Undaunted (The Kings of Retribution MC)

“I can tell by the looks playing across your face you have many questions. I assure you, I will answer them all.”

I’m finally able to bring myself to look at him. “How long have you known about me?” I ask because that is possibly the most important question.

I don’t even know if I’m prepared for his answer. What if he’s always known, and just never wanted anything to do with me. Will I be able to handle that?

“I become aware of your existence a year ago, son. Had I known about you from the beginning, I would have come for you.”

“You said you found out a year ago?”

“Yes,” he replies.

“You’re contacting our club to do business...”

“Was my attempt to somehow be close to you,” my father tells me without hesitation.

“Why wait a whole fucking year to meet me? Why not come as soon as you found out?”

“I don’t have a good excuse for that. Only that the lies and deception I uncovered in my own family had me wanting to tread cautiously. I did not want to act hastily or do anything that might bring you harm.”

“Bring me harm? What the hell you are talking about?”

Sighing, Demetri leans forward. “What I’m about to tell you, son, is not going to be easy for you to hear. Believe me, it about broke me.”

I nod for him to continue.

“I met your mother twenty-six years ago. My family has an estate here in Montana because we do a lot of business in this part of the country and in Canada. I was here with my own father. I met Rose in a coffee shop the second week I was here. One look at your mother, I was a goner.”

Demetri pauses, with a faraway look in eyes, like he’s remembering that day like it was yesterday.

Continuing he says, “I spent every spare moment that I wasn’t working with Rose. I want you to know, Logan. I was very much in love with your mother.”

“Then why did you leave her?”

Demetri closes his eyes. I can tell that it pained him to do so. I’d say that I am pretty damn good at reading people, and I have no doubt this man loved my mother. What I don’t understand, is why someone would leave the person they were in love with. I could never leave Bella. Nothing in this world could keep me from her.

“I left because I had an obligation to my family. I was to be married to another woman. My marriage already arranged for me. I didn’t dare defy my father. That is how things worked in my family. It’s been that way for generations.”

“Did my mother know you were engaged to someone else?” I ask through gritted teeth. He still pursued my mother, knowing that he would eventually break her heart.

“No, I didn’t have it in me to tell her. She knew I had to return to Russia. We both parted with broken hearts. On good terms, but broken nonetheless.”

“How long after you returned to Russia were you married?”

“Two months. Nikolai was born a year and a half after that.”

Fuck. How could I have overlooked that? Nikolai is my half-brother. I have a fucking brother.

“So, while my mother was here alone and pregnant, you’re were off playing family and living happily ever after,” I snap at him bitterly.

“Logan!” Jake hisses at me.

Shit, I forgot he was still here.

“It’s alright, Jake,” Demetri says holding his hand up. “I assure you son; my life was far from a fairy tale.”

“Can we get to the part where you find out you have a son?”

“It was after my father passed away last year. I was going through his office and came across a file with your mother’s name on it. When I opened it, there were a dozen photos—Rose pregnant, Rose with a baby, and Rose with a small boy. Also with the photos were letters. Twelve letters total. Two were from her telling me of the pregnancy, the other ten were each written on your birthdays. Telling me of all the new things about you each year that went by. How much you’d grown. All your likes and dislikes. How you were doing in school.”