“I’m fine,” Ravage grunted.
“You aren’t fucking fine; you probably tore your fucking stitches again.”
“I can take care of myself, been doing it my whole fucking life.”
“Ravage,” Nav muttered, shaking his head.
“Listen, asshole, I’m the king of this motherfucking castle, and if I want to stitch you back up, you’ll sit down and shut up while I fucking do it.”
Ravage glared at me. “Why the fuck do you care so much?”
“Because you’re my little fucking brother!” I shouted.
“Jane Craven is your mother?” Ravage asked.
I took a deep breath. My eyes searched out Grace, and what I found gave me the strength I needed to do what I had to do. She wasn’t looking at me with anger or pity. She looked at methe same way she did night after night when I showed up on her doorstep.
I looked back at Ravage. “No, and she wasn’t your mother either. Karlyn, see that woman behind the bar?” She nodded. “That’s my old lady.” Nav chuckled beside me, and I elbowed him. “Would you sit with her while I talk to Ravage in my office? I promise no one here will hurt you.”
“King, I want her—”
“I’ll sit with her, brother. I won’t leave her side,” Nav assured him. Eros and Indigo confirmed the same. “Talk to King.”
“It’s okay, Jackson,” Karlyn whispered, then kissed his cheek and moved to the bar with the three men. I was so fucking jealous of what my little brother had with his girl.
Ravage glared at me. “What the fuck is going on?”
“I will tell you everything. In my office.” I walked out of the main room, hoping Ravage would follow. I didn’t turn back to look; I stared straight ahead until I got to the door.
I sat behind my desk and waited. Opening the bottom drawer of my desk, I picked up the envelope containing the pictures my father had left.
Earlier in the year, right after Sal left King in church…
I didn’t look at the ground. The pictures I’d shoved off the table lay there. Pictures of my mother. I didn’t want to know what she looked like. Not yet. I pulled out my phone and sent a text.
A few minutes later, Amber entered the room. “What do you need, King?”
Her soft, quiet voice was my undoing. Without looking at her, I asked, “Can you pick up the pictures on the floor and put them in my office? I don’t want to see them. Maybe find an envelope to put them in.”
“Of course.”
She shuffled past me and bent to retrieve the pictures of my mother. When she stood, I knew she was looking through them. “Can I say something?”
“Not now, Amber.”
“Tough. I know you don’t know him. But he’s your father. I would give anything to have him instead of the one I did.”
“Amber…” I finally looked up at her.
“I’m not trying to make you feel guilty. You’re entitled to feel how you do. But maybe look at it from a different perspective? I know you had your dad, and then you had Declan. But Sal is actually your father. He didn’t know, King.”
“No, he didn’t know. He thought I was his brother and still didn’t bother to come find me.”
She nodded, and the frown she wore broke my heart.
“When’s your next meeting with Haizley?”
“Thursday.”
