“Grace works too hard. She doesn’t spend nearly enough time goofing off,” Maureen joked.
I did work too hard. I had to, because if I didn’t, I would wallow in the shitshow of what my life had become. I didn’t need the money, not really. When we left Arkansas, my mother had put everything in my name, hoping Uncle Stephen wouldn’t find us.
She never said why, just that he couldn’t be in our lives any longer.
Maureen went to pay the check, despite my objections, and Colleen said quietly, “Grace?”
I looked at the girl next to me, and my nose burned at the thought of losing a second mom. One I’d only had for a few months.
“I grew up as an only child.” She looked over at Maureen before continuing, “I always wanted sisters. Now I have Beck. But there’s always room for one more.” She smiled at me. Reading me better than Maureen had.
I scrunched my lips to the side, hoping to stave off the tears. I nodded and whispered, “Thank you.”
Maureen returned as I swiped away an errant tear. “Grace, are you okay?”
I nodded, and Colleen came to my rescue. “I was telling her about the time Ducky and Dad were trying to paint my room. No one gets away from that story without tears from laughing.”
Maureen laughed, and Colleen winked at me. She was letting me know she had my back.
“I always wanted sisters, too,” I whispered.
I told Maureen what I could. I talked about my mom and how she died. I told her about finding the picture of Steele and who he was to King. About how I believed he was my father and that I’d told King the first night we met.
I even confessed what my plan had been when I came here. I saw the disappointment on Maureen’s face when I confessed what I’d tried to do. Of course, now I knew it wouldn’t have been successful. The sheriff never would have believed me, and he would have found a way to make it go away.
Declan wasn’t a dirty cop, but he loved his brother as if King were his son. He would have helped him, and he would have been right to. I would have been the villain in that story, and the shame I felt for even considering it would be something I had to live with forever.
I shared what I could from the other night. How Steele was here, and how the club had voted to remove him as president. I didn’t mention Banshee or his sister. But I told Maureen that Steele had confessed to sleeping with my mother, but not until after she was pregnant.
She let me cry on her shoulder when I expressed my fears of never knowing who my father was. And she held me the way a mother would when her daughter was heartbroken.
She didn’t immediately take King’s side, despite him being family. I’d reasoned it out in my mind that it was because she’d met both of us at the same time. But the truth was, Maureen didn’t pick sides based on family ties. She was impartial and listened to the facts.
I told Maureen everything from the moment King threw me over his shoulder to him joining me in the shower. And how heheld me all night while I slept, and the argument that we’d had just before she knocked on the door.
“I blame his parents for this,” she said. “It’s that damn Irish temper. We all have it, but my parents made sure we talked shit out. Duane’s parents weren’t the same. I loved my father-in-law, but he was old school. His word was law, and you didn’t question it. If you didn’t understand, then tough shit. You did what you were told anyway.”
Maureen shook her head. “And Sal’s father? He was a bastard and a son of a bitch. When he ruled, it was a dictatorship. If you disagreed, you were kicked out of the family. And by kicked out I mean dirt kicked over your grave. If you were lucky enough to get one. Sal isn’t quite as bad. He has Duncan, Cian, and Mac. He trusts them. They keep him level-headed.
“King is just like Declan. Declan shut me out when I came here. He tried to make me move back to Boston. Then, once we learned the truth about King, and the secret Dec had been keeping was out, he said we could finally be together. As if nothing had happened.” She blew out a frustrated breath and added, “I’ll talk to King.”
She stood up, and I tried to stop her, but her mind was made up. All I could do was follow her downstairs.
Chapter Twenty-Six
King
“Jackson. Brother, sit down,” Nav said.
I thought Ravage would ignore him the way he was ignoring me until he finally relented and sat down.
I didn’t.
I was jealous of the relationship Nav had with my brother. I looked at the other three men, all sitting in chairs by Ravage’s side. I looked at Firestride. He was in the fucking Brotherhood, so I knew he had the tattoo. Eros and Nav had one as well. Ravage didn’t though. I looked at Indigo.
“Do you have the fucking tattoo?”
Indigo looked at me without a word. I turned to Nav.
