Pappy’s chuckle soothed what was the start of my irritation but I still waited to hear what he was going to say before I gave him a full pass. When I met his eyes again he was smiling having found my irritation humorous.
“You know that would be the least of my concerns. I’d be more concerned that you were going to kill all of them.” The way the bronzed skin around his mouth tilted up into a grin made it clear he would be more than happy for me to do his dirty work. Pappy lacked a sense of connection with a lot of his family for reasons that stretched back from before even I was born. The circumstances since then had done little to repair the relationship so I was positive he wouldn’t mourn them at all if I had to dispose of them.
“You think so little of me?”
“I know how you can be and what you’re not going to tolerate. You don’t have the familial love to put up with them the way I do.”
“You’re right.”
Pappy might have hated a lot of his people but he’d been raised in that era of respecting your family no matter what. Sadly, he’d taught his kids to think for themselves and what he ended up with was two spoiled kids who assumed that everything would be handed to them without having to put in any work. I’m sure he was still surprised that I hadn’t turned out to be a piece of shit or a doormat but he was hoping the day never came that I switched up. Thankfully, I knew it would never come.
“Who’s going to be your second?”
His question halted the self-assurance I had because it was something I hadn’t allowed myself to dwell on. Now, that lack of planning was going to be an issue. I hadn’t thought of having a second because everything in my family line stopped with me. I had one cousin that I actually got along with but he was a professional football player and despite his girl being a killer; I didn’t know if this was the type of life for him. He could be ruthless but his ruthlessness had to be combined with a noble purpose. Besides, he was far too recognizable to be as stealth as he would need to in order to work with me.
People would think the same about you.
I shook off my thoughts of Grant helping to join the family business because we were still connected through the Nakoa side and not the Franklin side. So it wouldn’t allow me to have a balanced view that would reflect the needs of both families. That was the issue the Franklins had with Pappy. They felt as though he would put the needs of the Nakoas over theirs. I understood their point of view because they had nothing to bring to the table besides theirConsortiumconnection. The fear was valid but Pappy wasn’t that type of person.
The only other person in the Consortium that had to worry about shit like this was Liam since both of his family businesseswere heavily integrated. But even his father Deuce knew that it was going to be fuck the Merricks if one family had to survive and he was okay with that. Until his nephew took over the family lairdship, I’m sure Deuce was ready to let them all fend for themselves without the protection of theConsortium. Thankfully, Bhaltair was a good man despite his piece of shit father and he was Liam’s second in command. There wasn’t a Franklin or a Nakoa that I trusted with that type of responsibility with me. Besides Pappy, of course. So his question got my mind wandering and I hated not being able to give him an immediate answer.
“I’ll have to give it some thought. Don’t want to rush into something that needs this much consideration.”
The issue was blood. I had to have a blood relative as my second and they couldn’t be someone from one of the other families. Priest had operated without one for a minute since his family’s business had an entire army of people that had his back. Now he had cousins who could step in if the need arose. The only close connections I had were with my brothers and the idea of forging relationships with any of my kin made me want to lock them all in a warehouse and burn it down instead of trying to build a connection. They’d all turned their backs on me and I didn’t forgive easily.
Pappy studied me again seeing the flames my imagination had conjured up displayed in my eyes. He nodded, signaling that he was letting the matter rest. At least for now.
“There’s no way to rush it since there are so few people who would actually meet the criteria for it. I’ll have to do some thinking because trust is a commodity too easily given and lost. The last thing I would ever want to do is suggest someone to you that wouldn’t work out.”
I cracked a smile at his words feeling the tension this conversation had caused finally break.
“Suggest. You think I’d listen to what you said, old man?”
Pappy grinned with the type of paternal arrogance that televised that he knew he raised me to be my own man but that he was comforted knowing that I knew he wouldn’t lead me wrong. I knew my faith in him helped lessen the parental failure he’d admitted to feeling at how my father had turned out.
“I know you’ll make the right decision.”
“You could always stay on and—”
He huffed and then leaned back to stretch out more in his chair. “Boy, I’m stepping back from all of this. Do you know how difficult it is to be an elder and still the head of a family? Even if I was just the face of the family while you called the shots it was enough to drive me crazy. Besides, home is calling.”
I could only nod my head hearing how his voice changed when he mentionedhome. My grandfather rarely spent enough time on our family compound in Hawaii and I knew he wanted to get back there and relax. Since taking over for my father’s fuckups all those years ago, I knew things hadn’t been easy for him. Pappy tried but my father was never one to be faithful to his wife or to the business that Pappy helped secure for him. My dad was too happy to play boss without actually doing what he needed to. When he died as much as it saddened my grandfather, I was sure it gave him immense relief as well. Having to run all over the world to clean up messes was something that no one should have to do for their grown son but Pappy had been stuck doing it to save the family’s name and my future. By the time it got too bad, I was off in the world playing assassin and didn’t have time for the shit. My role as this generation’s sacrificial lamb had been solidified and a change couldn’t happen on such short notice. My solution had been to put a bullet in his head and collect the life insurance, something I’d spoken with Jahmir about many times, but someone beat me to it. I always wondered if my friends tried to spare me the“burden” of patricide but none of them ever laid claim to the act. They’d watched me grow up dealing with his neglect and hated him almost as much as they hated Cardinal. I’d long since stopped seeing him as my dad and treated him like he didn’t matter. Which used to piss him off. I didn’t even want to attend his funeral but Pappy forced me to. It was shortly after that my mother decided she couldn’t handle life with me any longer so my visit to Pappy’s became permanent. The issues that existed on the Nakoa side of the family were probably stoked by his displeasure at no longer being in control when he passed and that was one of the things I would never forgive him for. It made Pappy’s job even harder but I was glad Pappy didn’t have to stress out too much about his ass any longer.
“My mother has been trying to reach out to me.”
My mother. Another parent who didn’t deserve the title but I had more issue with her than my sperm donor. I’d been holding that close to the vest because I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. I didn’t want to hear anyone else’s opinions yet about what I should do or how I should feel based on the biases they held because of their own mothers. If mine had been anything like theirs that I could remember I probably would’ve never lost contact with her. She let the issues with my dad force her out of my life and although part of me wanted to know the details on the event that drove her away for good; I knew I wasn’t ready to hear them.
My grandfather’s head snapped up in surprise and I knew he was about as shocked as I was at the news.
“She has? How could she even reach out to you?”
“You know all of our previous numbers are still monitored. She dialed me up a few times but I haven’t returned the call.”
That feature had been implemented years ago. Whenever we received new numbers, the old ones weren’t put back into the system for general circulation. I had no clue that was even athing but I should never underestimate the connections we had. My number changed when I was recruited so it was the only one she had for me. She knew the power of the Consortium so despite not being able to reach me directly; she knew I would get the alert that she’d reached out.
“Has she said anything?”
Pappy’s voice was different as he asked causing me to hone in on his features. He didn’t look nervous but the normally passive state of his features was gone. Slightly tense was the only way to describe how he looked.
