Our food came after that, and topics turned from our social life to politics. Then from politics to the state of the economy. Finally, we switched to my job and my role with The Dixie Wardens.
“I joined The Dixie Wardens when I was fresh out of the fire academy. I was young and hot headed, on the fast track to self-destruction after my mom died. My father was a member of a different chapter out of Tuscaloosa, and recommended The Benton Chapter to me out of desperation. I took to it like it was always a part of my blood, and haven’t looked back since,” I said softly.
“Were you close to your dad?” She asked.
I shook my head. “Yes and no. I am now, but then, not so much. My mom and he divorced when I was young over something that I was never privy to. When she died, I went to live with my grandfather. That’s when I finally got to know my dad.”
“Wow,” she said with a raised eyebrow. “You’re a mess.”
I felt a smirk tip up the corner of my mouth. “You could say that again. I…”
My voice trailed off as a man came into the steakhouse we were eating at. He looked familiar.
Familiar as in, when I looked into the mirror, familiar.
“What the fuck,” I whispered.
The man walked through the door, going straight from the hostess station to the back of the restaurant where I’d seen Cleo sitting when I walked in. We’d exchanged nods, but he’d been in his work clothes, so I hadn’t wanted to interrupt him.
Now, though, I wanted to interrupt him.
By my fist hitting his face.
There was no way on God’s green earth that Cleo hadn’t seen the resemblance between the two of us. No. Fucking. Way.
“Grayson?” Tru called.
And even the sound of her voice, the one that had soothed my aches, pains, and nightmares, couldn’t bring me out.
I saw the moment Cleo realized I knew.
His eyes flared, and he stood, ignoring the insistent voice of his boss, and our president, as he walked slowly outside.
Lucky for him, and for me, he’d gone the back way.
“I’ll be right back,” I said as I stood, not waiting for her reply.
I made it outside within moments after Cleo.
“Let me explain,” he said, but I didn’t wait.
My fist was flying before the words even left his mouth.
I’d known, of course, that I could possibly have a brother out there somewhere.
In fact, everyone had.
I’d been actively looking for him since I’d found out about him four years prior.
My fist, the bad one, hit his face with a sharp crack. He went back on a foot, and lifted his hand to touch the split in his lip gingerly.
“I’ll give you that,” he said darkly. “Now that you’ve got that out of your system, you’ll let me explain.”
I stared at him, darkly, ignoring the burn in my hand as I did.
“I’m eating with my girl, and I have to be at work in an hour and a half, but I’m all yours tomorrow after I get off,” I spat.
He nodded once. “I’ll meet you at your place.”
“You do that.” I hissed at him, then turned to leave.
The good feeling that Tru and I had fizzled out after that.
Sensing my mood, we’d cut lunch short. She left disappointed, I could tell, but I couldn’t be in the same room as my fucking brother and not want to talk to him. I was taking it out on Tru, and she didn’t deserve that.
So after a hug and a kiss on the cheek, she left without looking back, and I sat outside the restaurant and watched my brother through the plate glass window like some adolescent child.
I’d been searching for him so long that it felt almost surreal to know he was there. And one of my best friends had kept his existence from me.
He, unfortunately, had some major explaining to do before I forgave. But I had the feeling that I’d never forget.
Chapter 4
I can’t eat anymore, I’m full.
Do you want dessert?
Yesssssss.
-Tru to Grayson
Tru
“Do you mind taking Rowen Trick-or-Treating?” My sister, Reese, pleaded.
Picking up the pile of clothes I just folded, I walked into my bedroom. “Sure…but do I have to dress up?”
I hoped I didn’t. Reese had started a tradition when Rowen had been born a little over two and a half years ago when it came to holidays.
Her ex had left her when he found out Reese was pregnant. Therefore, Reese had made a promise to herself that she’d go above and beyond for her child since she was going to be the lone parent.
Which turned into huge ordeals when it came to holidays.
For Christmas, she decked her house in boughs of holly, fa la la…blah, blah, blah, blah.
In fact, she decked out everyone’s house, including Iliana’s, and my, apartment.
Then there was Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, Saint Patrick’s Day, and Halloween.
Halloween was at least a fun one to experience. The others were just damn annoying at times.
I’d dress up if I had to, but hopefully I didn’t, because I didn’t like looking like a fool.
“Yes, of course you have to,” Reese said like I was a dumbass for even asking.
I sighed.
“Okay, well can she go in my neighborhood, or does it have to be yours?” I asked as I started putting away my multiple pairs of underwear, stopping at the red ones that I’d worn two days prior.
The last day I saw Grayson.
No, Torren. He’d asked me to call him Torren as he left. Again. But I knew him as Grayson. He’d always be Grayson to me.
“Yes, I’d rather you do it in my neighborhood. Rowen wants to see her friends one last time before we move next week,” Reese said sadly.
Reese had taken a new job in Kilgore as the school nurse.
They’d be moving within the next couple of weeks, and Rowen, as well as Reese, were having trouble adjusting.
