“I know, and I planned on it, once this shit was done. I didn’t want you in danger.” He covered my hand with his and squeezed it.
“I know him,” I said quietly.
“Gator?”
“My brother,” I corrected.
My father stared at me. I bit my lip, a nervous habit whenever I was confronted with something uncomfortable.
“How?”
I looked to my mother for help, and she shook her head. “It’s time you told him, Morgan. Everything.”
“Tell me what?” my father asked, his head twisting from me to my mother and back again as though he were watching a tennis match.
Mac sat quietly eating his dinner, but I knew he was tuned in, listening closely.
“I met someone when I was in college.”
Mac’s head snapped up, and he said, “Please tell me you didn’t fall in love with your fuckin’ brother.”
“Eww, no.” My body wracked with shivers at the thought. “I met a man named Jude Peterson. He was King’s best friend.”
“Was?” my father pressed.
“Jude died seven years ago. He was in the same club as King. He was one of the club’s enforcers, and he was in a warehouse when it exploded. His road name was Chasm.”
My father stiffened and looked at Mac, who nodded. My father turned his body to face me and held my hands. “Baby, Chasm isn’t dead.”
“I know.” I took a deep breath. “Jude and I fell in love. I found out I was pregnant and we got married a few days later.”
“You’re married?” my father whispered, dropping my hands and sitting back.
“Sal, let her finish,” my mother said.
“She got married without me, Benny. Were you there?” His question sounded more like an accusation.
“No.”
“Daddy, please listen. A few weeks after we got married, Jude and King were on a run when Jude went into a warehouse without King. King was on the phone with his president when the warehouse blew up. We believed Jude was inside.”
Based on the scars I’d felt covering his body, he had been inside, but somehow survived. The tears were steady now. I could never hold them back when I thought about that time.
“What happened to the baby?” Mac asked.
“A few days later, King came to check on me and found me unconscious and bleeding. I’d lost the baby.”
“Oh, Morgan.” My father wrapped me in his arms and held me. I loved my mother, and she was the best, but there was something different when you were comforted by your dad.
“After I lost the baby, I came home. Mom and King are the only ones who knew about the baby.”
Chapter Fifteen
Morgan
My father pulled back and stood up. He reached into his pocket for his phone and dialed a number.
“What the fuck do you want, Sal?”
