Total pages in book: 73
Estimated words: 70115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70115 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 351(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 234(@300wpm)
“What happened?”
“I’m not sure I’m ready for brutal honesty.”
“No.” Solomon held up his hand. “We are not doing this again. After that shitstorm a few years ago, I gave you the space you asked for. That was my first mistake.”
“Shitstorm?” James rubbed the back of his head. “You mean that bust when I shot an unarmed kid? You can say it out loud, you know.”
Solomon gripped his shoulders, tempted to shake him. “Not a kid, a twenty-two-year old convicted drug dealer who threatened to shoot you and rushed your position. And you winged him. He’s alive in prison because of you.”
Solomon knew it was that incident, more than anything else that sent James seeking out their mother. He also knew that if he said the wrong thing now, he could erase all the work he’d done this year to bring him back into the family.
“That wasn’t my first instinct, Younger. You, on the other hand, would have found a way to bring him in without a shot fired. I’ve seen you do it. Hell, you’ve given us so much training on the subject you could write a damn book. It’s funny, I might not have the blond hair and blue eyes, but I’m the most like Sol. Like both our parents. If only Laney had been our mom, right? Noah and Wyatt really lucked out. For a few years, so did we.”
“James, what happened with Donna? Give me something. The smallest fucking clue about what’s going on with you, and I’ll take it.”
“Did you know she was a stepmom?”
Solomon shook his head, stunned. “I didn’t even know she’d remarried.”
“There are three of them. Their father married her and then he died, and they didn’t have any living family. If Donna hadn’t taken them in, they would have gone into the system. She needed help. So I tried.”
He rubbed his face, his expression haunted. “I did some things I’m ashamed of. Lied to get her out of trouble. I thought she was like us, another victim of Elder but… I didn’t understand that keeping them with her was making things worse.”
Solomon put his arm around his brother’s shoulders, wishing there’d been a way to stop him from discovering the truth. Donna was a professional victim. He wasn’t sure if Elder had ruined her or if she’d been like that before, but there was nothing maternal about her. “Did you fix it?”
“I’m working on it.”
“Was that what you were doing at one of William’s hangouts? Because I know you wouldn’t follow him for borrowing my keys. Not when you’ve done the same, more than once.”
James flinched again, which was all Solomon needed. “Can I help?”
He lifted his head, wet lashes blinking fast. “What if the kind of help I needed wasn’t strictly legal?”
“You think I wouldn’t cross that line for the people I love? That I haven’t already done some bending of my own, because it was the right thing to do?”
“I know.” James nodded wiping his cheeks roughly with his knuckles and running his fingers through his short, brown hair. “I know you would. But not yet. Let me try to find the answers on my own.”
“Can you at least tell me that they’re away from her? The kids.”
“Two of them are safe. One is… old enough now to make her own decisions. But I’m working on that too. I need to take care of them. Call it penance.”
“As far as I’m concerned, you have nothing to pay penance for.” Solomon held his gaze. “Promise me, James. You call me if you need help. Between Stephen, Tanaka and me… You know we have the connections. And Donna’s my mother too. If she’s done something wrong, I need to help make it right.”
“I know, Younger, and I promise.” James sigh was shaky and he looked away. “We have to protect the things we care about, right? You taught me that whenever you got between me and Elder’s fist. You’ve always been pulling me out of one scrape or another. I think it’s about time I paid that shit forward.”
“You’re a good man, James. Never doubt it.”
“About Hugo.” He hesitated, and then offered, “He’s one of the best guys I know. I can see how you two fit together.”
“I hear a but.”
“A worry,” James corrected. “We weren’t raised the way Seamus and Stephen were, the way Hugo was. Communication and trust aren’t things we excel at.”
“You think I’ll hurt him again?”
James shook his head, his hand gripping Solomon’s bare forearm. “Not on purpose. I’m just asking you to look at what you’ve done to yourself because of Elder. Rory and I aren’t the only ones used to keeping secrets and getting in our own way. Or worse, wanting things we aren’t strong enough to handle without breaking.”
He wanted to shake him off, to tell him he was different now. With Hugo, everything was different. But he couldn’t deny that part of the reason he didn’t want to take that meeting with the mayor had to do with exactly that.