Reese was a nurse at Christus Health on the cardiac floor, and had my mother watch Rowen when she was working. However, my mother was diagnosed with stage two breast cancer and little by little, her ability to watch Rowen had dwindled down until she was barely able to do it. The demands that chemo was having on her body were much more strenuous than she’d originally thought.
Plus it wasn’t good on my mother’s immune system to watch a little girl that was exposed to so many viruses.
So Reese had made the hard decision to move an hour away and start Rowen in daycare while she was working. Reese would now be able to get off in time to get Rowen, but she’d also be further away and not as able to help our mother out on her days off.
My mother, however, was one hell of a fighter, and with my father’s, sister’s, and my help, she’d get through it.
We just knew it.
“That’s fine. I don’t have anything to wear, though,” I said hesitantly.
I knew where it’d lead. She’d want me to wear her costume, and I was afraid to see what it was.
“You can wear mine,” she said just like I knew she would.
“Okay, but what were you going to be?” I worried.
Reese was also a size smaller than me. Although she was technically my big sister, she didn’t look like it. I was twenty eight where she was twenty nine. She, however, looked like she was my twin.
My skinny twin.
“I was going to be a spider while Rowe’s gonna be a ladybug,” she said sweetly.
I smiled. “Okay, I can do a spider.”
***
“Jesus Christ,” I hissed at my sister as she got ready for work. “I can’t be this spider.”
She turned and laughed at the expression on my face.
I was looking down at the skin tight black leggings, black long sleeved t-shirt with eight pink spider legs embroidered on it, and sighed.
“This is awful,” I said.
My thighs looked massive.
And I didn’t even want to think of my ass.
“Why couldn’t you do this again?” I asked.
“I have to work one more shift to be able to pay this rent and rent at my new place,” she explained patiently.
She’d explained it a few times now, and I still wasn’t understanding why she did it. She had enough money, it was just routine for her to save, since it’d been a reality for her before she graduated and started nursing school.
“Whatever. At least let me change my pants,” I pleaded.
“No, Tru, like me, like me!” Rowen cried loudly.
I sighed, completely defeated.
My, nearly, five year old niece had a way of doing that without even the least bit of coercion.
“You’re so going to pay me back for this. I swear to God, Reese,” I promised.
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever. I’ll be back in the morning. Make sure Rowen…”
I interrupted her. “You do realize, right, that I have Rowen at least once a week. Sometimes twice. I know everything there is to know about that child.”
She grinned unrepentantly. “You know, Tru, I really can’t wait for you to have a child of your own, and find out what it’s like to have something that means so much to you being out in the world with someone else while you’re working. I seriously cannot wait for the first time I watch your baby, and you call me five times a night.”
I glared at her. “Don’t jinx me, hoe.”
She guffawed. “You’d actually have to pull that stick out of your ass and go on a date before you can get pregnant. Or hell, even talk more than a sentence to a man.”
I pursed my lips and glared at the bitch. “Fuck off.”
“Language!” She snapped.
I flipped her off instead, really not wanting Rowen to say fuck, because then I’d never hear the end of it from Reese.
The woman was like a wildcat when it came to her kid, obviously. It was easier to let her have her way. You know, in case I desired my hair to be connected to my head, that is.
She was a vindictive bitch like that.
“All right, sweetie,” Reese said as she bent to Rowen who was busy coloring on the floor at our feet. “I’ve got to go. Have fun with Aunt Tru, okay?”
“Yes, mommy,” Rowen smiled.
Before Reese left, she turned around and pointed at me. “Five pieces of candy, tops.”
Pffft. Yeah, right.
***
“Just go knock on the door,” I told Rowen.
Rowen got out of the wagon I was using to pull her through the neighborhood and walked up to the house that had its light on.
I was with a couple of the other parents, and we watched as the girls walked up the winding path that led to the front door.
The house was pretty.
One of the better ones in the neighborhood. The only thing different about it was the bike that was parked up on the front porch.
The porch steps had a Jack O’ Lantern, and the front window was decorated with streamers of DO NOT ENTER tape.
I was minding my own business when the fake body that was lying on the lawn reached out and grabbed me by the leg.
Which is why, when my niece knocked on the door and walked in, I missed it.
Instead, I was too busy screaming my ass off and kicking at the man who had hold of my foot.
The man was laughing like a fucking loon.
Heart pounding in my throat, I finally worked my foot loose and looked up, only to see the ladybug who belonged to me nowhere in sight.
What I did see was the front door open, and all of the other kids now with their parents.
All the kids except my niece.
“She went inside, mommy,” Pandora, Rowen’s favorite friend, yelled loudly.
“Fuck,” I hissed and started running towards the front door.
I stepped inside, surprised that the interior was so cozy.
I heard my niece’s voice jabbering away in the kitchen, and froze halfway in the living room.
“Hello?” I called out.
“In here,” a familiar sounding voice called from the kitchen.
I walked in slowly, unsure of what I’d find, and froze when I saw who occupied the kitchen.
