Page 49 of Wait For Me

“He can stay,” Star informed her brother.

Kip’s eyes shifted between the two of us and then he nodded his head, shut the door, and then leaned his shoulders back on it.

“Keeping you in the dark about my son wasn’t right,” he admitted. It was a bit of an abrupt way to start that conversation, but then again, it was Kip, and the man was all serious, all the time. At least, he had been since the incident at Sturgis with his sister.

“You were right, at the house,” he went on to say as Star sat silently at my side. “Everyone kept me in the loop about what was going on with you, at least what you told them. I made sure they didn’t do the same for you where I was concerned and that wasn’t fucking right. It hurt to know that the reason you went running again was because of me.”

Star shook her head. “It wasn’t.”

“What?” Kip’s attention shot back to his sister, and he looked as perplexed as I felt by that statement. My stomach dipped, because if it hadn’t been her brother to send her running, then it must have been me.

“I wasn’t running,” she told him with a sigh. “I’m sure it looked like that because there was only a tiny window of opportunity from you dropping the tracker bomb to me getting to disable it and get the hell out of dodge before I could be followed again.”

“I’d call that running.”

“No, that’s called taking an opportunity when it presented itself, Kip,” she argued. “When I left here, it was to figure myself out without being under the club’s thumb. I didn’t want a safety net while adventuring. Sure, I was angry that the club had been tracking me and that they had a fucking spy watching my every move and reporting back God only knows what to you guys. Do you really think it was fair for me to live my life under that kind of scrutiny? When I left Sturgis, it was just to get away before anyone could follow me.”

“Then why all the silence?”

“All what silence?”

“You never called.”

“Neither did you,” she argued again. “Kip, I was angry at the whole club, not just you. I took my time getting in contact again because I had to work out how easy cell phones were to track, and how to not be some weird science experiment for you guys again. It had nothing to do with you breaking that news to me or being a dick. Yeah, I was angry that you were a dick. I was angry that my family didn’t have enough faith in me to leave me alone, but after a month or two, that anger faded, and I just wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again.”

“If I had called you-” Kip started to say, only to be cut off by his sister.

“Then I would have answered, we could have talked, just like I explained to the rest of our family.”

“Fuck!” He hissed through clenched teeth. “So, this rift between us really was all my fault.”

“Been telling you that for years, asshole.”

“Shut the fuck up, Bagger.” Kip snapped before he turned his attention fully on me. “What the fuck are you two doing here anyway?”

“That is none of your business,” Star informed him. “When I want you to know certain things about my life, you will.”

“Isn’t that where all our problems lie, sister?”

“No. All our problems lie with one or the other of us being too stubborn to admit when we’re wrong.”

Kip had to laugh at that, and so did I, because Star was correct. They were both stubborn as hell like that. She relented though before he could say anything else.

“What’s going on here,” she waved her hand between her body and mine, “is still unknown right now. Don’t ask questions that I don’t have an answer for.”

“Okay, fine.” Kip’s agreement was a bit reluctant, but he nodded his head and then pushed off the wall before piercing me with a stare that could have flayed skin off bone on anyone else. “You better do right by her, no matter what’s going on with you two.”

“That’s not a problem,” I agreed.

Kip’s attention moved back to Star then. “Ash is part of my life now, and she’s Knox’s mom.”

“I gathered that earlier.” Star sassed back to her brother.

“I’m saying that if you want a relationship with my son, you’re going to have to show his mother some respect. She’s not going anywhere.” I wasn’t so sure about that last bit, but he was right. The woman wouldn’t allow her son around Star if she was being a bitch.

“I understand,” Star offered.

“What exactly does that mean?” Kip asked.

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