True Blue Son (The Syndicate-Born Trilogy Book 3)

by K. M. Hodge

  “Start with something small and work your way up to the big stuff,” he said, attempting to put her at ease.

  Sally let her hands fall into her lap as she looked up at him from across the room. “You’re the last man I’ve slept with.” Her words were so soft he had to strain to hear.

  Jason’s jaw dropped. “Really?”

  “You’re the only man I want to be with.” She met his gaze head on.

  It sounded convincing, but charming people often did even when they lied through their teeth. He swallowed hard and looked away. “I... uh....”

  “It’s okay, I know.”

  The weight attached to her words pinned him in place. “What do you mean, you know?”

  “I was there in Toronto chasing after Scott when I saw that you were doing a book signing. I stayed in the back so you wouldn’t see me. The co-ed was sitting in front of me. You looked so handsome and had this air of confidence around you.” A small smile floated across her lips. “Well, she noticed it and was chatting with her friend about how she wanted to sleep with you and was debating about whether or not to give you her room number. I started to chat with the girls and, in the end, I told her she should go for it.”

  Her set determinism shouldn’t have surprised him, but it did. He pinched the bridge of his nose and wet his lips. “Sally....” He exhaled her name, unable to say anything else.

  “I just wanted you to be happy,” she said. “Even if just for a moment.”

  “This is so fucked up.” The muscles in his stomach began to clench, making him feel sick.

  “See, I told you this was a bad idea.” She groaned and fell back onto the bed.

  I don’t want to hear any more. I need to....

  He dropped his gaze to his shoes for a moment. “No, no it’s not. Keep talking.”

  She sat back up on the bed and sucked in a short breath. “What do you want to know?”

  His own breathing became shallow as he ruminated over the question he needed to ask. Even though he might know the answer already, he needed to hear it from her. “Zane.... Is he—”

  “Alex’s? Yes.”

  Jason looked up to see her turn her head away once again. He didn’t know yet how he felt about her and Alex having a child together, but he loved her. The heavy awkwardness in the room made it hard for him to think, and so he spouted out the first thing that came to mind. “He looks just like him.”

  From across the ever darkening room he could see the glassy glint of her eyes.

  Why is she crying?

  He wasn’t too sure he could handle it if she and Alex had been more than lovers, but he needed to know. “Did you love him?”

  She stilled her nervous movements and stared off into the darkened corner of the room. “There was a time that I thought I might, but no, I don’t think so. He didn’t know about Zane. I was just some trailer park trash that helped him forget his problems.”

  Her words, how she referred to herself, wounded him. He recalled the cigarette burns on her back. She had confessed her husband had chosen that form of punishment after he had caught her with another man. “Your husband knew.”

  She nodded, sucking her trembling bottom lip between her teeth. “He was sterile.” Her voice trembled and she sniffed. “For years, he blamed me for us not having a child. I really thought I was the problem, so I never thought to use protection.”

  Jason wanted to touch her then, but stayed with his back against the door. The question that had been plaguing him since the moment she stepped into his cabin hung like a barb from his tongue. He took a deep breath in through his nose and let the words come tumbling out. “I need to know. Did you plan all this fake-your-death shit? Were you just using me the whole time?” He longed for her answer to be “no.”

  Sally heaved a big sigh and fell back onto the bed again with her blonde hair fanning out around her face.

  Beautiful. His mind became clouded by his desire for her, like always. No, not this time.

  He shook his head to force himself to keep pushing until she answered him. “I went to your funeral and now you’re laying here in front of me, very much alive. I need answers.”

  She covered her face with her hands. Her lip trembled and she swallowed hard.

  “Maybe you need an incentive to talk.” He shrugged off his leather jacket and tossed it on the bed beside her.

  She lifted herself up onto her elbows and narrowed her eyes at him—at least he’d gotten her attention. She gave him a small smile and looked him over with the same growing desire inside of him reflected back in her eyes. “It’s complicated.”

  He groaned. “Isn’t everything with you?”

  “So I’m told.”

  “All right, let’s start from the beginning. Why did you contact me last summer?”

  “I’d been following you online for years. Last year you started talking about doing a tell-all, and I thought you might be someone who would be brave enough—”

  “Stupid, you mean.”

  “No! Brave.” She shifted on the edge of the bed and stiffened. “We had a common enemy. I thought our efforts would have a greater impact if we teamed up together, so I chose you. Charles and I couldn’t have pulled it off without you.”

  He didn’t feel like getting into it with her about how helpful he had been. “What about the money from Scott?”

  “It funded Zane’s research and other projects run out of the MDNA.” She told him all about how Zane and her MDNA compatriot, Jude, had developed the Nanobioresponder technology that had saved her life that night in front of the police station. The details were vague and general—she honestly didn’t seem to understand how it worked. “All I know is that by the time EMS got on the scene, I was stable.”

  Jason stepped out of his shoes and pulled off his socks.

  Sally paused, watching him.

  “Go on, Sal.”

