I insist on going to the hospital, strapping Bryn into her sling.
“I’ll meet you there,” Kiln says in a firm tone. “I have to see to my mother.”
A couple of hours later, he joins me in the private waiting room, smiling at Bryn as she sleeps against me.
“Are you all right?” His haggard look concerns me. I almost feel sorry for him.
He smiles sadly. “I should be asking you that.”
“No,” I whisper, thinking of Abby and Jason. “I won’t be okay until I know Abby and Jason are out of the woods.”
He rubs his eyes, not commenting.
“Have you called Sloane?”
“Twice. Last time, he ordered me to get my ass down here with you.”
“Where were you?”
“Calling in a favor,” he responds on a long breath. “Trying to get an emergency order to commit my mother for psychiatric evaluation.”
Reaching out, I cover his hand with mine. “I’m so sorry, Kiln.”
He squeezes my hand gently. “So am I, Georgiana. If she’s found guilty, she’ll be charged with your attempted murder.”
Heat warms my cheeks and I squirm. “I…I—”
“You’re not to blame,” he says gruffly. “Only one person on this fucking planet is to blame for all this dysfunctional bullshit. Rand Mason.” Anger removes some of his vulnerability. “He betrayed my mother. His sons, by pitting us against each other. My sister.” His voice cracks and I look out the window, noticing a pigeon swooping by in the clear evening.
Kiln and I have had our fair share of problems. His distress should satisfy me, but it doesn’t.
“I think about what I’ll say to her if I see her again. I’ve never forgotten you? I’ve missed you every day of my fucking life? Or I’ve hated Sloane for all the wrong reasons?”
He needs to vent, so I stay silent.
“Should I tell her I exalted her fucking murderer?”
“Sloane has told me a lot about your sister,” I admit softly. “I think all she’d want you to do is make up for lost time with each other. Store your memories so you can share them with her.”
“I owe you an apology,” he says instead of addressing my comments. “The things I’ve done to you and said to you are fucked up.”
“They are,” I agree. If he hadn’t been present today, both Bryn and I would’ve been killed. He still could’ve allowed our deaths, but he didn’t. Despite our history and the revenge he once wanted against Sloane, he saved our lives. “You had your reasons, so I understand and I forgive you. You were quite a dickhole, but it’s in the past.”
He grins. “Fair enough. I’m still a dickhole. I’m just contrite for my behavior toward you and Sloane.”
Bryn wiggles and opens her eyes, yawning. I smile at her adorable baby noises.
“Georgie?” Dad says as he opens the door and steps in.
I hop to my feet and rush to him, returning his embrace. Caught between us, Bryn whines in protest.
“H-how is Abby?” he manages. “Both of them?”
“No word yet,” I answer, not asking who informed him. He could’ve gotten the news from any number of sources.
“Is she really bad off?”
If Abby doesn’t make it, I don’t know what my dad will do. Even if they’ve been keeping their distance, he, at least, knew she was alive and well. Abby is in critical condition, but I don’t want to tell Dad.
Avoiding his eyes, I unstrap my daughter and respond. “I haven’t received an update since she was brought in to ER.”
He nods, reaches for Bryn, then drops his arms.
“Do you want to hold your granddaughter?”
Instead of answering, he takes her. “She looks like you.”
I smile, then sit down again.
After what seems like an eternity, Jason’s surgeon arrives two minutes before Abby’s, both with good news.
“They’re in ICU and are allowed one visitor,” Abby’s surgeon says.
“I’ll look in on Jason,” Kiln volunteers.
“Uh, I’ll keep Bryn while you go to Abby.” Dad’s offer is in the right place, but I know he wants to check on her himself.
“Life’s short and fragile, Dad. We all deserve happiness. You have a chance at that with Abby. Take it.”
Gratitude shines in his eyes and he smiles at me, following Kiln and the doctors out of the room.
Exhausted, I drop into a chair and find a bottle for Bryn. As I hold it and she sucks, I call Grandma and do something I’ve never done.
