“Damian, for fuck’s sake! I’m getting bloody old here.”
He laughed. “I better go.” He pressed another kiss to her lips. “I’ll be back.”
She couldn’t wait.
Chapter Ten
“Why didn’t we bring Landon and the others?” Damian asked.
Rick climbed back into the car, and turned over the ignition. “They didn’t need to come, but you did. I wanted to talk with you.”
“You’re going to berate me again for taking my eye off the ball.”
“Nope. We’ve got somewhere to go.”
His uncle was giving him more questions than actual answers, and he was bored of trying to guess what Rick was thinking. The man seemed to have a mind of his own.
“You know, Damian, even though I’m in England, and I work as much as I do, I still have time to talk with my brothers. I stay updated on everything that is going on around here, and I want to say how sorry I am for your loss. I didn’t really know Betty well, but I’ve heard she was a good woman.”
Damian looked toward Rick. “What is this?”
“Maddox called me when it happened. Told me that you were having trouble dealing with the guilt. Did you love her?”
He didn’t say anything to start off with, and instead stared out of the car. “I don’t have anything to say.”
“And that just tells me you’ve got a whole lot to say. Mia seems nice.”
“You’ve barely said two words to her.”
“She brought you back into the fold, Damian. What I want to know is why you were at Ivan’s. Your father never asked, and none of your brothers did either. It’s why I know the problems that are happening are because no one is paying attention. Why don’t you start by telling me the truth?”
Damian ran a finger over his lips, knowing that Rick wasn’t going to let him out of this damn car. “You want the truth?”
“Yes, I want the truth, and I’ll know if you’re lying. I’ve been away, but I’m not a fucking idiot. I helped take care of all of your ugly asses for a time.”
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t live in England forever, and I didn’t meet Mandy straight away. We all helped raise you. Your mother had six boys one after the other. We all had to pitch in. You guys were not easy, not by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, you guys were fucking hard. Jacob was always exploring the house. There was one time I found him with a knife chasing after Oliver around
the house. When I asked what he was doing, he said he saw it on television. Little brat had changed the channel to a horror one, and thought it was okay to start killing his brothers. That was a hard one to explain.”
Damian burst out laughing. “You’re kidding right. You’re going down memory lane right now?”
“I just thought about the fact that you’re one of the youngest of my brother’s kids. Things get pretty hectic with life and shit, and you may have been left behind.”
“I don’t need attention, Rick. I’m a grown ass man.”
“And yet you were at Ivan’s for a reason, and I want to know what it was. You’d already told your dad and brothers to fuck off. You couldn’t stand Gabriel or any of the Coltons, so keep it real for me, Damian. I don’t want any of your bullshit.” Rick kept on driving, and Damian still didn’t know where they were going.
“We’ve got shit to do.”
“Did you find what you were looking for at a bottom of a bottle, or is that why you want to Ivan’s? You were causing a fight there. Trying to gain attention.”
Damian paused as Rick brought the car to park at a curb outside of the cemetery where he had laid Betty to rest. “What the fuck are you doing?” When he went to pull on the door handle to let himself out, Rick locked them.
“You’re not leaving, and we’re not moving an inch until we resolve this problem. We’ve done the damage control, and you work amazingly well. I know you’ve got it in you, but now I need to deal with that other tricky little problem.”
“Is that what all this is about? You think I’m a problem?”