  “The cop that took my statement was dirty—a guy from the neighborhood. I got a feeling part way through the interview that The Syndicate was going to try and take me out. Before I stepped outside that night I sent Jude an SOS and took the experimental capsule. He made it to the scene before the EMS. He saved my life. And I never said anything about any of it because I honestly never thought it would come to that. I had every intention of going home to you that night. You need to know that.”

  Try as he might to prevent it, a deep-seated anger and resentment bubbled up inside of Jason. “Yeah, that all sounds awfully convenient.” He pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to remain calm. After a moment, he looked back down at her and continued his line of questioning. “Why did you make everyone think you were dead?”

  She tugged on the ends on her hair, twisting them up around her finger all the way to the roots. “Zane,” she said in a far off-sort-of-way. “I had to protect my son.”

  “What does Scott want with him?” Jason shifted his weight from one foot to the next as his anxiety rose.

  “He wants to hurt me.” Her voice hitched. “He blames everything on Alex and me. We ruined him so he wants to hurt our son.” Her eyelids fluttered with tiny shimmering tears that caught on her lashes. “I thought if I was gone, he would give up and move on, but I was wrong. He isn’t going to stop until Zane’s dead.”

  Jason clenched and unclenched his fists. Manny had been right; all these problems stemmed from Scott and his insatiable urge for revenge.

  Sally wiped at her eyes. “For the last year, I’ve been following him. He hired some private dick who tracked down Zane. Scott hitchhiked all the way to California, where Zane has been living in hiding for the last year and half. But I got Zane out just in time.”

  Jason lifted his t-shirt over his head and tossed it on the floor.

  Sally’s gaze zeroed in on his bare chest and the tattoo that adorned his left pectoral. “You got a tattoo!”

  “Yeah, it hurt like a mother-fucker, too.”

  “Jason....” She rose from the bed and touched his bare chest.

  He
removed her hand and returned it to her side. “How did you find me?”

  She looked up at the pendant around his neck.

  “Sally?”

  She twisted the necklace, which opened like a locket. “GPS.”

  “Of course. You LoJacked me.” He unbuttoned his pants and watched her chest rise and fall with each quickened breath. “You weren’t kidding. It has been a while.”

  She wet her lips and looked up at him with expectation. “Are we done talking now?”

  He slid his jeans down over his hips and stepped out of them. When he was completely naked, he helped pull her tunic up over her head. “For now.”

  A small smile crept across her face as he took his time helping her remove the last of her clothing. While he appreciated her honesty, he still had a sinking suspicion that she hadn’t told him everything, but his self-control had started to crumble. As much as he wanted to keep the upper hand with her, he also needed to touch and taste her. Now.

  ***

  Zane stood on the patio watching lightning bugs dance on the lawn. He leaned against the railing thinking about his mother and her ridiculous plan—a plan she had strategically failed to share with the group. Behind him, the sliding glass door opened and closed, breaking his train of thought.

  Julie stepped beside him and handed him a beer.

  He took it and gave her a tight smile. “Thanks.”

  “It’s been quite the day.” She tipped back her own bottle and took a swig.

  “You can say that again.” He smiled wide into the bottle and took a sip.

  She wore the tiniest jean shorts and a pink tank top, which rose slightly to reveal her belly button when she leaned against the railing.

  He had seen his fair share of hot girls in California, but this girl was something else entirely. “So, uh... you’re in a band.”

  “Yep, I play the guitar and sing,” she said between sips of beer. “I haven’t been able to play much the last few years, but now that I’m done with my residency, I’m hoping I can start doing gigs again on the side.”

  “You’re a medical doctor?”

  Hot and smart, too. Not bad at all.

  She tapped her toes, nails painted hot pink, on the patio floor. “Yeah, I’ve got a month or two off before I start my job at Bioworks.”

  “Medical research? That’s what I do. We should talk.”

  “Aren’t we talking now?” She shot him a coy smile that caused his stomach to bottom out.

  His cheeks burned and he pursed his lips together in a half smile, but turned his head away from her to hide his embarrassment. She touched his bare arm, making the hair stand up on end and his mouth go dry. It had been a long time. Too long.

  What the hell. Life’s too short.

  Zane turned back to Julie and let out a nervous breath, as she tilted her head to the side in anticipation of what was coming next. When his lips met hers, he couldn’t stop himself from wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer to him.

  She set her beer on the railing and wrapped her arms around his neck, deepening the kiss. When she finally broke the kiss, she said, “I’ve been thinking about doing that all day.”

  “Really?” A wide, stupid grin spread across his face against his will.

  “You have no idea how hot you are, do you?” She tugged and twirled the hair at the nape of his neck.

  “Thanks, I guess,” he said.

  On tiptoes, she kissed him again. Her hold on him tightened and her breasts pressed against his chest.

  A warning went off in his mind telling him to slow down before he embarrassed himself. He leaned back on his heels and broke the kiss—hiding his smile behind the bottle.

  “You look a lot like Alex Bailey.” She said the name as if it were as commonplace as Jesus.

  Why did she have to go and ruin a perfectly good night by bringing him up?

  “I’ve heard that.” He leaned over the railing on his elbows and finished off the rest of his beer in a long, open-throated gulp.

  Nothing like bringing up my mother’s lover to kill the mood.

