Page 11 of Jack of Hearts
And here comes the third degree.“Ramon wants to meet up with me.” Hopefully that would divert Nate’s attention.
“I figured.” Nate eyed him in the way that always made Alex want to squirm. “You’re off your game, Alex. Actually, you’ve not been yourself for a week or so. What’s going on?”
Alex came close to spilling everything, because that was the effect the Nate Look had had on him from the time he was a boy. They walked out onto the street, the steamy air from a recent rain shower hanging heavily around them. Even though it was near midnight, it was damn hot. It was time to tell his brothers about Madison, but not now, standing outside a popular nightclub. The longer Alex kept Madison a secret, the more pissed Nate would be when he learned about her. His brothers knew him too well and were already aware that something was going on with him. If he didn’t explain soon, Nate would tie him to a chair and interrogate him until he blabbed all. Might as well get it over with.
“There is something on my mind.” He raised a hand, waving at a taxi parked down the block. “Tell Court to meet us for lunch tomorrow, and I’ll fill you both in at the same time.”
“Come up to my place. I’ll have sandwiches from the deli delivered.”
The hand Nate had put on his shoulder was comforting, and not for the first time Alex’s heart swelled with love for his brothers. Their father had been a cruel man with a quick temper and heavy hand. The day had finally come when their mother had left, and Alex couldn’t blame her for that. He did, however, blame her for not taking her sons with her, leaving them with a man she’d seen knock them around at the slightest provocation. Most times the bastard didn’t need a reason. If not for his older brothers, Alex wasn’t sure he would have survived.
“Great. See you tomorrow.” He opened the back door of the cab.
“Be careful around Ramon, brother.”
“Always am.”
During the ride to Ramon’s, Alex tried to block the memories that had reared their ugly head, but there were times when his father refused to be banished from his mind. Like the day five-year-old Alex had dropped the heavy bucket of slop while carrying it to the pigpen. He still had scars on his back from the old man’s belt buckle. For some reason, he was more of a disappointment to his father than Nate or Court. Or maybe as the smallest boy, he’d been easier to pick on. Who knew where that bastard was concerned?
It would have been worse if Nate and Court hadn’t dragged him away whenever their father was in a rage, all three of them hiding in the woods until their father passed out—a nightly occurrence—and they could sneak back into the house.
Their mother had been too afraid of her husband to stick up for them, and they hadn’t wanted her to. She got enough beatings on her own. Until she’d left them, there was always a meal waiting for them when they would come out of hiding.
And then there was his son-of-a-bitch father with his visions of grandeur, always bragging about how he was going to turn their five acres of dirt into a thousand-acre cattle ranch to breed prime Angus beef. Unless he’d been some kind of magician—which he wasn’t, just a mean drunk—there was no way that piece-of-shit land, their three pigs, a yard full of chickens, and one ornery milk cow were going to morph into a fancy ranch.
“As soon as my useless sons get off their lily-white asses and pull their weight, we’ll have us that ranch. Cain’t do it all myself, boys” was the old man’s favorite saying. And that was when he was in a good mood, which was seldom. Most times, they were working their lily-white asses off while ducking the old man’s fists.
The only reason they hadn’t flunked out of school every year was because their mother had been fierce about making them study and do their homework. Never mind that they could barely keep their eyes open sitting around the scratched-up, wobbly table each night while their father drunkenly snored away, passed out in his plaid La-Z-Boy.
“I want you boys to be more than your father, and an education is the only way that will happen” was her favorite saying.
He’d never forget the day he watched his half–Seminole Indian mother walking down the dirt road, knowing he’d never see her again. She’d gathered her sons one day when their father had gone into town, told them she loved them, but that she had to leave. When they had begged her to take them with her, she’d smiled her sad smile.
“This is the hardest day of my life, leaving you in the hands of your father. If I take you, he will find us and kill us all. This he has sworn to do if I dared such a thing. There is a reason I must go, but you are strong boys and you will grow up to be men I can be proud of.” She had kissed each of them as tears streamed down her face. “Nathan, you will see that you and your brothers study hard and get good grades. Court, you will help your older brother protect Alex.” She’d knelt then. “My baby. This will be the hardest for you, but be brave and strong for your brothers. Can you do that?”
Alex stared out the taxi window, remembering how he’d promised to be strong even as hot tears had flowed down his cheeks and burned his skin. He’d been seven that day, the last time he’d cried. Brave, strong boys didn’t cry, and after that, no matter how heavy his father’s hand was, he’d willed away his tears.
That had been the saddest day of his life. The day his father keeled over and died had been the happiest. Nate had been seventeen, and having stepped into the role of mother at age eleven—continuing their late-night study sessions, keeping them fed and clean— upon the old man’s death, he had stepped into the role of father, too. He’d pushed them hard to maintain their good grades, to follow him into college, and after they’d gotten their degrees, Nate had recruited him and Court into the FBI.
No, he hadn’t cried since watching his mother walk away with slumped shoulders, but his damn eyes were burning from all the remembering. Not in the best of moods to be hooking up with Ramon, he did what he knew how to do best. He crushed the video streaming through his mind belonging to that lost boy.
He paid the driver, pausing as he exited the taxi to survey the newest South Beach hot spot where Ramon had said to meet him. Purple, pink, and turquoise neon lights pulsated, screaming out the name of the club. A line of people dressed in their hottest clubbing clothes wound around the corner, hoping to get into Rage. Alex hated places like this, but work was work, so he walked up to the bouncer, knowing that because Ramon had invited him here his name would be on the list.
“Alex Gentry,” he said.
The man eyed his phone, scrolling down the screen with his thumb. “Yep. You can go in.”
“Can I be your date?” a pretty brunette said, slipping out of line and linking her arm around his.
He smiled at her. “Why not.” Once inside, he freed his arm. “Go play,” he said.
“What if I want to play with you?” She blinked long lashes at him.
“Define play,” he said, lifting his mouth in a half smile that he’d learned women loved.
“I love games, if that answers your question,” she said, her gaze leveled on his mouth.
Hell. He couldn’t do this. There wasn’t a future in the cards with Madison, but he couldn’t see her again knowing his mouth had been on another woman’s. And he would see her again, that was inevitable as she was Ramon’s cousin.