“Tru! Look what I found! A firefighter!” Rowen crowed loudly.
She sure as fuck, did.
She found my firefighter!
“What…what?” I shook my head, confused.
“I seem to have an intruder,” Grayson rumbled from his seat at the table.
He was wearing his BFD, Benton Fire Department, uniform.
Across the table from him was a tall man who was standing against the wall instead of sitting, and next to him was the old man, the president, of The Dixie Wardens MC, Silas.
They all watched me with blank expressions, as if I (or Rowen) had interrupted a very important conversation, at a very inopportune time.
“I’m so sorry,” I gasped as I reached for Rowen.
“No!” Rowen cried loudly, hugging Grayson around the neck with all her little armed might.
Grayson blinked, surprised at the move, and then winked at me.
“I seem to have a friendly intruder,” he amended.
I snorted. “The kid doesn’t know a stranger. We were just trick or treating at your door, and some bozo grabbed my leg and scared the crap out of me. When I looked up, she was already inside.”
“Prospects,” Grayson answered. “Not Bozos.”
I blinked. “Who?”
He waved his hand. “Never mind. You have a daughter?”
I shook my head. “Niece. My sister had to work. She made me come.”
His eyes dropped down to the outfit I was wearing, and I felt a blush rise up my face and completely devour my face. Goddammit, I knew nothing good would come of this outfit.
He nodded and stood, walking towards me with an insane amount of grace for such a large man.
He looked better today. A little more tired, but he wasn’t pale like the last time I’d seen him.
I’d known something was wrong immediately after he’d gotten back from where he’d been. Instead of prying, I’d left him alone, knowing that whatever had been upsetting him, was something he wasn’t willing to share.
Not that he should’ve shared with me. I wasn’t anything to him.
Reaching for Rowen, I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her out of Grayson’s arms before she could protest, eliciting an ear piercing scream from her.
“No!”
I winced at the decibel, as did the three men.
“I’m sorry,” I said as I turned. “I’ll be going.”
“Does your sister live in this neighborhood?” Grayson asked my back.
I turned and nodded. “She’s at the corner. For another week, at least, and then she’s moving to Kilgore.”
I said as I made my way outside.
My group was gone, as was the wagon. And the candy.
“Shit,” I said. “The wagon’s gone.”
“Someone took it,” a man said from beside me.
I jumped, as did Rowen. “God!”
The man chuckled. “Sorry about that. I have someone going after it already. I can bring it back to you.”
I blinked, surprised. “Thanks.”
That was nice of him.
He shrugged. “No problem. I recognized you from the bar the other night. Didn’t figure Torren here would be too happy that I let that slip away.”
“You’re right,” Grayson rumbled. “I wouldn’t.”
I turned to Grayson in surprise. “It wasn’t his fault.”
He shook his head. “I know. Sterling’s men will find it.”
Sterling was a pretty name. However, by the look of the man’s face, even covered in zombie makeup, looked like he wouldn’t appreciate me expressing that opinion.
“That’s okay. If you find it, just let me know. The only thing it had were the keys to my place. But those won’t get him very far without the addr
ess,” I explained.
“It won’t get him far at all,” another voice rumbled from the darkness. “We’ll find it.”
Silas.
He sure was kind of scary, but there was also something about him that made me feel safe.
Why he was worried about a child’s wagon, when there were so many other things in the world to worry about, was beyond me, but whatever.
“Walk her home, Torren,” Silas ordered.
“Way ahead of you, old man,” Grayson grumbled as he held his hands out for Rowen.
Rowen went to him happily, throwing herself into his arms and wrapping her hands around his neck.
I shook my head.
No devotion whatsoever in that little girl.
None at all.
All the girl needed was a set of arms and she was happy.
“I’ll walk you. I’ll bring the wagon back to you if we get it,” Grayson rumbled as he grabbed my hand and led me out of his yard.
I didn’t protest, and also never tried to get my hand back.
In fact, I kind of liked that he had a hold of my hand.
His hand was rough.
I could feel a scar that ran along his palm, and his fingers were large and wide. You could tell that he worked with his hands.
“I almost moved into your sister’s house when I bought my own, a couple of years ago,” Grayson said. “But I didn’t like the corner lot. So I chose mine instead.”
I nodded, understanding completely. “My sister nearly had someone go through her kitchen window earlier this year. He would’ve, too, if my dad’s truck hadn’t been parked across the front walk as it was.”
Rowen laid her head down on Grayson’s shoulder, snuggling in as if she didn’t have a care in the world.
She’d be asleep before we got back.
“I remember that. We responded to that call,” he said. “Never put two and two together, I guess. I was extremely glad I hadn’t moved there after that, though.”
The walk was over way too fast, and we ended up at my sister’s door in less than ten minutes.
I walked to my car and pressed the garage door opener.
His eyes followed me as I did so, noting that I hadn’t unlocked the car.
The disapproval rolling off him made me want to roll my eyes.
That was something I always did. It was easier than carrying keys when I had no pocket.
Charge to My Line Page 4