Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107118 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 536(@200wpm)___ 428(@250wpm)___ 357(@300wpm)
I breathed through my nose. I didn’t trust myself to open my mouth for fear of what I might say about our late father. As hard as he was on Ky, I knew my brother loved him something fierce, even if he didn’t admit it.
“The way he was with Momma.” Ky shook his head. “The way he treated you.” He shook his head. “Now I have Lilah and Grace . . . and the new one on the way, I get it.” Ky turned and quickly kissed my head. “He was a shitty father, and a piece of shit to Momma.”
I exhaled, feeling a weight lift from me that I never knew I carried. Ky’s eyes closed again and more tears fell. “Hey.” I sat up, holding his arm. “It’s okay.”
Ky’s body slumped. “I can’t stop seeing her body in my mind, lying at the gate with a fucking bullet in her head and blood all around her.” A spear of pain shot through my heart.
Momma.
He was talking about our late momma.
“He didn’t let her in,” Ky whispered. “He was at the main door’s camera, laughing at her standing out there, trying to get in.” I froze. “I was a kid. What the fuck age was I? Six? Seven?” He shook his head. “I didn’t know it was Momma until after the bullet hit her and we all rushed outside. I just fucking ran with the brothers, following everything they did like always.” A pause. “The fucker had been telling any brother that would listen about how he would fuck her. How she would tell him she hated him, had left him when she was pregnant with you, yet would cave to him whenever he wanted . . . how he had the sweetest deal. Pussy on tap with her, and the sluts he had every night here.”
Rage like I’d never felt before swept through me.
“Then the bullet hit her.” Ky’s voice had turned cold. Deathly. “I was a tiny kid, but I remember everything about that night. The weather. Even how the air smelled after it had rained.” I clung to every word he said. Because I had no memory of our mother at all. “If he had just fucking opened that door straight away and listened to whatever she’d had to say, instead of bragging to the brothers, she wouldn’t have died.”
I couldn’t help it. I was tired and scared, and now so fucking mad that my head was pounding. A wretched sob left my mouth and a torrent of tears fell from my eyes. Ky had never spoken to me about that day. He never really spoke about Momma at all. I always thought it was because he didn’t remember her much.
My poppa only saw me a handful of times after Momma’s death before he died too. But to know he’d left my momma outside of the club, like a piece of shit, laughing at her . . . My aunt told me that although she’d left him, she hadn’t ever been able to let him go. She loved him. And she always took any scrap of affection he would give her.
The bastard took full advantage of it.
“I see them,” Ky said when my sobs had abated. I gripped him tightly. His cheek lay on my head. “At night . . . I see Lilah where Momma was, shot and bleeding from her head. Losing the baby and us losing her.” He sucked in a pained breath. “I see Grace . . .”
“Ky,” I whispered, now understanding why he’d been so down lately.
“And I see you,” he said finally. I slowly lifted my head. Ky’s bloodshot eyes were looking at me. “All this shit with Garcia. The Klan testing our fucking patience with their shit, and knowing Garcia has the Quintana cartel on his side . . . It’s all I fucking see, one of you dead. Just like Momma. And me, unable to do shit about it.” He sighed and leaned his head back. “You’re all I have, sis. Without y’all . . . what the fuck am I?”
“A good husband,” I countered. He needed to know that it was the truth. “A good father.” He closed his eyes. “And a damn good brother.” Ky looked down at me then. “I get it now. Why you wanted me here. To have those you love most in one place, where you could protect us.”
Ky nodded, but he didn’t speak. I knew he couldn’t. “You’re not him, Ky,” I assured him. “You love Lilah more than anyone I have ever seen. You took on Grace from a situation no one could comprehend, and that little girl is so happy. She adores you and you adore her.” I put my hand on Ky’s cheek and forced him to face me. “Lilah will be fine. You no doubt have the best medical care.” Ky exhaled, like he’d needed to hear those words. “And I will be fine.” I smiled and nodded my head in reassurance. “Hush and Cowboy will protect me. And if there’s any hint of danger, I’ll call. Check in on me whenever you want.” I hugged him tightly. “I’ll be fine. We all will. Have faith, big brother.”