Page 57 of Starting Over

“Sal stopped communication with Mom a few years after we left. You were only a few years old, so she never told you abouthim. Then they passed away, and I hadn’t heard from him in years. It just seemed best to let sleeping dogs lie.”

“Best to let sleeping dogs fucking lie?” King stood from his chair, placing both hands on my desk, and leaned toward me. “You fucking lied alright! I have another fucking brother! You didn’t think I had a right to know?”

Standing from my chair to remind him who he was talking to, I leaned over and shouted, “Considering who that fucking brother is, no! I didn’t want him anywhere near you.”

“Well, guess what? This club is caught up with him in multiple fucking ways. And you knew about it! The shit you gave Blade about putting your daughter in danger. You put her in danger!”

“Boy, you better sit your ass down and remember who you’re talking to. I haven’t talked to or heard from Sal in thirty-eight fucking years. He was not a threat to you or my daughter until Blade made him one.”

“He was a fucking kid. He had no control over it.”

“He should have fucking told you!” I growled.

“He did,” King shouted.

I went still. I must have misheard him. My brother did not just tell me that he knew about this like it was gossip from a church ladies’ luncheon.

“You knew?”

“Yes, I knew. Steele knows too,” King revealed, sitting back in his chair, deflated. “He told us everything when he joined the Silver Shadows.”

“And you didn’t think to mention it to me? That one of the Silver Shadows was tied to the fucking Mob?

Anger flickered in King’s eyes. “Like you didn’t think to mention to me that my brother was the head of that same fucking Mob?”

Touché.

This was different though. My secret was to keep him safe. His was about club bullshit.

Rubbing my hand on the back of my neck, I looked at the ceiling. I needed to tread carefully here.

“I want to meet him.”

Snapping my eyes back on King, I could feel the panic rising.

“Why?”

“Because he’s my brother.”

“No,” I stated icily.

“You do realize I don’t need your permission. I am almost forty fucking years old.”

“King—”

“No, Declan. I want to meet him.” He stood up and walked to the door of my office. Pausing with his hand on the knob, he turned and said, “It’s happening. Get on board. I want you there when I meet him.”

“What about Maureen?” I asked, hoping it would deter him, but I knew when King set his mind on something, nothing stopped him from making it happen.

Except when it came to Grace.

“I’ll talk to Maureen. I’ll give her all the information and let her decide what to do. That’s the right way to deal with an adult. Not hiding shit from them.”

He walked out before I could tell him it was for his own safety. Not that I would have said those words. That would have led to more questions.

Questions I couldn’t, no, wouldn’t answer.

Sitting at my desk, I opened the file once more and scoured it word by word. I needed to make sure Nav hadn’t found the information surrounding King’s birth.

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