Page 68 of Starting Over

“You don’t know that. He could show up with his whole fucking clan.”

“He could, but I don’t think he will. If I contact him as the brother that wants to meet him, I think I can convince him to come here with only a few men.”

“That’s a big gamble. What if you’re wrong?” Zero asked.

“What if I am? You really think he’s gonna show up out of the blue to wipe us out? He knows where we are. He knows we are no longer a 1% club. What reason would he have? According to Maureen, family is important to him.”

“Yea, important to the man who killed his father to take over,” Jingles scoffed.

“We don’t know why he killed his father. Maybe he had a valid reason,” Banshee added.

Banshee was right. Sometimes there was a valid reason for killing your father. Amber, one of the club girls, killed her father. The bastard deserved it for what he did to her. I only wish I could have done it for her, to save her from having that mark on her soul.

Amber was tough, though. She wore that mark like a badge of fucking honor.

Banshee wore his in shame. His shame wasn’t for killing his father, but for not knowing what his father had been doing to his little sister. When he found out why his little sister ran away at sixteen, he didn’t hesitate taking out the trash.

He was still searching for her twenty-four years later.

“Regardless of why he did it, he is my family, and I want to meet him.”

“And you should,” Jack agreed.

I should have known he would have my back. He had recently gone through something similar and was taking the time to get to know his brother, despite what he was guilty of.

“Do we need a vote?” I asked, waiting to see what they all thought.

“No, we don’t need a fucking vote,” Gunner barked. “If you want to meet this asshole, then your club will stand behind you. Anyone that thinks differently should drop their cut at the fucking door on their way out.”

Every brother around the table began to pound their fists at Gunner’s words.

When the noise settled down, Blade spoke, “I gotta tell my old lady. This is family shit that she has a right to know. If her father won’t tell her, I will.”

Nodding my head, I agreed, “I know. Tell her tonight. Maybe she can kick his ass into telling us the truth. In the meantime, Nav will continue to dig. I’ve told him to expand his search into Sal. I want to know everything he can find about my brother’s father and grandfather.”

“His grandfather?” Jack asked.

“Sal’s grandfather, Casper O’Malley, was once the head of the IRA.”

“Fuck me,” Blade whispered.

“This shit goes back all the way to Ireland.” Cash whistled.

“Yea, Dec and I aren’t related to him. That link is through Sal’s father, who was different from ours, thank God. But I want to know everything. I want to know his whole fucking family tree.”

Before I could slam the gavel on the table, there was a knock on the door.

Ace jumped up, opened the door, and Billy stood on the other side.

“Sorry to interrupt.”

“It better be fucking good, Prospect.”

“Archie called. Got an SUV outside asking for Matlock.”

I turned to look at the club lawyer, raising an eyebrow as I asked, “Who the fuck would be looking for you this time of night?”

“No clue. They give a name?” he asked Billy.

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