My lashes blinked, eyes fucking wide, and it took me a second to get my thoughts back. I’d seen LJ over the summer, but not once had I mentioned some grand master plan to fuck with my dad’s family. I may have alluded to some things when I’d last seen him, but I’d never put it all completely out there.
I guessed he’d figured it out.
LJ smirked. “That’s it, isn’t it? I’m right, aren’t I?”
“Wait a goddamn second.” Royal raised a hand. “What master plan?”
“Yeah, what plan?” Despite wearing glasses, Knight leaned it. He normally wore contacts, so I couldn’t remember the last time I’d actually seen him in glasses. Maybe middle school? He scratched his head. “I think I’m missing something.”
“Me, too,” Royal chimed in, and when LJ started to open his fucking mouth again, I lifted my hands.
“There’s no goddamn plan.”
“Like hell there isn’t,” LJ cut me off, leaning back in his own bed. “Dude was going on about how he had some kind of shit in store for his dad and stepsister. R, remember how I told you Jax and I had a weird-ass conversation when I went down to Miami for that wedding for Billie’s dad?”
Billie was his girl, and though I had seen him at the wedding, I thought the conversation would be between the pair of us. I mean, I’d said nothing incriminating and may have told him more if not for how he’d reacted. He’d been completely judgmental when I only sorta talked about some of what I’d planned to do.
“Yeah, but nowhere in that conversation was there mention of fucking plans.” Royal’s blond eyebrows narrowed.
LJ folded his long arms. “That’s because I hoped there wouldn’t be. That’s because I hoped after talking to him he’d get some sense in that thick-ass scull.”
“Hold up.” Knight propped his glasses up into his dark hair, really looking like a fucking grandpa now. “Is that why you went running off to Florida the way you did?”
Royal’s eyes twitched wide. “Holy fuck. Is that why?” But then a sigh. “Jax…”
“Don’t fucking ‘Jax’ me.” I wanted to toss my computer, goddamn destroy it. “And none of you have fucking anything to do with this.”
“No, dude. But when it comes to you, we have every fucking right.” Royal again, his expression serious. “We care about you, man, and this shit sounds dangerous. Not physically, but mentally.”
“Yeah, you shouldn’t give a shit about your dad and definitely not about his family.”
That last bit came from Knight, Knight who’d do anything to protect, avenge his family. We all would. That’s how we operated, brotherhood, family the most important thing.
That’s what our chrome rings meant, and we all had them. We’d gotten them in high school, a unity that ensnared us for life. Recently, the three had given what we called king rings to their girls, but the sentiment was still there. We were family, tight-knit as hell, and we’d do anything to protect our house.
My family, my moms were my house, and my boys should be supporting that.
My jaw fucking tight, I braced my screen. “That fucker, my father, destroyed my family. That fucker left…”
I didn’t have to finish because they knew. They knew everything. My dad hadn’t just left us, left me. No, he destroyed us. And sent my mother in and out of therapy for years to deal with it. Thank God she had Mama. Thank God she had support and me to help bring her back from it. It’d been some dark times back then, and it had been up to me to step up and keep everyone sane. I kept everyone happy.
I made things all right.
Well, now that I was older and had access, I could do more. A golden opportunity had come around when, out of the ether, my dad had wanted me to come down here. He’d been preaching about reconnecting with me, and I jumped on it. I wanted to see this new family he created. The one he left us for. I wanted to see the woman he’d cheated on my mom with.
And I wanted to see the daughter he’d replaced me with.
My buddies… they’d never be able to understand that. All of us shared our trauma, but mine was my own. It was mine to fix. Not theirs.
Silence through the screen, like they knew I was mulling so much shit over. I hated the pity, the remorse on all their faces as they looked at me.
At this point, Knight had peeled his gaze away, and though LJ looked on, he wasn’t saying anything.
Royal gripped his hands, leaning in. “I know you’ve been hurt.”
“Do you?” Emotion in my voice. Emotion I fucking hated. I wet my lips. “Do you know what it’s like to pick up your whole family after that shit? To be the one with the humor and the laughter…”
I’d spoken too much, knew that. But Jax, me, wasn’t the one people took seriously. Jaxen Ambrose was always the one with the laughs. I was always laughing but not any-fucking-more.