I order her to back away from my dad so he can have a future with Abby if he chooses.
Her agreement is another small miracle in a day filled with them.
I’m shocked, but don’t question my good fortune.
Chapter Thirty-Two
It’s been a long week.
Every time I leave Georgie, something happens to her. She pays for the cost of my fame and my sins. It isn’t physical this time. No, my aunt took the brunt. I raced from the airport, heart in my throat because I had no information but the update I’d gotten from Kiln.
Because his mother is involved and a little brother we never knew about, Jaeger keeps statements about the shootings to a minimum, saying simply that Georgie was the victim of a home invasion. Brenda, Sam, and Stu are all dead, so they can’t refute the claim and Alexia is institutionalized.
Helen is less than pleased. “I’m beginning to think you aren’t capable of taking care of my granddaughter, Mr. Mason,” she snapped over the phone the next morning.
“Fuck off,” I growled, not in the mood to hear her bullshit.
“Keep Georgiana safe,” she countered. “My heart won’t be able to take burying her as I had to do with Cassandra.”
The tremble in her voice made me quickly change the subject. Yes, Helen is human, but I don’t see myself in a role where I offer her sympathy on a regular basis. “What did you tell my father to make him confess?”
She sniffled and then sighed. “The same thing that got him to tell me what I needed to know to have something over your head.”
Now, I’m really fucking curious, although I already know who it had to do with. “Something about my mother. What was it?”
“Are you sure you want to know, sir?”
If giving her sympathy is an experience I don’t relish, getting it is even worse. “Yeah.”
“Your mother was an alcoholic,” she said after a moment. “She had several stints in rehab. A little digging in the right places gave me the information. In exchange for something on you, I swore to keep your mother’s secret. I’m many things, Mr. Mason,” she continued as if she hadn’t completely blown my mind. “But I’m a mother first and I believe in love. I didn’t like your father’s willingness to betray you. Yet I understood, that even in death, he loved Bryn and would do whatever it took to preserve her pristine reputation.”
I ended the conversation with her shortly thereafter and went to Georgie as she sat in Bryn’s nursery, rocking the baby and reading to her. She looked quite tired, so I sent her to take a shower while I took care of our daughter. Once we had Bryn down for the evening, I told her about my conversation with her grandmother.
Jason and Abby were both released from the hospital last night. This morning, she and Georgie tearfully told me about Brenda’s fucking shakedown. After all my aunt went through, I forgave her easily enough, happy when Parnell invited her back to Houston with him to complete her recovery. She will take over the care of Asher, my ten-year-old brother. I don’t know how that will work out Given Helen’s determination that my aunt and her son-in-law not be together, I’m more concerned with how that relationship will work out than I am with Abby’s mothering abilities. Though Parnell’s sworn it will and Abby wants to give him a chance to prove it, I’ll see it when I believe it. On the other hand, she nurtured Georgie and protected her. I feel confident she’ll do the same with Asher. I intend to meet him eventually, though he has yet to learn how we’re all co
nnected.
Meanwhile, Georgie is throwing evil looks my way. It’s her birthday and I haven’t acknowledged it. Fucking Cash is running late. He was supposed to be here with her tour bus bright and early this morning.
It’s one in the afternoon and the fucker isn’t here yet.
I open the front door again, just to make sure my eyesight isn’t failing me and I’m missing a big ass bus coming down my driveway.
“Hey,” Georgie says from behind me. “Are you expecting anyone?”
Slamming the door shut, I face her. Her hair is shoved up, somehow staying in place, though it’s the messiest bun I’ve ever seen. “Nope,” I lie, wincing as her face falls a little more.
The guys are coming on their own bus. Instead of purchasing a brand new one, they found a used one to suit their needs.
“You’ve forgotten, haven’t you?” she asks me in a small voice.
Forgotten her birthday? Her eighteenth birthday? Is she fucking serious?
Wanting to punch Cash, I sigh and pull her into my arms. “Happy Birthday, baby.”
