Page 1 of Queen of Diamonds
1
Kinsey Landon fingeredthe much read letter from her mother, and although she knew it by heart, she read it again.
My darling Kinsey,
If you are reading this, then I am no longer with you. Please don’t cry too much, sweetheart. I’ve been blessed to have you in my life, and having you has kept me sane.
You see, I had three sons who were taken from me, and my heart has cried each day from missing them. Without you in my life, I don’t know how I would have gone on.
I know I should have told you about your brothers, and I planned to, but I kept putting it off, unsure of how to explain walking away from my sons. You see, I left them for you.
The first time you asked about your father, I told you his name was John Landon and that he was dead. That was a lie, sweetheart. Maybe he’s dead by now, I don’t know, but your father’s name was Gordon Gentry. He was not a nice man, Kinsey, but I would have stayed with him for my sons.
When he learned I was pregnant with you, he refused to believe he was your father. Of course he was! I don’t know when he thought I’d had the time or opportunity to have an affair, as he controlled every minute of my life. He demanded I get rid of you, and when I refused, he tried to beat you out of my stomach. I knew then that to protect you, I had to leave.
It was the hardest decision of my life, leaving my boys with that man, but if I’d tried to take them, he would have hunted us down. My heart is still broken because I didn’t have the courage or means to defy him.
But there was a life inside me. You. I had no choice but to protect you, my sweet girl. Fortunately, a man your father sometimes hired to do odd jobs took pity on me and helped me escape by driving me to the bus station. I will always owe him for that act of kindness because he helped me save you.
I had to believe that I had instilled in my sons honor and a love of learning so they would grow to be men I would be proud of. If you are asking where they are today, I don’t know. All I can tell you is that their names are Alex, Court, and Nate Gentry, and that the last time I saw them, they were living in Ocala, Florida.
From the moment I knew you were in my belly, I have loved you, Kinsey. Please forgive me for not being honest with you before now.
You are a beautiful, intelligent woman, and I’m so very proud of you, daughter. If you should decide to find your brothers, please tell them why I left. Tell them that I never stopped loving them.
I only ask one thing of you, Kinsey. Be happy. I love you through eternity.
Mom.
Kinsey had foundher mother’s letter a year ago, only hours after Wanda Landon’s funeral. Until that day Kinsey had thought she knew who she was. She’d believed she was the only beloved child of Wanda Landon, and that her father, John Landon, had died before she was a year old.
Now she knew the truth and the real reason she’d never been able to picture her father in her mind. It was impossible to have memories of a man who’d never existed. Yet she had imagined him, not so much his appearance but how he would have held her when she was a baby, how he would have looked down at his daughter with love in his eyes when she was cuddled in his arms. Sometimes she could almost remember him singing lullabies to her as she fell asleep.
Turned out that she only had those faint pictures in her mind because those were the things her mother had told her when she’d asked questions about him. She supposed that her mother had meant well when she created a fictional father for Kinsey, wanting her daughter to believe she had been loved and wanted by him. And wasn’t that as far from the truth as possible?
All these years she’d mourned a father who never was, had always been sad that he hadn’t lived to see his daughter grow up. She loved her mother dearly, missed her terribly, but she was having trouble forgiving her for the lies.
She folded the letter that had snatched the ground out from under her feet and put it back into the worn envelope. All her life, she’d thought she was Kinsey Landon, and that had been another lie. Should she change her last name?
“Kinsey Gentry,” she said, testing the sound of it. Nope, it didn’t feel like her. Although she didn’t know who she was anymore. When her mother died, Kinsey had been left alone in the world, or so she’d thought until finding her mother’s letter. After thinking long and hard, she’d made the decision to finish her last year of school before doing anything. Maybe it was her way of sticking her head in the sand, but she was still grieving her mother’s death and was carrying a full class load while working part-time. There was no room on her schedule for looking for a family she hadn’t known she had and wasn’t sure she wanted.
But as soon as she’d graduated, her moratorium on doing nothing had ended. She was out of excuses, and it was either burn the letter and forget she’d ever read it, or find the Gentry brothers. It was still impossible to think of herself as their sister. All she wanted to do was see them, and then she could get on with her life.
After spending months searching for her brothers, she’d finally found their names on a business license for a biker bar in Miami called Aces & Eights, and that had ended her hope that they were men she’d want to know.
Still, she couldn’t resist checking them out. They’d never know she was there. But she needed someone big and strong to go with her, and she knew just who to ask.
“Ineedyou to go with me to Aces and Eights. It’s a biker bar.”
“Huh?”
Kinsey lowered her menu, peering over the top at her friend. “I said, I need you to go—”
“I heard what you said.” Aiden Calloway’s eyebrows scrunched together. “I’m just trying to figure out why you said it.”
“It’s a long story.” Aiden was one of her best friends. He’d been one of the University of Miami’s star football players whose failing grades were going to get him kicked off the team in their freshman year if he didn’t improve them. He’d hired her to tutor him, and they’d hit it off.
He was a good-looking guy, a ginger with gorgeous green eyes that women sighed over. Although not a top draft pick, he’d been signed by the Miami Dolphins, and she couldn’t have been happier for him. He was also a big man, all muscle, and exactly what she needed for protection when she went to her brothers’ bar. She couldn’t imagine anyone daring to mess with him.
