“Shit. Really?” Hayden turned toward me, though his bulk made it awkward. “It looked like you and River had a thing.”
“We do.” I ran a hand over my head, going back to staring at my shoes. “My husband’s name was Alex. He was a good bloke. Marine, like me. He died nearly a year ago. He uh… drowned.”
“Bloody hell. That’s shite. Sorry, Jayce.”
“Yeah. Anyway, it’s done and I’m moving on. You would have liked him. He wanted to meet you.”
“We’ve really fucked this up, haven’t we?” He laughed, though it wasn’t a truly happy one.
I nodded. “Yeah, we have. I knew you were here. I found out from River, just after Alex died.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Hayden leaned his elbows on his knees and his eyebrows furrowed. “You wasted almost a year, Jayce.”
“I know, it’s just when he told me you were a King, I panicked. I thought that by my leaving you’d have gotten away from the criminal life, but look at you, Hayden. You’re a fucking outlaw biker. You’re in a club that deals in drugs and weapons, and I’m a fucking bobby. What was I supposed to make of that? If I catch you doing something illegal, I’ll have to hand you in. Or should, at any rate.”
Hayden shoved himself to his feet and spun on me, rage crossing his face. “You don’t know anything about the Kings.”
I jumped to my feet too and poked him in the chest. “I know fucking enough. Do you kill people forhim?”
The look on Hayden’s face let me know he wasn’t confused on who we were talking about. Hayden shoved me, and I nearly went tumbling over the arm of the sofa. At least he didn’t punch me. The last thing I wanted was to physically fight him. The dogwoofedat us like he was saying to knock it off.
“King took care of me when my real brother should have been at my side. You don’t get to say anything about him.” He seethed in my direction.
Again, I was fighting with someone about that damn club president. I sighed and sat on the arm of the couch, crouched forward in defeat. “You’re right, but you are my brother, and I’m allowed to worry about you, even if I left all those years ago.”
“Is everything okay here? We don’t need to get a fire extinguisher to blast you both to get you to cool down?” Destiny asked in his lullaby voice.
I glanced in the direction of the kitchen, and he was peeking out from over the counter that acted as a wall between the rooms. He smiled and sent me a wink, as though he thought this was going grand. What conversation had he been listening to because it clearly wasn’t this one.
“We’re fine, Bunny.”
The pet name made me startle, and I frowned at Hayden.
He glared at me in return. “What? It’s what I call him. Don’t you say a word.”
I chuckled and pushed myself to my feet again. “I’m not making fun of it. I call River my lamb.”
“Shut up, Jayce! Don’t tell him that. He’ll tell the other Kings!” River’s outraged voice from the kitchen made Hayden and I laugh.
“So, you and him?” Hayden gestured over his shoulder with his thumb. “What’s going on there?”
I shrugged. “Don’t really know yet. It’s new.”
He nodded and cleared his throat, running a hand over his mostly shaved head. While I’d always had the light hair from Mum, Hayden inherited Dad’s darker locks. “Listen, let’s just agree not to talk about the different parts of our lives, all right? You’re a copper, and I’m a biker. We don’t need to talk about what we do, but I want you around, Jayce. I bloody missed ya.”
“Me too.” I slapped him on the shoulder, and he shook his head, grabbing me by my shirt and yanking me into a rough hug. We did all that manly shit, thumping each other on the back and then pulling away, then shrugging awkwardly, as though we hadn’t just admitted our feelings and hugged it out. I laughed. “Now we’ve got that out of the way, you got a beer for me? And I mean the good shit.”
Hayden chuckled and patted me on the arm. “Yeah, come on.”
We spent the night chatting about the old days in Manchester and the trouble we used to get up to. River and Destiny listened intently, shaking their heads at the ridiculous things we’d done. Hayden blamed me for most of it, and he wasn’t wrong. I’d gotten in with a bad crowd at a young age, and as much as Mum tried, she couldn’t split her attention between three kids, so she’d focused on the one with her new husband. I asked Hayden if he’d heard from Mum or our little sister, but he hadn’t. That wasn’t surprising. She’d long forgotten about us from the moment she shipped us off to Dad’s.
When it got incredibly late, River and I said our goodbyes and got into my truck.
“Do you work tomorrow?” I asked, opening the door for him.
He rolled his eyes at me and huffed, but mumbled, “Thank you, Sir,” before he heaved himself inside. “Yes, I do. I should have gone in tonight. I’ve had too much time off over this fucking fiasco. I assume you do too.”
“Yeah, I’ve called off a couple of days here and there from my day job, can’t lie. How about you come home with me tonight? We can stop at your place and you can pack some clothes for work. I’ll make you a fancy breakfast again.”