After standing on her tiptoes to accept my kiss, she squirms and blushes. “Today is a very big day for me,” she begins.
“Tell me about it.”
She laughs nervously. “I wanted to do something really special for it.”
“Georgie—”
Digging in her dress pocket, she pulls out a gold band and holds it up for me. “Like ask you to wear a ring from me,” she says softly, the look in her eyes and on her face tender and vulnerable. “I-I had it engraved. See?”
She humbles me and never ceases to amaze me. I take the jewelry from her and squint to read the inscription on the inside: U r my inferno.
I smile and slip the band on, wrapping her in my arms and holding her close.
“You’ll wear it?”
“Of course, sweetheart. Why wouldn’t I?”
“You didn’t get yourself one when we married.”
“Do you know all the shit I had to remember? A band for me was the last thing on my mind. I was too busy trying to get your wedding together as I thought you’d want it to be.”
She knows about her grandmother ordering me not to bring her in on it, so she just nods.
Before we say anything else, I hear the unmistakable sounds of air brakes. “About fucking time.”
“What?”
“Bryn’s with Zelda?”
“Yeah. In her swing.”
When a horn starts honking, I grit my teeth. Arm around Georgie’s waist, I open the door and stop as Cash and Josh exit the bus, grinning look lunatics.
“Josh! Cash!” Georgie screams, racing out of my arms to hug her brothers. “What are you two doing here?”
“Delivering—”
Before they ruin my surprise, I interrupt Cash and nod to the bus “Happy Birthday, sweetheart.”
She blinks. “A bus is my present?”
It hasn’t dawned on her why. All the better for me. “Remember you asked to come with me on the road? If you don’t mind sharing your bus with me and Bryn—”
“Holy fuck!” Georgie squeals, ignoring my glare and her pregnancy to bounce up and down, only halting when she catches sight of the second bus.
The guys disembark from it, all in smiles and followed by Georgie’s new best friend, Meggie, along with Zoann, Bailey, Kendall, Bunny and seven children. A moment later, four Harleys speed down the driveway.
“I’ve got to see inside,” Georgie says after everyone has been greeted.
She drags me with her, gasping as she explores the bus in its entirety. In the bedroom, she launches herself in my arms. “Oh my God, can you ever forgive me? I was so unfair to you.”
“You were,” I agree with a sigh and hang my head like a sad-sap.
“Oh Sloane,” she whines. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know.”
I shrug, remembering Val’s advice and playing on her sympathy. He’s been married longer than me and seems pretty fucking happy with Outlaw’s sister as his wife. He pulls low motherfucker moves at times from the sound of it. They all fucking do, because their wives do their girly moves to get their way.
Standing on the bed gives Georgie a height advantage. She touches her forehead against mine. “I know how to make it up to you,” she whispers, her fingers tickling my nape.
My dick is already hard, anticipating her mouth. “How’s that?” I murmur, pressing my lips to hers. I tweak her nipples and she groans. “A dick suck?”
“Is that what you want?” she breathes.
I lift her shirt. “What did you have in mind?”
“Giving you pussy, but I’ll suck your dick to say sorry.”
“Getting both from you would take away all my pain.”
She giggles and grinds against me, then proceeds to show me just how sorry she is for ever doubting me.
I once read ‘When I was a child, I spoke as a child, understood as a child, and thought as a child, but when I became a man I put aside childish things.’ Until the day I met a purple-eyed girl who turned my world upside down, I couldn’t grasp the meaning of that line. By showing me patience, she taught it to me.
Without faith in us and tomorrow, I have no hope, but without her love, I have nothing.
Once we finish christening the bus, I guide Georgie into the house. It’s bursting with noise and activity. CJ is chasing Ryan, yelling, “Law.” Harley is crawling and whining in her attempt to keep up. Val is leaning against a wall, smoking.
Georgie heads to the kitchen where the other women and kids are with Zelda.
“Where’s everyone?” I ask the RC.
