Joey has the car started, so the air is already running to cool the car to a nice temperature.
“Did he do that to you?” I ask Joey again.
“Yes,” he answers. “Though, I deserved it. And don’t you dare go back to him saying I told you.”
“Why did you tell him?”
I didn’t think he would.
I had hoped he wouldn’t.
“I didn’t. He found out somehow, he has his ways. Then he put two and two together and knew I knew.”
“He couldn’t have found out,” I say, confused. “I left right away.”
“When Keir has an obsession, it doesn’t take long for him to find it if it goes missing.” Joey ends the conversation by walking to the driver’s side and getting in.
I climb into the back seat and watch Wren the whole way home. “Is he coming back?” I ask when we stop at my place. I look up at the old house which is nothing like what Keir is used to. His house is a five-star palace, while mine is an old, run-down, needs a new coat of paint and possibly everything else you can think of, but it works. It works for me.
“Do you need help getting out?” He avoids the question. Of course, he does.
“Joey, is he coming back?”
“It’s you. And as I stated, he always finds his way back to things he is obsessed with.”
That shit doesn’t sit right with me, so I climb out of the car and grab Wren. Joey walks into the house with our bags and for some reason I let him. He turns his nose up when he enters which is an insult, but I guess he’s used to living in luxury, and this is far from luxurious.
“You can just put the things down and go. No need to stay longer than you have to. Thank you.” I spin around to face him and watch his eyes scouting the place.
Benny walks out with a bottle of beer in one hand. “You’re back. And that’s nice of the hospital to send you with a driver.” Benny walks over to Wren and smiles. “She looks so much like you, apart from that hair. You had none as a little one.” Benny nods to Joey before he walks off again.
“You live with a man?” Joey closes his eyes and takes a breath so deep I can hear it. “That isn’t your father. Shit! I’m asking for a second black eye.”
“Benny is old,” I say, shaking my head. “I care for him, and in return I live here in my childhood home. He is my uncle.”
“You grew up here?” He turns his nose up again, eyes squinting in disbelief, and if I didn’t have a baby in my arms, I would literally kick him out.
“You need to leave.”
“I’ll be out front if you need me.”
“I won’t need you, just go.” I follow him to the front door, and as soon as he walks out, I shut it behind him and promptly turn the lock.
Wren makes a cute sound, and I remember how I have done all of this for her.
And I will be doing a lot more.
Chapter Three
Keir
“She’s home, and the place is a shithole.” Joey’s voice echoes through the Bluetooth in my car. “She told me not to come back.” I stay silent as I listen to him speak. I’m still fucking furious, and me breaking his arm is the least of his worries. If he wasn’t my brother, you can bet your ass he would be dead.
Six feet fucking under.
So instead of killing him, which is still an option I am considering, I broke his fucking hand and beat his fucking ass.
“She lives with a guy,” he says when I give him no response.
“What?” I didn’t look into where she was living. I assumed it was her place, as it’s the same address as her parents.
“She said she cares for him. He’s old.”
Of course, she does.
“Do I stay?” he asks, and those three words instantly infuriate me.
“What do you think?” I bite back.
“I stay.”
“Of course you fucking stay, dickhead.” I hang up on him.
The day I found out she was pregnant, I tracked her down, even though I told myself not to. After months of not seeing her, I told myself to let it be. Let her be. I knew better, though. A part of me knew I wouldn’t be settled until I saw her again and I was right.
She plagues my mind, like a fucking disease, so much so I actually thought of killing her. Finally doing it. Finding her and slicing her fucking throat, just so that face wouldn’t enter into my mind again. But no, the one I would carry in my memory would be the one of her dead.
I had moved on, or so I thought.
It’s always the way though, right?
You move on, and like a leech those memories stick to you.
She’s in the back of my mind—all the damn time.
I should have killed her instead of her husband.
My life would be so much easier right now if only I had followed through.
So much fucking easier.
“Is it true?” Roberto asks as I walk into my penthouse. He licks his lips and raises an eyebrow. “Is it true?”
“Is what true?”
“Did Sailor have a baby? And is it yours?” I didn’t share that information when I found out. The first thing I did was beat the living shit out of my brother, then I located her and left. Now, I’m back.
“She did and it is.”
His hand scrubs his face. “Shit, what are you going to do?”
“Nothing.” His eyes go wide at my words. “She had a girl,” I tell him, and he nods. He gets it. Girls aren’t valued. It’s the boys we want. Old school, yes. But it works. The women get to enter into contracts to secure protection for their families, and we get male heirs to keep our legacy alive.
“What about Sailor?” Roberto asks.
“What about her?”
He sits at the table, his hands coming up and he rests them on the top, as I take the seat where I left the paperwork I was reviewing when I found out about the pregnancy.
“You didn’t go looking for her because of the baby. Joey didn’t tell you that until after. So what about Sailor?”
“Nothing,” I say.
“If only it were nothing, but we both know it’s not. You want her, and you’ve never wanted anyone like you do her. I know it’s not my place to say—”
“So don’t,” I interrupt.
“But I’ve seen you with women all my life, boss. We grew up together. And this one you were meant to kill, yet you didn’t. Then you should have when you thought she was working for Romarc, yet you didn’t. You let her go.”
“I knew she wasn’t working for him,” I reply.
“If you thought for a second I was, you would shoot first and ask questions later,” he points out.
He’s right, I would.
“With her, you’re wearing rose-colored glasses, and even when you said it was over and she left, you still went searching for her.”
“What’s your damn point?”
“It’s that you aren’t going to let this go. And especially now she has your child. You know you aren’t. You’re not like our fathers.”
“No, I’m worse.”
His lip quirks up. “You are, no denying that. But you also know the value of family. It’s why your brother isn’t dead right now for lying to you.”