Page 41 of Revenge

Charlee ducks her head down to the table as she nods, a gesture that doesn’t sit well with me. She’s always been so full of fire that I hate seeing her this way. My thumb lifts her chin until she has no choice but to meet my gaze.

“How do you really feel, Princess?”

“He was my dad.” She shrugs as tears pool in her eyes. Her words hang in the air between us like dead weight.

I drop my hand over her chair and rub small circles against her back. There’s nothing we can add. I hated the bastard for what he did. If he hadn’t ended up dead I was planning on ending him myself, but she knew an entirely different version of him that she’s mourning the loss of.

“Did the article say if my stepmother was found with him?” Her voice cracks at the end of her question.

“No, but I have a friend looking into it for me. I’ll let you know what he finds out.”

She nods and hangs her head once again. The three of us just sit there and stare at each other like a couple of idiots. We’re at a loss for what to do. If it were one of us we’d beat it out of them, but this requires a different approach altogether.

Axel breaks the silence, snapping his fingers like he’s just come up with the best fucking idea ever. “You know what you need? A nice traditional southern dinner.”

“You can cook?” Charlee’s head tilts up as she asks and the look on my brother’s face is priceless.

“My mama taught me. A boy’s gotta eat things other than pussy once in a while, Hellcat.” He winks as Zane smacks him over the head.

“What the hell, man?” He rubs at the sore spot and shoots Zane a death glare.

“You’re a fucking idiot.” Zane shakes his head. “Ignore him, Charlee. We dropped him on his head as a kid.”

Axel flips him off. “Just for that, I ain’t feeding your ass shit tonight.”

Zane just rolls his eyes. He isn’t even fazed. Neither am I. Axel’s made the same threat for years and we know enough to know he’s bluffing.

“What’s a traditional southern dinner?” Her dark eyebrows pinch together.

“How the hell do you live in Georgia but you ain’t ever had one before?” Axel damn near falls out of his chair at this news.

“I wasn’t born here. We moved here after my mother died when I was a teenager.” Charlee chews on her bottom lip, causing my dick to take notice. I adjust myself as nonchalantly as I can and do my best to focus on this little bit of information she’s sharing. It was in the file I have on her, but it’s different hearing it from Charlee herself.

“That’s an outright crime.” Axel shakes his head like it’s the end of the world and strolls into the kitchen.

Charlee shrugs and continues to fidget with her fingers. Axel’s trying to put her at ease, but she’s still on edge and unsure around us. Not that I blame her. We’ve done much to convince her otherwise.

“No one should ever go without tasting the deliciousness of soup beans, greens, and cornbread with onions and ketchup.” Axel rubs his hands together like he’s just solved world hunger. “Why don’t you grab the greens out of the fridge and help me, Hellcat?” he asks, as he begins to dice an onion. He’s playing it smart for once, distracting her and not pushing for more details.

“Um, sure.” Charlee makes her way to the fridge and my eyes stayed glued to her backside the entire way there. When her ass bends over in those tight as fuck yoga pants, everything inside me stirs.

Why did I buy her the damn things?

The sound of Zane clearing his throat has my eyes shooting up to meet his.

“What?”

“Nothing.” He shakes his head and gives me a knowing look that I want to smack off his face as he takes out a cigarette and lights up.

I do the same, and we sit at the table for a few minutes enjoying the show of Charlee and Axel cooking. It’s obvious Axel’s enjoying playing teacher, but he’s getting too handsy for my liking. If his hand ‘accidentally’ brushes up against another part of her I’m going to chop it off. Brother or not, he’ll make do with one.

“You think whoever took out her old man could be after her, too?” Zane asks as he pinches his cigarette between his fingers.

“It’s a possibility.” One I’ve been rolling around in my head over and over since we first read that damn article. Something about it isn’t sitting right with me, but I just can’t figure out what.

“What are we going to do about it?”

“I don’t know.” I scratch the side of my face and shift in my seat. Having this wrench thrown in my plans has me at a standstill. “We’ll wait and see what Carl finds out. Then we’ll go from there.”

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