Virgin

I lay the flowers I bought at the petrol station on mom’s grave and sit next to it. There is no one around. The sky is just beginning to lighten.

“Mom, I know I promised I’d never tell anyone that Dad is my father, but I have to break that promise. I wouldn’t do it for me. You know that. I never once let on when I was in all those foster homes. I never told anyone ever, but your grandson is in danger now. If I don’t do something then they’ll kill him, Mom. I’m sorry. If not for him I would have taken your secret to the grave. I hope you forgive me, Mom.”

I feel my throat choke up. I close my eyes and suddenly I can see my mother. I was only four or five. It was before she started drinking heavily. We found a butterfly trapped in our house. We ran around opening all the doors and windows to let it escape. Finally, it found a window and flew out. She looked at me and smiled. “We saved it, Ty. We saved him.”

I feel a light brush on my arm and my eyes snap open. A yellow butterfly has landed on my skin. I stare at it, shocked as it flaps his wings a few times.

“Hello,’ I whisper.

And suddenly a feeling a peace envelops me. I feel good. A gentle breeze blows in my face. The butterfly flaps its wings again. I lift my hand, but the butterfly does not fly away. I bring it close to my face and look at it. I am so close I can make out its big shiny eyes. For a while neither of us moves.

The words appear in my head. “There is nothing to forgive.”

As soon as the thought comes into my head the butterfly flaps its wings and floats away. I watch it until it flies out of sight. Then I stand up and walk away.

There is nothing to forgive. Everything was over when my mother breathed her last breath. There is no more obligation. It was something I swore I would never do, not under any circumstance, but that was before other lives were involved. Now I must do what is right for Izzy and my son.

I’ll go see my half-brother Jake. I never forgot the tall boy from all those years ago. There was something commanding about him even then. Even though I never wanted to have anything to do with any of them, or even be reminded they existed, I’ve never been able to stop myself from reading about Jake Eden. The article claimed that he took over from one of the biggest gangland leaders in North of London. The article was based on pure speculation and anecdotes from anonymous sources since there was no evidence either way, but the author of the article seemed certain that Jake Eden was the famous Crystal Jake.

Once I even saw him. I walked into a club and there he was. He didn’t see me. I stood in the shadows and watched him. He was with three other men. One of the men I recognized. He was the leader of a Russian Mafia gang. The four of them were sitting at a table in a corner speaking as equals.

Once Jake turned his head in my direction, and I saw that he was no longer the smiling boy of years back. He had cold eyes. I knew then the article was right. He had taken over. He had become the leader of one of the most brutal gangs in London.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Jake Eden

I pick up a paper at reception, get into the lift, and hit the button for my floor. When the doors open I stroll into my secretary, Eliza’s, office. She looks at me strangely.

“Your brother is here,” she says.

I don’t break my stride. “Dom or Shane?’

“Neither?”

I turn to her. “What?”

She raises her eyebrows. “He says he’s your brother.”

I look at her with a bemused expression. Is she serious? “I only have two brothers.”

“Apparently, his name is Tyson Eden.”

“What?”

“He claims he’s your half-brother.”

I shake my head in wonder. The world is so full of scammers, and some of them are bolshy enough to try and take me on. “Did he show proof of identity?”

“Nope.”

I frown. “Where is he now?”

“In your office.”

My eyebrows rise in surprise. “You let a complete stranger into my office? One that didn’t even bother to identify himself?”

She nods, a funny expression on her face. “Yeah.”

What the fuck is going on? I stride to my door, open it and come to a dead stop. No wonder Eliza let him decide where he should wait. The cocky bastard is sitting in my chair with his ankles crossed, and up on my table. Even in weather cold enough to freeze your bollocks off, he is wearing the gypsy uniform, a string vest. His chest and arms are covered in tattoos. His face … it’s like looking into a fucking mirror.

Dad, you old dog, you!

I lean against the side of the door. “You’re sitting in my chair.”

He doesn’t smile. “Looks like it, doesn’t it?”

“Also looks like you didn’t just discover you’re my half-brother.”

He nods. “True. I remember clearly cursing you and my father and your entire family my whole life.”

“Care to enlighten me as to why?”

He shrugs. “Your father impregnated my mother and left her without any money or support.”

“He was not the most responsible father.”

He looks like he wants to vomit. “I waited outside your house once. I saw him playing happy families with you and your brother.”

I frown. “When did you know about us?”

“When I was six.”

I stare at him curiously. “Why the return now?”

“I need help.”

I chuckle. I’m beginning to like this kid. “See, if I needed help from a man, I wouldn’t go putting my feet on his desk.”

“No, you wouldn’t. You’d just burn his whole building down.”

I’m impressed. He’s done his homework. “That’s more my brother’s style, but I guess I have been known to do that too.”

He drops his feet to the ground and comes towards me. He is the same height as Shane, but with Dom’s build. Dad’s build. He stands in front of me. There are fine wrinkles around his eyes. Those you get from squinting in the sun. He looks me in the eye and instantly I know that we will become good friends one day. Underneath the cocky attitude is a man with a heavy burden.

“Will you help me?” he asks.

I smile. “It’s always dangerous to agree to help someone when you have no idea what they want help with, but yes. We are blood brothers. Of course, I’ll do everything in

my power for you. Come sit down and tell me what you need done.”

I close the door, and start walking towards my bar. “Can I get you anything to drink? Coffee? Whiskey?”

“Whiskey,” he says, dropping into one of the chairs in front of my desk.

I grab the crystal decanter and pour us both a double even though it is only eight in the morning. I hold his drink out to him, and he takes it from me. His hands are calloused. He is a man who works with his hands. I walk around the desk and sink into my leather chair. It is still warm from his body. What a turn up for the books.

Momentarily, I think of my poor mother. Even from the grave my father reaches out and hurts her. I’ll think about it later when I have solved the problem in front of me. I buzz Eliza and tell her to hold all my calls.

Then I lean back in my chair and gaze into the face that is so similar to mine. We look so much alike it’s uncanny—except his skin is more sun-kissed, and his eyes are full of goodness. He has not lived the life I have. “So …”

“To start with I have to say that I’m dealing with an enemy who might be even more ruthless than you,” he says.

“I doubt it.” I chuckle softly. Relief flits across his face. Poor guy. He’s cut up about something. Must involve a girl.

“To cut a long story short, Tony Jackson is after me because he believes I have taken his girl although the truth is I met her first. A strange twist of fate separated us and we only saw each other again two days ago.”

My eyebrows fly up to my hairline. Well, well, I certainly didn’t see that coming. “You’ve taken Tony Jackson’s woman.”