He always does. Even when I’m not sure I deserve it. “Thanks, River.”
Jenson
Briar pauses in the middle of the room, looking around her with cautious curiosity.
I push the door closed at the top of the stairs, sealing us off from the noise of the club beneath our feet. It squeals, the old brass hinges rusty from lack of use. Only a faint line on the floor is evidence that it’s used at all, a few of the men using it occasionally when they can’t find a private spot. Normally at Mallory’s insistence.
I grimace. I can’t remember the last time I voluntarily came up here. My eyes linger on a door in the corner, darting away.
Following Briar’s gaze, I try to see the place through her eyes and not my own fractured history. The room stretches out, a few battered-looking doors leading to other, smaller rooms leading off it.
It’s empty. A faint, charred smell still seems to linger even after we cleaned it out, tossing out the blackened furniture and scrubbing every inch. A long, scarred wooden bar sits against theback wall. The shelves behind it are empty and coated with dust, the huge mirror cracked and blackened around the edges.
A few of the walls still show streaked black marks.
You’d never know from downstairs. But here, there’s no hiding.
“What happened here? It feels… off. Wrong.” Briar wraps her arms around herself as she turns to face me.
She doesn’t belong here. She never did. She’s too… clean. Sweet. Too fucking pure to be tarnished by this darkness.
I don’t even have a chair up here for her to sit on. My eyes catch on the bar, and I slip past her, settling down on the dusty floor and wiping it off as best I can.
Her green eyes are steady as I hold up my hand and pat my chest. “Sit with me? Like you did before.”
I act as her chair as she carefully kneels between my legs and shifts, shuffling until she’s back against me, her warm weight a balm to my senses. Her legs slide out to fit between mine, her hands on her lap.
I can breathe easier when I have her close. The realization soaks in as she sighs. “There’s a lot of pain here, Jenson.”
I run my fingers carefully over her hair. “Yes.”
She sits quietly. Endlessly patient, as I sort through the muddled thoughts in my head before I clear my throat. “How much do you know about the Suits?”
“The gangs? Not much. Only what I overheard my father talking about. There are four, right?”
“Three, now. It used to be the four of us. Clubs. Hearts. Spades.” The thump of my heart sounds loud. “And Diamonds. But the Spades were dissolved a while back. The three Suits that are left each manage a territory in the city. A third, or close to it.”
Her voice is quiet. “And which one do you belong to?”
I tease a dark curl with my fingers, watching her instead of this room I fucking despise. “I’m the leader of the Diamonds, Briar. River is my second.”
“And Kai? Is he your… third?”
“We’ve never defined it. But yes, he would be. He doesn’t answer to anyone.”
Not even me, really. Even River and I don’t have that relationship.
I can almost see her thoughts racing. “So this is your… your headquarters? Up here?”
I make a noise of confirmation, sensing her confusion as she tries to put the pieces together with only one part.
I don’t blame her. I’m the leader of a club filled with nothing but ghosts. “It’s a long story.”
She shifts against me. “We have time.”
I keep touching her. “My father was the leader of the Diamonds when I was born. I grew up here. River’s dad was his second-in-command.”
“I bet the two of you were nothing but trouble.”