He nods toward the music studio. Though there’s a huge window, no one can see inside the room. It’s only viewable from the other side.
“Your woman finally eighteen?” Mortician turns his attention away from Adam’s bass long enough to impart that. “Congratulations.”
“Yo, Sloane,” Outlaw says. “Since all our fuckin’ asses here and it’s your girl’s birthday, let’s do a fuckin’ party, then for Megan birthday go with the original fuckin’ plans.”
“If you don’t like it, tough shit,” Josh says. “I’ve already called and ordered her cake and champagne and flowers.”
“This is my fucking house, asshole. If I didn’t like it, it wouldn’t fucking happen.”
Cash grins. “You’re growing on me, Sloane.”
“Fuck off,” I throw at him.
Outlaw goes to saddlebags that are situated in a corner. Opening them he pulls out a cut, then returns to where I’m standing and holds it out. Accepting it, I look over it, smiling at my road name. Rockstar.
“You’re a special motherfucker,” Johnnie tells me from where he’s sitting on the sofa. “Most honorary members don’t wear fucking colors.”
The door opens and Georgie sticks her head in, beaming in our direction. She’s still glowing from the orgasms I gave her.
“How long are you here for, Josh?”
“What about me?” Cash calls.
Josh smirks at his brother. “For a few days, Georgie.”
“You Cash?”
“We’re going to check into flights for the girls and the kids,” Johnnie answers.
“You all should’ve come on the buses,” Georgie says. “There was enough room.
“I woulda been goin’ stir fuckin’ crazy,” Outlaw grumbles.
“Dude, hang out for a couple of days,” Maitland says. “We’ll send your women home on our jet.”
Georgie smiles when Outlaw agrees. “I have to get back to my friends,” she chirps, backing out the door. Before she closes the door, she calls, “welcome to our home.”
Home? I haven’t had a home in years. And the home I thought I had as a boy was just an illusion. This time, though, I am home. Much has been endured for me to find a place for myself and I’ll endure much more to keep it. In the mirror, my reflection stares back at me. Face to face with Georgie, I see my soul and my heart.
Wherever Georgie is, i
s where I want to be.
Before she escapes the room, I pull her into my arms. “I love you,” I whisper to her.
She stands on her tiptoes to put her arms around my neck. “I love you, too.”
I finally have her. My strength. My air.
My Georgie.
If you are in emotional distress or struggling to cope, and are affected by any of the issues covered in this book, please contact:
The Samaritans USA 1(800) 273-TALK
The Samaritans UK 08457 90 90 90
Playlist
When a Man Loves a Woman by Michael Bolton
Do I Wanna Know? by Arctic Monkeys
Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran
Stand By Me by Ben E. King
Chains by Nick Jonas
See You Again (feat. Charlie Puth) by Wiz Khalifa, Charlie Puth
R U Mine? by Arctic Monkeys
I’ve Been Loving You Too Long by Otis Redding
Time, Love And Tenderness by Michael Bolton
Survivor by Destiny’s Child
Home by ZZ Ward
Said I Loved You…But I Lied by Michael Bolton
(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman by Aretha Franklin
The Way We Were by Barbra Streisand
Baby, I Love You by Aretha Franklin
Killing Me Softly with His Song by the Fugees
Endless Love by Diana Ross, Lionel Ritchie
Wind Beneath My Wings by Bette Midler
You’re All I Need To Get By by Marvin Gaye, Tammie Terrell
Don’t Know Why by Norah Jones
Dr. Feelgood by Aretha Franklin
5 o’clock in the Morning by Lily Allen
A Woman’s Worth by Alicia Keys
Check On It by Beyoncé, Bun B, Slim Thug
Woman by John Lennon
My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion
American Woman by Lenny Kravitz
Just A Dream by Nelly
Candy Shop by 50 Cent
You Are So Beautiful by Joe Cocker
The Rose by Bette Midler
Phoenix Rising Rock Band: The Series Page 74
