“I already gave him Tylenol,” Rory informs him.
“I got you,” he softly speaks to Rian as Rory hands him over.
Rian instantly settles down, probably because baby boy thinks he is his father. He and Derrick are twins after all and they look nearly identical again nowadays.
“Too bad Pam isn’t here either. She’s better at this,” Chase grunts. When it comes to kids, whether Chase admits it or not, there’s always a soft spot there. Like butter.
Pam, Jazzy’s nanny since birth, now has the role of a part-time nanny to Rian too except she’s on vacation with Brooks at the moment, alongside Derrick and Stella. This is Pam’s first vacation in almost ten years and she deserved it. Especially since she’d been shot saving his daughter’s life.
Along with the two couples, Elias and his now-wife, Andrea, were also given the gift of an all-expense paid honeymoon in Barbados. Elias, being Chase’s second-in-command, rarely gets time off.
Chase runs a tight ship. He runs a successful nightclub and his younger brother also keeps very active in the family business. Not to mention, Chase’s extracurricular activities.
Besides, the more security for Derrick and his wife, the better.
“We can handle it,” he tells Chase. “I’ll have Willa stay the night with him. She has no problem waking me up if he needs me.”
This is what his life has become? Staying up all night with a teething baby then waking up early the next morning to have a full breakfast ready for his daughter. It’s worked for him for the past ten years. He’s grateful especially in this line of business. But Sully was right. It’s getting mundane because he’s looking for more nowadays.
He just isn’t sure what more is.
“Dad?” “Dad! Are you even paying attention?” Jazzy snarks at him.
“Yeah, baby. Sorry.”
“Can I stay at home with Rian? I don’t like him being sick,” she says.
“Na-uh. Nope,” he answers. “He’ll be okay. You have a test today. Don’t think I don’t know you’re trying to get out of it.”
“Ugh,” she exhales but still, she gets out of her seat and comes over to kiss him before bouncing out of the kitchen.
“Jason is staying with you at school today!” he hollers after her. Not that he had to remind her. Jazzy knows the drill by now.
She always has extra security at school with her. Lately, it’s been either Brooks or one of the two mercenaries on their payroll. Only the best since her kidnapping a few months ago. She seems to be coping with it a shit ton better than he’s been able to though. He’s been checking on her several times a night. Either physically or by the house’s security feed. And no…there isn’t a camera installed in her room. Just in the hallway right outside of her room. She’s required to have the door open at bedtime now. She didn’t object to it at all but has been asking the past few nights if she can close it at least halfway.
“I’ll take care of that,” Willa, their head housekeeper, tells him. She practically shoves him out of way to get to the dirty dishes. “Claire is giving Rian a bath and some video time with his mom and dad.”
“Thanks, Willa.”
He grabs his suit jacket off the back of a chair and heads to the office. Mason is already deep in his tasks of managing Kings’ businesses so he walks over to Derrick’s desk and plops down into his brother’s chair.
It’s a cold seat.
He takes no real joy in sitting in it but has been wondering as of late if he’ll have to do so since Derrick is now a husband and a father. Not to mention, Derrick also suffered trauma that caused him to lose some of his short-term memory. He should have taken more time to recover from that. But time is something that’s never guaranteed to anyone is it?
Truth be told…he doesn’t want to step up.
Sure, technically, they are all Kings. They all have equal say in the business but Derrick has always been the frontman, the one with a red target painted on his back. It’s always been that way since they started working for the Tianello Family back when they were just nineteen years old. It’s Derrick’s way of doing his part to protect their younger brothers, by being their human shield. Not many outside of the family know who’s older nor cared anyway.
He’s also technically the oldest brother. Older than Derrick by half an hour. But he prefers a more management type position within their family business. It’s what he’s best at. Don’t get it twisted. He can be just as fearless as Derrick, at times maybe even darker. But only his twin knows the real depths of him. He prefers to keep it that way. Even his two youngest brothers don’t need to know.
Chase needed a good role model after their mother passed and Rory needed a loving home. Neither younger brothers were going to be getting that from their never-sober father if the man were even available. While Derrick made sure their kingdom was as heavily guarded and feared, he’d been the one who’s kept their family together behind the scenes.
And he thrived in the role.
But Derrick has his own family now. Derrick has Stella and Rian.
Stella is fucking irreplaceable as a sister, as a friend, as a crime boss. She’s perfect for his brother in every way and he’s thankful Derrick found someone as sweet, strong, and cunning as Stella. Of his three brothers, Derrick was the one he was most worried about simply because his twin, though they’ve never spoken about it, had condemned himself to a life of solitude and misery of his own doing. Not anymore.
He may push Derrick’s buttons by implying he’d gladly step in and take Stella. But truth be told, as gorgeous as Stella is, what he feels for her is on the same level of connection he has with his twin. Nothing more. Nothing less. It’s deeply rooted but still…it’s not what he’s needing.
And maybe that’s the cause of this need for something more now.
His twin, the closest living soul to him, has a connection with someone else now. Someday, his younger siblings will have their own families too.
For Chase, he hopes someday comes sooner rather than later because it’s getting hard to keep the asshole humble. Chase’s inflated ego can fill all wings of the mansion. Chase believes he’s untouchable, no matter how much he’s warned the younger King to take it down a notch. He worries there won’t be a woman on the planet—maybe in the whole solar system—who can tame the beast he and Derrick created with Chase.
He and Derrick have never considered having families of their own living this life but they’d always had hopes that their younger brothers would get the happily ever after they deserved. Now, Derrick’s married with a son.
And he’s doing the whole single father thing. Go figure.
As for Rory? He’s starting to realize that Ro isn’t the scared little boy who used to crawl into his bed at night seeking comfort as any child who’s lost both parents much too young would. As of late, it’s becoming more and more clear that he isn’t able to give Rory whatever it is the youngest King is seeking. The worst part? He doesn’t know how to exactly help Rory either.
His only reprieve is Jazzy.
Then again, at ten years old, she’s already starting to spread her wings and wanting more independence. She spends more time with Pam and Stella nowadays and eventually, his baby girl will start keeping secrets from him. She’ll start asking for girl advice that he won’t be able to provide.