“Why are you asking when I gave you the bloody answer?”
“The house needs a shit ton of work.” I glance at the screen. Speak of the devil.
“Do you believe in coincidences?”
My cell lights up. I flip it over. “Not since I ran into my father at the hardware store in McMillan.” My mother told him where I’d be.
When I ran into him in the paint section as a sixteen-year-old, it was like looking at an older version of me, except for the eyes. My eye color came from my mom’s side of the family.
It was the day I discovered my father’s identity and that he had a family. My mother was the other woman, and I had five half-siblings.
Were there more of us we didn’t know about? People are slaves to their habits, and if my father cheated once, he’d do it again. He denied fathering more illegitimate children, but I wasn’t convinced.
“What about things happening for a reason?”
Midnight resorts to calling when his text messages go unanswered. He’s a persistent SOB. “For fuck’s sake, get to the point, Slate.”
With my luck, Midnight will show up at Crimson. The bastard hates being ignored. I’m not ignoring him. I’m stalling for time, giving more thought to Slate’s demand that I end whatever the person who wished me dead had started.
“Ever’s renting the house that backs up to the money pit, man. A fence separates the two houses. Do some reconnaissance. Finish this and get your truth. The threat is still out there.”
“Braxton gets out in a month.” Gwen texted.
“That’s good. Your sis misses him.”
She does. “Yeah, he’s her favorite. Not sure why.”
“I know why.”
I cock a brow. “Yeah? Pray tell?” Since meeting my little sis, I’ve wanted to be her favorite brother.
“Braxton lives on the fly, man, and he does it with one foot in the grave and one foot on solid ground.”
There’s respect in Slate’s voice, and I’m ashamed when the green-eyed monster rears its ugly head. It isn’t easy keeping the blasted emotion at bay when Braxton comes up in conversation. The half-brother who’s a week older has our father’s love and respect; he’s Gwen’s favorite, and our other brothers fawn over him because he’s the youngest of the four of them.
I’d give up my left kidney for even half of what he has.
“Are you telling me that to be number one in my sis’s heart, I should live dangerously and without a thought of the consequences?”
“I’m saying, live more and work less.”
Maintaining a routine in my life is my safety cushion. Deciding to live more and going with Carlos’s lamebrain idea to revive East Alexandria cost me a friend and mentor. I’m not going down that road again. I’ll stick with routine until I’m in my grave.
“Stealing cars and getting paid by their owners is not my MO.” Unemployment is a choice for Braxton. So is living on the fly and dangerously since he discovered he can earn a living without the constraints of a clock-in, clock-out 9-to-5 job. “Anything new on Bram and Benedict?” They won’t say jack shit to me, but they’ll run their mouths off to Slate.
“Other than they’re working with the McCabes, none.”
Bram and Benedict were twenty and already on deployment when my father dropped the proverbial bomb that I was part of his large family.
That day in the paint aisle was life-changing. Suddenly, I wasn’t an only child supporting an ailing mom. I had a family, and damn it, I reached for that lifeline with the first ounce of hope I’d felt in a long time. But it was a false hope.
My brothers wanted nothing to do with me. I was our father’s dirty secret, and they sided with their mother. She refused to acknowledge my existence, and I’m fucking fine with that. She wasn’t the other woman. My mother was.
“Maybe those two motherfuckers put the hit on you.”
“For what reason?” I grab my cell and tap on the screen. There are eight messages from Midnight.
“To get you out of the picture. To erase your father’s sin. Your half-brothers are all about fidelity, man.”
