. She didn’t tell him until after Rene died."
"Christ."
"Yeah."
"How old were you when you found out?"
I thought back, and guesstimated, "Twenty-seven? It was a few months after Keira gave birth."
"When Keira left you again?"
I sighed. "Yeah."
"Why did she keep leaving you?"
"Because she had sense?"
"Bullshit."
"Because life wasn’t as pretty as she thought it would be," I said simply.
"What happened? Why did she come back?"
"I don’t know. She just came back like she usually did." ‘Did’ being the operative word.
"Did he know his girlfriend was pregnant?"
I blinked at the change of topic. "No. He found out when Kendra gave him a birth certificate. I think she knew no good would come of that news being brought into the light while his Old Lady was around. At least, I think so. Never spoken to her about it."
"He believed her?"
"I think Kendra’s mom was a good woman."
"Christ, irony."
"Yeah. She bred a viper."
"Probably Dad’s intervention. His DNA probably made her a cunt." As I snorted, Rex rolled upward, sitting so that his back was curved, his knees high, his arms resting on them. "Dad’s kid or not, she deserved to be kicked out of the club for what she did to Keira."
"I know she did." Getting kicked out of the house, my marriage breaking down, finding out who’d whispered in my wife’s ear… I’d wanted to kill the bitch.
But, when it boiled down to it, the mistake was on me.
All this shit was on me.
"Then why didn’t you let me? Why, when Link raised the subject, did you come to me and tell me not to?"
"I was looking out for future Rex. I knew when you found out, it would mess with your head if you’d kicked her out."
"Maybe," he said slowly. Then, he shook his head. "Being my half-sister don’t give her a free pass to be a cruel bitch, Storm."
"You can say that now," I rumbled. "But you might not have done before."
"Why didn’t you just fucking tell me?"
"Because Bear asked me not to."
He didn’t scoff, but his anger throbbed through his words as he asked, "Do you know what I don’t understand about you?"
"What?"
"How someone so fucking honorable can get himself into so much shit with his wife."
"I wish I had an answer to that."
"Me too," he snapped. "Rachel read me Dad’s will. It wasn’t official because he had a lot of bequests but…" He blew out a breath. "He left you something."
"What?"
"Don’t know. Rachel does, but she wouldn’t say."
"We’ve been waiting on the funeral for you."
He rocked his head. "Had to get away." He must have heard my silent criticism.
"Couldn’t have left a message?"
"Checked in with Rachel from time to time."
"She never said anything."
He scraped a hand over his jaw. "Talked to her as the club’s lawyer."
"Where you been?"
"Does it matter?"
I rolled my eyes because I heard him stonewalling, and I didn’t have the patience for that bullshit. "You’re lucky I didn’t beat your ass."
"Instead, we’re gonna freeze it off, huh?"
"Yeah," I retorted as I rolled up and mimicked his position.
The cold was bitter, eating into the plaid shirt I wore under my cut, but it was good to feel something other than goddamn self-loathing and exhaustion.
My phone buzzed, and because it could have been Cyan, I pulled it out of my pocket and checked the notification.
Jump: Want me to stop this before it starts?
My throat worked as I looked at Keira kissing the guy she’d gone out with tonight.
His name was Jared Ryker. He worked for a Big Pharma company in R&D. He owed three hundred grand on his house, had the beginnings of a coke habit, and was three months behind on his child support.
However, his divorce had been amicable, and his ex-wife spoke highly of him—aside from the child support issues which, according to her, he was often late paying, but when he was flush with cash, would usually give her extra as an apology.
I’d told Jump to give her what she was owed to keep her quiet, because it wasn’t her kids’ fault that Jared clearly had financial issues. Jump was looking into him some more, but I suspected a gambling addiction on top of the coke.
He wasn’t ideal, but his wife said he’d never cheated, had never hit her, and that he was going places in his job. A good candidate for a first steady boyfriend, especially if he had a woman like Keira at his side who’d encourage him to stay on the straight and narrow.
Rex grunted under his breath as he peered over at my screen. "You still having her followed?"
"What the fuck do you think? ‘Course I am."
"Poor goddamn Cyan," Rex muttered. "Let me guess, you got her being tailed as well."
There might have been a brother or two watching over the gym as we spoke, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
"Where the fuck did you go wrong, Storm? Jesus. It’s not like you even ‘see’ other women. Just… Please tell me you weren’t like Dad. Please tell me you used a condom."
"Of course. I always use a condom."
His brow puckered as I zoomed in on the picture. "Even with Keira?"
"Especially with Keira."
"Huh." He waited a beat. "Why?"
"Because I don’t want to risk her getting pregnant again."
Rex heaved a sigh. "She ain’t gonna die in childbirth, Storm."
"How do you know that?" I rumbled. "The U.S. maternal mortality rate is the worst of any developed nation."
"You always wanted a big family," he pointed out.
"Want her alive more."
"What if she’d wanted another kid?"
"She did. We argued about it. A lot."
"You won, obviously."
"She froze me out for six months," I said wryly. "That was painful."
"Did you cheat on her, then?"
"No. Didn’t need to get high for that one." She hadn’t walked out.
"I wish I got what went down in your brain."
"Me too." I hesitated a second, then admitted, "What you feel for Rachel… is it love?"
It took him a good long while to answer. "Yeah," Rex admitted gruffly.
"What I feel for Keira borders on an obsession. I know it’s crazy, but that’s how it is. I spent half her pregnancy terrified I’d resent the hell out of Cyan. I never wanted to share Keira. Ever. A second kid…" My words waned. "I don’t know how I’d cope."