Page 83 of My Darling Mayhem

"No one in my club would have been authorized to make a decision that big, although it sounds like someone on your end was given that freedom on behalf of El Peligro."

My brother's mouth curled into a smile. "Several years back, a player came onto the scene. Most mob bosses on the Upper East Side dealt with him, but you might have heard of him. They called him,The Joker. He reset the scene, took territories, and essentially wiped the board clean of players. He participated for me."

Archer squeezed my hand. "And what proof do you have that my club was involved?"

"Just the word of that man," Juan lazily drawled, stroking his jaw.

I watched his body language, seeing the differences in all the years we'd been apart. I knew how his fingers drummed against his thigh that he was itching to grab a throwing knife. I knew he likely had at least two on him right now. In turn, he might be watching my movements, and while I hadn't thrown a knife in years, muscle memory had my fingers flexing.

My father taught him, but he also instructed me. While Juan was with my mother in Mexico, I was with my aunt and my uncle, training, learning, and listening.

"Regardless. The territory has been ours, but we didn't enforce it. New leaders feel differently."

"What changed?" I asked, trying to piece together what was going on. But I wanted a bigger picture. I wanted a detailed list of what he'd done over the past nineteen years. I needed more than these tiny crumbs he was giving me.

The smallest wince crept into Juan's expression. I probably would have missed it if I hadn't been studying him so intensely. "While I ran it, I wasn't focused on making money. I merely wanted to help people."

"How very Robin Hood of you," Archer joked with a scoff.

My brother flipped him off. "Think what you want, but it was helping. We were changing things."

"But then why?—"

Juan shook his head. "I can't tell you everything you want to know right now, Renny. I wish I could. I'd tell you why I let go of our father's legacy, but it would take too much time. Right now, I need you to leave and I need you to understand that for the foreseeable future, you can't be with him."

"How will us breaking up stop a war?" Archer's fingers stroked the inside of my hand.

"It won't," Juan said, adding, "I just don't want my sister or nephew here when the war starts. I know you're about to get custody of your kid brother. It might make more sense for you to stay and have Wren leave. But let me be clear." His gaze was deadly as he stared Archer down. "You are not staying together. It's no longer safe for my sister to be near you or your club."

Juan glanced over his shoulder at our mother, giving her a soft smile before addressing Archer again. "I'd invite you to meet my mother, but she's far less pleasant than me."

My mother stood up and walked over to us.

"Let me meet him." Her shrewd eyes took him in, drank him up, and I saw the flicker of something like admiration there.

I had expected her to spew horrible things at Archer, but suddenly, he let my hand go and stuck it out for her.

"It's nice to meet you. I'm Archer Green, and I'm in love with your daughter and care for your grandson like he's mine. I sincerely hope you understand when I tell you I won't be going anywhere, and if Wren leaves, I will follow."

My mother's lips pursed. "You love her?"

"I love them both," Archer clarified, and my heart felt like it had swooped into my belly. Her eyes seemed to stay on Archer's, and then she swung her head over to look at Juan.

"Fui terrible con Taylor al principio".

Juan's eyes flickered as if he was going back to what my mother had said about how she'd been terrible to his wife at the beginning of their relationship. A wife I had never met, a daughter he'd adopted that I had never seen. He smiled and nodded.

"You were pretty terrible to her in the beginning."

My mom gently took Archer's hand in hers. "I misunderstood and don't wish to do that again."

Archer's eyes watered the slightest bit as my mother's face lifted, and a smile curved her lips.

"I am Anna. It's lovely to meet you." Then she hugged him.

My mother hugged my boyfriend, the man I loved and had just been told to break up with. Archer hugged her back, and my brother sighed like this frustrated him.

"Mama, you can't hug him. We just threatened him."

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