  “It’s just spooky how much you look like him. My dad has a couple scrapbooks of papers and stuff from the trial and the case. He really admired him. He didn’t talk about it much, but I remember his death hit him pretty hard. Jason’s book Seasons is like one of my favorites of his....” She paused mid ramble. “Wait!”

  He could see her making the mental connections.

  “Your mom and he....”

  “He’s my biological father. I never met him, but Ma’s told me I look just like him.”

  He didn’t want to get into the complications of his heritage with Julie. She couldn’t possibly understand the burden he carried for his mother’s choices. The price he paid. The memory of the day his mother told him the truth was burned into his mind like a branding iron, just like the day his pop almost killed her with a frying pan. Knowing things got you hurt, or worse yet, killed. He’d chosen the road of ignorance, and had managed, over the years, to avoid learning anything about the man whose DNA mingled with his mother’s to bring him into being.

  “Didn’t you read Jason’s book? There’s a lot of photographs.” She scrunched up her nose and tilted back against the railing.

  “No. No, I didn’t.” He tugged on the paper wrapper of his beer bottle.

  Julie tapped her smart watch, pulling up a picture of Alex with his wife, Katherine—the one he gave his life for.

  “That’s your dad.” Her eyes widened and looked up at him expectedly.

  Zane glanced down at the photo and looked quickly away. “Yeah, I guess I look like him a little.” He pulled the last of the paper off the beer bottle and balled it up in his fist.

  She let her hand drop back to her side. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said anything.” The cheerful smile she’d been sporting all night fell from her face.

  Zane sighed. “No, it’s okay. I just... I’m not exactly proud of that part of my history. I took a lot of shit growing up because my mom was sleeping with everyone except my old man.”

  Julie sighed and slipped her hands into the back pocket of his pants, tugging him back towards her. “Maybe we should stop talking, then.”

  The wicked grin that followed could easily be his undoing.

  ***

  After they’d said their goodnights, Zane retreated to the den to sleep on the sofa. Even with his music turned up as loud as it could go, he couldn’t drown out the sound of his mother and her new boyfriend.

  There are some things you can’t un-hear.

  He tried hard to concentrate on the music, but it didn’t work. Then he remembered Julie saying her band had some videos online, and he pulled up one of them. He didn’t know a lot about the new punk rock, but it was obvious to him that she could shred the guitar like nobody’s business. Not to mention she was hot as hell doing it.

  He closed his eyes and listened to her sing as he replayed in his mind the few kisses they had exchanged on the deck. He was glad she would be coming with them to the compound, not just because she would be invaluable in setting up a new lab, but because he also selfishly wanted to continue what they had started.

  The hard pull of sleep finally took him just as the noise down the hall started to quiet down.

  Small mercies.

  Chapter 4

  Burks Apartments

  Alexandria, Virginia

  June 26, 2026

  6:00 AM

  ~~~

  Jason awoke before the crack of dawn out of habit.

  The morning light filtered through the split in the curtains and touched the side of Sally’s cheek. Her blonde hair gave her an ethereal look, her skin translucent.

  He tried to remember her appearance from last summer and compare the filaments of his recollections with the original before him. The freckles and pale skin all seemed new to him.

  He pushed aside the errant hairs that cast across her face in her sleep and the minutes passed as he lay there
looking at her. Her features took his breath away as he mentally notated each dip, curve, crinkle and crease on her face. The intense scrutiny finally caused her eyelashes to flutter. When she opened them and looked him straight in the eye, his heart raced within his chest. The blue of her eyes had not changed during her long absence. They had captivated him from the first moment and continued to do so now.

  “Good morning.”

  She rubbed her eyes and groaned. “Morning.”

  Jason scooted closer to her, laying a chaste kiss on her lips.

  She smiled and sighed.

  “Your hair....” Jason caught a handful of it, twisting it around his fingers.

  A look of worry flashed across her face. “You don’t like it?”

  “It’s just different. Doesn’t seem like you.”

  “I thought you would like this better. I... uh... got tired of dying it.” Her lips pursed and she started to pull away.

  He dropped her hair and pulled her back to him, bracketing her head with his arms. “You’re beautiful no matter what color you dye your hair.” He nuzzled her nose and kissed her smiling lips.

  His insistent kiss awakened her completely and she entwined her legs with his, running her fingers through his short hair. When he dipped down to kiss her again, their stomachs growled in unison making them both smile.

  He laughed a little in embarrassment. “Want to come to the kitchen with me and see what we can scrounge up for breakfast?”

  “Sounds good.”

  He rolled out of bed and threw on his pants from the night before.

  “Do you mind?” Sally grabbed his t-shirt and put it on.

  “No, I don’t mind.” That small act of claiming him excited him.

  Food. Focus on the task at hand.

  They crept down the hall to the kitchen, careful to not wake anyone.

  ***

  Zane stretched his cramped legs and arms, which had stiffened from a long night on a tiny sofa. He needed coffee.

  The old man will have coffee, right?

  He threw on his jeans and headed to the kitchen. With his eyes half open, he heard them before he saw them. He rounded the corner to see his mother kissing and groping her boyfriend’s ass.