“Nope.”
No need to draw attention to the monster trying to draw his brothers into the life.
Trent grabbed the bottle, draining it as his eyes scanned the place. It locked on the hazy figure in the far back corner by the jukebox.
Without saying anything, he set his empty on the table and moved across the bar, following her out through the back door and into the dingy lot.
He pressed her to the wall, pulled out his dick, and hiked up her skirt.
Pit’s girl. Girl he was making his just for the fact that he could. Girl who kept showing again and again because she couldn’t get enough.
She was a good fuck, but the only reason he’d gone after her was to get closer to Pit.
A little acid tossed in his face.
A precursor to the pain that was to come.
Juna Lamb.
Except when he finished, she clung to his neck, pressed her mouth to his ear. “I’m pregnant. It’s yours.”
Trent’s entire being seized.
Shut down.
Before it struck back up.
He jerked back and stared her down. “How the fuck do you know it’s mine?”
She dropped her eyes. “Pit only wants me on my knees.”
“You’re sure,” he demanded.
She nodded before terror filled her face. “He’s gonna kill me, Trent.”
It wasn’t an exaggeration. Not something tossed around like regular people did for effect or attention.
Pit would put her in the ground. Along with Trent’s kid.
It might have been the first time Trent felt real fear since the day his mother had died.
A spark in his blackened heart.
“I didn’t mean…” she trailed off, chewing at her lip.
“Didn’t mean what, Juna?” he demanded.
Brown eyes peered up at him. “I didn’t mean for this to happen.”
“And what do you want?”
Tears blurred her eyes. “I…I can’t raise a kid, Trent. I’m not…”
“Kid’s mine. You don’t have to worry about that.”
She blanched. “I’m going to need—”
Fucking typical.
It was always money. Always fucking money.
“Come by my place…tonight…after midnight. We’ll get you out of town and into hiding. Soon as the kid’s born, it’s mine. You disappear forever and you don’t say a fucking word, and I’ll take care of you. I’ll take care of everything. You understand?”
Grief, or maybe it was guilt, passed through her expression before she nodded. “I understand.”
“Is this really what you want?” Nathan asked. The face that was nearly the exact same as Trent’s filled with uncertainty. Guy would do anything for Trent same way as Trent would do for him.
It was what Trent had been trying to do for years.
Protecting.
Hiding.
Seeking retribution.
Looking at Nathan’s face, he finally got that he’d been doing it wrong all along. “This isn’t a good life. We stay, we end up behind bars or dead.”
Way everyone else did.
And that was not a fate Trent would entertain.
But he’d been fighting for so long, he’d forgotten what he was supposed to really be fighting for. His mother hadn’t asked for vengeance. She’d asked for life. It was time he gave it.
“But will you be happy?” Nathan pressed. “Only thing that matters.”
A scoff of a laugh left Trent. “You think this life makes me happy?”
Sadness passed through Nathan’s expression. “I don’t know that anything makes you happy, Trent. Not sure I’ve seen you smile since the day Mom died.”
“You make me happy.” Trent looked around where his brothers were gathered in his living room. “Three of you, that’s it. And…” Trent choked over the admission, though he pushed it out, done hiding from the rest of them. “And this kid.”
A second chance.
Nathan smiled a satisfied smile. “That’s because you finally found a reason, brother. A real reason. You fucking live for that reason. Not this twisted shit you’re tied up in. Promise me.”
Fuck.
Nathan was everything Trent had believed him to be.
Good.
Kind.
Right.
Dude deserved a life so much better than the one Trent had dragged him into, even though he spent most of his time trying to keep him and Logan out of the throes of it. Trying to give them some sense of normalcy when that was nothing but a pipe dream.
His own lie.
“I promise,” Trent muttered.
I promise.
Trent cleared his throat and got down to business. “Have a deal to see through tonight. Big one. I don’t show, Cutter will be coming to collect. Don’t want to raise any suspicion. Get ready. Pack only what you need. Meet here at four. We roll an hour before sunrise. That is if everyone is with me?”
All three of them stood, hands set on Trent’s shoulders as they gathered around. “We’re with you, brother. Always have been. Glad you can finally see it.”
Nathan pulled him in for a hug. “You’re gonna be a dad, man. That’s…”
Everything Trent hadn’t known could be a possibility.
It was hope. It was a flicker of joy just out of reach.
It was life.
And right then, right that second, he found a new reason.
One reason.
Thirty-Three
Trent
Had you ever felt a joy so big you thought you had to be hallucinating? Lost in a dream that you didn’t want to wake from because you’d really like to hold onto the fantasy forever? Something you wanted to cling so tightly to because there was no chance of it being real?