Page 5 of Kings & Chaos

“You got it.” She didn’t write anything down, just made her way back to the kitchen.

“What’s the usual?” I asked when she was out of earshot.

“Bacon cheeseburger, onion rings, beer,” he said.

“What if I don’t want onion rings?” Being argumentative was one of the only tools I had left in my don’t-fall-for-the-Kings toolbox.

He sighed. “Can we just skip the part where you prove you’re independent and get to the part where you trust me not to feed you something that isn’t delicious?”

“Fine,” I grumbled.

Honey returned with two beers and set them on the table without a word. I took a drink, then looked up to find Rock studying my face.

“Want to tell me about it?” he asked.

“About what?”

“Whatever’s been on your mind the last couple of weeks,” he said.

I considered telling him about the security tape, asking him what had really happened the night Emma disappeared. I almost believed he’d tell me the truth.

Almost.

But as much as I believed he cared about me — and I did — there was something else I knew was true: his loyalty to Neo and Oscar was ironclad. They were brothers in all but name.

Family.

And in our business, nothing trumped family, even the found kind.

Sometimes especially the found kind.

“Just… you know,” I said. “Everything.”

He reached across the table and stroked my wrist. I was mesmerized by his soft touch, the diamond winking from his crown ring, the snakes wrapped around it like lovers.

“You sure you don’t want to talk to someone?” he asked. “Besides us? No one has to know.”

The topic of therapy had come up more than once since the incident at the cabin. It was one of the more shocking things that had happened in the past few weeks, and that was saying something.

When your business could get you — and everyone else in the family — sent to prison, talking things out with a stranger was kind of frowned upon.

But Rock and Oscar had insisted it was fine, that it would help me process the fact that I’d almost been murdered, that I’d come face-to-face with what might have happened to Emma.

Neo had even been okay with it.

“I’m good,” I said to Rock. I didn’t want to talk it out with anyone. I wanted to find my sister. I wanted to know if I could trust the Kings. A therapist couldn’t answer those questions.

“Let us know if you change your mind,” he said. “We can even get someone to come to the house if it would make you more comfortable.’’

I looked around the bar, hunting for a change of subject. “Who’s Syd?”

“Founding member of the Blackwell Blades,” Rock said.

I blinked. “I feel like you’re talking in another language right now.”

He laughed. “It’s the biggest MC in Blackwell Falls.”

Now I got it. The Blackwell Blades was a motorcycle club. “He owns the place?”

---