My chest rumbles as I let out a deep growl.
“Harper is a grown ass woman, and Lily is not connected to us one bit. I’m pissed she kept her from me, but I’m not angry if it meant you would’ve walked away from me back then if you found out she was pregnant with my baby. When I say it’s always been you, Alannah, it’s always been you. I would give up everything for you, that will never change. Never.”
“You can’t say that, you wouldn’t have walked away from them.”
“I was a cunt back then, all I cared about was you and if I didn’t have you, no one else would’ve mattered to me. Nothing is going to break us, I promise you that. As far as I’m concerned, you’re still the only woman I have firsts with, maybe one day Harper will fit in with us, but it will always be us first.”
I take my chance and lean down, pressing my lips to hers. This is where I’ll always feel at home. Her lips part and I slip my tongue in, sweeping it lightly over hers. I know everything about her, from the way she likes to be kissed to how she is going to struggle with this even though I’ll promise her the world it won’t.
“If I lose you because of this, I’ll burn this fucking town down…”
She presses her finger to my lips and I shut up.
“I’m not going anywhere, Cas, but it is going to take a while to adjust. It’s not even like I haven’t expected someone to show up claiming you’re their daddy,” she finally smiles, and I lean back.
“Slade’s going to hate us soon, that’s two Jacksons that have impregnated the women in his family.”
“Leo and India are different, Lily was another in a long line of no ones. I’ll make it right with Slade.”
“As long as you don’t offer back child support,” she snorts, then immediately looks guilty.
“I mean, offer what you want as long as it doesn’t affect our boys and grandchild.”
“That right there, our boys and grandchild, that’s all that matters to me.”
Resting her forehead against my chest, I cover her hair with my hand and hold her in place.
“Have you spoke to Leo and Luca?”
Luca has been flat out ignoring me, and Leo has said very few words over the last week.
“Leo is more concerned with India and Rayna, and he’s finding it hard without JJ around. Luca on the other hand, this has given him another reason to hate the world. His words were, she can go to hell if she thinks she’s calling you dad.”
“I think it’d be a cold day in hell before she did that,” I snort. “I’ll talk to them later, I want this cleared up. You three are everything to me, I can’t stand this not talking to each other.”
Not talking to me, more like.
“Don’t take it too personally, they don’t understand. Maybe if they knew you back then, it wouldn’t be so much of a shock to them.”
I bark out a laugh and lean around her to open the door and take her hand in mine. “Come on, let’s go fix shit with Slade.”
I let go of Alannah’s hand and throw my arm around her shoulders as we walk down the hall. I’ll show every fucker how strong we are as we walk into the busy bar. I’ll deal with Slade first, and then my sons.
He sits with Kristen and Lily and while Lily shrinks in her seat when they see us coming towards them, Kristen’s jaw tightens. She’s always been a pissy little bitch.
“We’re going to sort this out, brother.”
I pull out a chair for Alannah and take a seat next to her.
“There’s nothing to sort out, Cas. You fucked my sister, she ended up pregnant, and then she raised Harper alone. The way I see it, Harper is the one who deserved more and now she has it. I just got off the phone with her, her and JJ got married last night.”
What?
I look over to Lily and catch the watery eyes I first missed. When we found out India was having our grandchild, Alannah and I shared a look that spoke every word we didn’t have to say aloud. As I look at Lily, there is nothing. I haven’t got a fucking clue what she’s thinking or how she’s feeling and she sure as shit hasn’t got a clue when it comes to me.
JJ is a good kid, I held him in my arms the day he was born. He’s my brother’s boy and Sparky raised him to be a good man. Harper could do much worse than him.
“What do you mean they got married? They have no family up there and…” Alannah goes off.
“And what? Her family down here isn’t exactly perfect, it goes to show how she doesn’t care.”
“JJ should’ve known better.”
Everyone looks up to see Bonnie looking wounded hearing the news from Slade.
“Fuck off has my kid got married,” Sparky grunts. “My boy wouldn’t put no ring on anyone’s finger.”
“It’s true. He paid off the northern chapter’s priest they use for storage and shit sometimes and exchanged their vows before God.”
It’s not like she’s ever been a Jackson, and now she’s a Carter.
“It’s a good job he’s thousands of miles away because I’m going to kill him. Don’t get me wrong, I like Harper, but he’s my only boy and I’ve missed him getting married.”
“It’s alright, babe. I’ll kill him for you,” Sparky offers her, but it doesn’t cheer her up like he hoped.
I can see Sparky is hurting by this news but he’s keeping it reeled in like he usually does with shit he doesn’t like.
Luca jogs down the stairs, sees me and carries on to the kitchen. Little fucker won’t be able to ignore me for much longer.
“These kids are going to be the end of us one day.”
“And they’re the ones we know about,” I grunt.
I’m not one for throwing shit back and forth but that was well deserved. Fuck knows how this is going to play out, but like the rest of our lives, I’m sure it will be eventful, if I live long enough to witness it all.
Coming soon…
Book Three in the Sons of Lost Souls MC series coming Autumn 2018!
His Selfish Love Page 23