I wonder if… Yes! A few of the leftover rolls lie in a plastic bag on the counter.

I set several strips of bacon to fry in a cast-iron skillet I found under the stove, and I set the rolls in the oven to warm. Once the coffee is done brewing, I pour myself a cup and take a sip. Perfect. When the bacon is done, I crack eggs into the bacon grease. I guess I’m not helping the Steel cholesterol problem this morning.

I’m plating the breakfast when Brock walks in, fully dressed already.

He doesn’t look happy.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Brock

The sight of Rory in my kitchen, placing bacon and eggs on a plate, makes my heart do a little jump. She looks happy. She looks like she belongs here in my home.

For a moment, I want to stay here. I want to enjoy the breakfast she prepared and then take her back to my bed.

The phone call I just got from my father makes that impossible. Get over here. Now. It’s important. That’s all he said, but it was his tone that has me on edge.

She meets my gaze, her eyes troubled. “Is there something wrong?”

“Smells great,” I say.

“I’m glad, but you didn’t answer my question.”

I kiss her cheek. “Nothing you need to worry about.” I take a seat.

“I assume you like bacon and eggs, since I found them in the fridge.”

“Breakfast of champions.” I take a bite off a slice of bacon with more force than I mean to.

“How do you take your coffee?” she asks.

“Black.”

She pours me a cup and sets it in front of me, and then she sits down next to me, where a plateful of breakfast is already set for her.

I sigh. “I hate to do this. And I mean, I really hate to do this, but I have to take you home.”

“Something is wrong,” she says.

“Not with you. Or us. But something requires my attention this morning.”

“I require your attention this morning,” she says, smiling seductively.

“You’re not making this any easier.”

“I think that’s the point.”

“Believe me, I can’t think of anything I’d rather be doing than going back to bed with you. But…”

“It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay,” I say, “but it is what it is. But I’d like to see you again. Soon.”

She smiles. That radiant Rory Pike smile. “Just say when.”

“This evening?”

“I don’t know, I have a jam-packed schedule.” Then she winks.

“Great. Tonight it is. I’ll pick you up at… I don’t know. As soon as I can?”

“When you know, just text me,” she says.

I take another bite of bacon, chew, swallow. “Thanks for understanding. You’ll hear from me as soon as possible. I promise.”

I finish my breakfast quickly and take my plate to the sink while Rory goes back into the bedroom to gather the rest of her belongings. A few minutes later, she returns, dressed and looking beautiful, her cheeks slightly blushed.

“I’ll make this up to you.” I give her a searing kiss. Then we walk out to the car.

About a half hour later, I walk into my mom and dad’s backyard. I don’t go through the house. I go straight out back to the pool house. That’s where Dad told me to meet him.

Dad is already in the pool, swimming laps, which means he’s stressed. Dad loves to swim, and he swims all the time. But this early in the morning? These are most certainly stress laps.

Which doesn’t bode well.

I wave to him, not sure if he sees me, and then I head to the pool house and change into my trunks. If Dad is doing stress laps, I’m going to need stress laps as well.

I dive in on the opposite side. After five laps of my own, I hoist myself out of the pool and sit on the concrete.

Dad swims up to me. “Thanks for coming, Brock.”

“You said it was important.”

“It is.”

“I’d ask what could be so important on a Sunday morning, but I already know the answer.”

“Do you?”

“Not specifically, no, but I’m assuming it has to do with Uncle Tal’s shooting.”

“Yes and no,” Dad says. “I want to tell you about someone.”

“Okay.”

“I want to tell you about your great uncle. William Elijah Steel.”

My heart drums.

Why now? What’s going on? Does Dad know something that I don’t?

I hold back a scoff. Of course he knows something I don’t. He knows a lot of things that I don’t. That’s the whole problem here—beginning with the stuff Brendan Murphy found underneath the floorboards. A whole can of worms—make that serpents—has been opened for the Steel family.

That’s the reason I told Dale and Donny we should keep my father out of our investigation into those GPS coordinates.

“All right,” I say.

“I found out about my uncle—half uncle, actually—by accident,” Dad says.

I don’t reply. What is there to say?

“I don’t think about him a lot. I only briefly mentioned his existence to my brothers, and that was years and years ago. I think I mentioned him to your mother also, when we were first dating.”

Tags: Helen Hardt Steel Brothers Saga Erotic
Source: readsnovelonline.net