Always (Next Generation The Skulls 1)
Page 16
“We get a call. We organize. We never go in half-cocked, unless we have to.” Devil took a deep breath. “You still know how to shoot a gun?”
“Wow,” he said.
“Yeah, wow. Some of the places we go, we still have to deal with people.”
“By deal you mean kill.”
Devil looked past his shoulder and nodded his head.
“I bet Mom already knows the kind of shit you have to do.”
“Either way, I don’t want her to know the full extent of all the bad shit that goes down. She doesn’t need to be aware of it.”
Devil ran a hand down his face. “You can go on out with your buddies.”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“Really? You’re willing to spend time with your old man after all the shit I’ve heard about you being free to make your own choices and shit?”
Simon snorted. “Dad, I’m a teenager. Making your life hard is what I’m all about.”
Devil shook his head. “One of the best days of my life with you was holding you.”
“You never talk about it much. Why?” Simon asked.
He watched as Devil opened his mouth, closed it. “You know the drill. It was a hard time. Your mother and I, we didn’t always see eye to eye.”
“You know what I don’t get,” Simon said.
“What?”
“With Elizabeth, Josh, and all the others, there are so many photos of Mom pregnant. What happened to the ones with me? Mom doesn’t have any with her being pregnant with me.”
“They were lost, son, in a fire.”
“Right.” He stopped, wondering. “What kind of fire?” Simon asked.
“The kind that takes photographs. Go and grab me a soda, will you? I’m thirsty.”
Simon shrugged, got to his feet, and headed into the house.
His mom was in the kitchen, stirring something on the stove. The scent of chocolate was heavy in the air. After all this time, Lexie was still trying to perfect the best hot chocolate that Angel had perfected years ago.
“Hey, Mom,” he said.
“Hey, sweetie. I thought you were going out with some friends?” She turned to look at him.
“I was but I decided to help Dad.”
“Ah, he’s still pissed that his chair didn’t come with instructions. He’s determined to build it up from scratch.”
“He’s all manly. You know that. It’s what he does.”
She chuckled. “I love him so much.”
He grabbed two cans of soda and closed the fridge. “Mom, can I ask you something?”
“Sure thing.”
“What happened to pictures of you when you were pregnant with me?”
“Oh, I had them on my phone. It wasn’t a great phone but it took pictures. It got lost and they were all gone.”
“Right,” he said.
“Is that all?”
“Yeah, that’s all.”
He headed outside and handed his dad a soda. “What’s up, son?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all.” He had to wonder why his mom and dad had a different answer for the pictures of her being pregnant.
****
“He asked tonight,” Lexie said.
“What about?” Devil switched off the bathroom light, watching his woman as she put her book to one side.
She wore a sexy negligee that displayed her heavy tits.
After all these years together, he was never bored. Not once. His dick hardened at the sight.
“Me being pregnant with him.”
He’d hoped this kind of conversation would never happen. “Yeah, he asked me too.”
“Oh, no, what did you say?” she asked.
“I said they were gone in a fire.”
She winced.
“What?” he asked.
“Er, I said it was on one of those phones and it got destroyed. Did he ask you about it?”
Devil shook his head.
“What do we do?”
“For now, we wait and see if he asks any more questions,” Devil said.
“What if he does? What do we do? How do we tell him that I’m not his real mother? That she dumped him and then was killed?” Lexie covered her face and Devil went to her. He held his woman.
“You’re his mother, baby. You will always be his mother and he knows this. You did everything you could to protect him.”
“But he’s going to hate us. We never told him the truth.”
“He was too young to understand the truth.”
“But what about now?” she asked. “We’ve left it too long and now he’s going to think the worst.”
Devil caught her face in his hands. “This was the decision I made. I will face whatever anger he has. I will not let it come near you.”
“But—”
He slammed his lips down on hers. “No buts. No nothing. I wanted this. You don’t have to worry. I’ll take care of it.”
“What if he finds out the truth?” she asked.
“He won’t. Not until we’re ready to tell him.” Devil pulled her close, kissing her and using his hands on her body to distract her.
There was no way he would ever allow any harm to come to his woman. He would deal with his son when the time came.
****
“Man, you missed one hell of a party last night,” Eddie said.
“Party? I thought you were hanging out at the library?” Simon asked.