Page 34 of The Devil's Pair

“We are,” Dux confirmed, putting the pillow against the headboard and leaning back on it. “Born and raised.”

“So how’d two sweet little Catholic boys from New York end up as Enforcers for an MC in Colorado?”

“We took the scenic route, via the Marines and the Middle East and South Asia.” Drake lay on his side, his head propped up in his hand. She admired the way that his bicep bulged, even in this casual and rested pose. “Well, one of us took a way more scenic path than the other.”

“What do you mean?”

“He means that after we got back from Afghanistan, I spent three years in jail in Denver,” Dux said. “Buthedidn’t.”

“What?” She sat up straight in bed now, wondering why it was such a shock that an MC guy had spent time in jail; that was when she realized that she was actually surprised that onehadn’t. She’d been operating under the assumption that every single one of the Road Devils members had seen the inside of a prison cell for at least a few months. “How didthathappen? I thought you two dideverythingtogether.”

“Ha!” Dux rejoined and gave her a smack on her pert bottom. “Smart ass.”

“Youknowit, handsome,” she retorted. “But really – what happened?”

“About jail?” Dux said.

“Well, yes, if you want to tell me that part. But I meant more how you got into the Marines, and when you came to Denver and how you got into the club.” She shrugged, her blonde hair so glorious over her naked shoulders and breasts. “You don’t have to tell me anything you don’t want to about the war, or prison. I would appreciate, however, the low-down on the whole Catholic school thing, becausethat’sreally blowing my mind.”

The men laughed, gave her quick kisses, then they settled back onto the bed.

“OK, darlin’,” Drake said. “One life history coming up… well,two, really. But you know what I mean.”

She nodded, scooted up to the headboard next to Dux. He grabbed a pillow for her to lean against and then he looked at Drake.

“You want to kick this off?” he said. “Or am I taking the floor?”

“Go for it, big brother,” Drake said. “You know I’ll butt in when I feel like it.”

“That is the truth.” Dux shook his head affectionately. “OK, so… we were born in New York City, as you know. Our father left when we were about four years old, and we have very little memory of the fucker, and that’s just fine with us. Mom raised us mostly on her own after that, though her sister worked in the city, so Aunt Debbie would come over maybe once a week to help out.”

“That was good of her,” Briley said. “Gave your Mom a break.”

“A bit, yeah,” Dux agreed. “But all Mom did with her time off was work for the local Catholic school. She was a cleaner there even before we were born, and she worked nights and weekends, and since she didn’t have reliable or regular child care, she brought us with her. She’d plunk us down someplace out of the way and get to work, and we’d have to sit and be quiet and wait. Most nights, we fell asleep long before she finished, so she’d just cover us with some blankets she found and carry on.”

“Wow,” she said softly. “That’s hard work.”

“It sure was,” Drake chimed in. “And weekends werebrutal, in that she’d work twelve hours straight, and we had to go with her. I guess we were about six when we finally clued inthat if we helped her, she finished faster and we were all free to go and do something more fun.”

“Really? You guys cleaned the Catholic school starting age six?”

“Damn straight we did, babe,” Dux drawled. “We couldn’t do the heavy lifting stuff, obviously, not that young, but we could dust, or move chairs out of the way, or put things back on shelves after she’d cleaned them.”

“Yep,” Drake said. “And as we got older, we started doing the real cleaning with her – mopping the hallways, cleaning the windows, scrubbing the toilets… you name it, we did it. And to be honest with you, we’restillpretty fucking fantastic cleaners.”

“I totally believe you,” Briley said, thinking about the state of her guest room, and her kitchen, and bathroom. The men would give Mr. Clean a run for his money in terms of keeping surfaces spic-and-span. “Is this the school that you ended up attending as students?”

“It was,” Dux said. “Mom worked there from the time she was about nineteen, and the priests and nuns loved her. When our father abandoned us all, the school staff took up a collection for us, raised almost two thousand dollars, which was a gold mine back then. That money pulled our little family through some pretty rough times, kept the heat on that winter, kept food on the table. So when it came time for us to go to middle school, the Father Superior called her into his office and offered us places for free.”

“That’s amazing,” she said. “I mean, I know the Church is about charity and good deeds and all that, but that was really great of them. I’m assuming the tuition wasn’t cheap?”

“Not even slightly,” Drake confirmed. “It was a really great school, really sought-after in the city, and we just strolled on in. I mean… yeah, we’d worked with Mom for six years by that point, and we’d never been paid a cent for helping her, but we didn’tcare. Having us with her made her work go faster, and she got to actually have a bit of a life for a change.”

“What did she do with her free time?” Briley asked.

“Took dancing lessons,” Drake said enthusiastically. “And that was where she met a great,greatguy, our step-father, Brad. Well, actually, we consider him ourfather, full-stop. They got married when we were seventeen, and we couldn’t have been happier for her. She deserved a decent guy, and Brad is that, in spades.”

“I love that,” Briley said, truly happy for a woman that she’d never met, and why not? It sounded like the twins’ Mom was a hard-working woman, a real firebrand and kick-ass single parent, so why not root for her? “I’m happy that she’s got a good man in her life.”

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