“All this from someone who barely remembers her voice.”
“That’s a low blow, Jade, even for you.”
I sigh.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. What do you need me to do?”
“Speak with the mortgage company. See if there’s some last rabbit we can pull out of a hat to save the house. I spoke to them a couple of times but they were reluctant to talk numbers and specifics with me, because my name’s not on the house.”
“Neither is mine.”
“No but you’re Dad’s power of attorney.”
“What? No I’m not.”
“You are. I’ve seen the paperwork. It was drawn up years ago.”
“When?”
“When you were living with Tyson.”
“That’s crazy. Can you just do that? Just draw up a power of attorney without telling the person?”
Camden turns his head to look at me.
“I guess you can when it’s your family.”
“All right. I’m not promising anything, Jana. I’ve got drama of my own to deal with. I don’t need his shit too.”
“Just make a few calls.”
“I’ll let you know what happens.”
“Okay.”
After I hang up the phone, I stare at it for a moment. Quiet and reflective.
“You know you have to actually get your hands on a physical copy of that POA to use it. Companies are going to want you to fax it over before they deal with you. They’re not just going to take your word for it,” Camden says.
“What.”
“You’re going to have to go get it from your father.”
“No wait, I’ll call Jana back.”
“No, Jade. What are you afraid of? He can’t hurt you anymore. He’s just a broken down old man who’s losing his house. I’ll come with you if you want.”
“You will?”
“I’m offended you even have to question that.”
“Because I fucked your brains out for a week?” I grin.
“No, baby, because I’ve made it perfectly clear that you belong to me, and I take care of what’s mine.”
“I like it when you call me baby.” I tease as I climb him like a tree.
“Careful, Jade. This chair is old.”
“I said I like it when you call me baby. Not Jade.”
“You do, huh?” He smiles at my playfulness.
“Yep. It’s so much better than itty bitty, or munchkin, or tiny terror, or lima bean, or tiny tot or—”
“I get it. You’re sick of the short jokes.”
“Elementary, Watson!” I throw my hand up.
“Then come here, baby.”
And Camden pulls me in for a long kiss that ends when we both fall out of his wobbly desk chair and onto the floor laughing hysterically.
My anxiety builds as Camden drives to my old neighborhood. He’s adorable though, because he’s trying everything to make me relax. Talk about someone not liking having no control over a situation. He hates that not I’m smiling, or laughing, or busting his balls. I’m just quiet, and he can’t stand a quiet Jade.
“So you grew up about twenty minutes from us.” He tries again at making conversation.
“Uh-huh.”
“I never did get the story of how you and Roman met. You were wrapped up with the drug addict really young right? So it couldn’t have been a romantic connection.”
Look at him digging for gold.
“Your best friend never told you the story? I find that hard to believe.”
“We don’t talk about shit like that, Jade. We just talk about money.”
“Really? He wasn’t like I hit that the other night,” I say in my best Roman impersonation.
“What the fuck!” My king roars. “I specifically asked that bastard.”
“You’re so easy.” I chuckle.
“That’s not funny, Jade.”
“Okay, okay. I’ll tell you the story. It’s not a big deal honestly. I was at a party when I was seventeen. I was there with Tyson. These were his friends, so while he got high with them, I was mostly relegated to kitchen duty. Keeping things clean. Making sure no one was sticking roofies in the girls’ drinks.”
“Nice.”
“I know, he was a shitty boyfriend, but I didn’t know any differently. He was my first one.”
“I’m your first boyfriend.”
“Okay, King Kong, you’re my first.”
“So continue.”
“So anyway, the party was getting out of hand. Everyone was high. The music was loud. The house was trashed. Typical party for those days. Then two guys got in an argument right outside of the house. Total stoners. A knife was drawn and one of them was stabbed in the side. I saw it through the window. I’ll never forget it. The kid who was stabbed was wearing a white wife beater shirt. He fell immediately to the ground. Clutching his stomach. I could see a pool of red blood forming on his side through the shirt. I thought for sure he was dead.”
“Fucked up.”
“Yeah, turn on this block, Cam. It’s a shortcut.”
“Okay.”
“So anyway, the neighbors must have called the cops, and people started scattering. I went looking for Tyson but I couldn’t find him. I thought that he might have been slouched in a corner somewhere high, so I continued to look for him in the house. It never dawned on me that he left me there.”
“Damn.”
“Exactly. So when the police came I was still in the house like an idiot. They took me and a couple of other people in for questioning. Roman just happened to be at the station for something. I never knew what. He was talking himself out of something, throwing Joseph’s name around as leverage, but I could see that they were going for it. I thought maybe Joseph was a high-powered lawyer or something, so I did the same thing with the woman questioning me. They gave me a female cop thinking I’d cooperate better. I told her a little of what I saw which I could tell she didn’t really believe. So then I decided to tell her that Joseph Masterson was my stepfather, and that he would back my story, and that immediately made her stop writing her report.”
“He definitely knows a lot of people. His name rings bell in low circles.”
“What’s your deal with him?”
“I think he knows something about my father’s murder.”
“Really? No offense, but I thought your father dealt in petty crime.”
“Joseph wasn’t always who he is.”
“So you worked for a man you thought had something do with your dad’s murder?”
“I only recently found this out. That’s why I wanted us on our own. There’s nothing I can do about it now, but I certainly didn’t want to continue making money for the prick.”
“Wow.”
“Don’t say anything to Roman, okay?”
“What about the whole we’re a collective speech you gave me?”
“This is the only thing I’ll ask you to keep from him. No matter how much shit Rome talks about the old man, Joseph is his father. His blood. It will change things between us if we tell him.”
“Cutter knows.”
“Cutter knows everything.”
“Oh right, he did tell me you two were interchangeable.”
“Did he?”
“He did.”
“Well, not with everything.” He chuckles.
“No, not with everything.”
“So go on. You said Joseph was your stepdad. Ballsy move with the son in the building.”
“Exactly, it was definitely a hail Mary, but it worked. She told her superior, who pulled Roman to the side and asked him about it. Roman came over to me and gave an Oscar worthy performance. ‘So you’re my father’s other kid I’ve been hearing about?’”
“Hilarious.”
“Yeah and luckily I overheard his earlier conversation, so I knew his first name. So I said, ‘Yes, Roman, I’m your baby sis.’ It was a priceless performance. It took everything for me not to use my Darth Vader voice.”
“You’re nuts.”
“And that was it. He got me out of there, and we’ve been thicker than thieves ever since. He would take me out to eat for my birthday some years. He’d check in on me once he discovered how much of a loser Tyson was, and then when the fights started escalating between us, is when I think he decided he was going to pull me out of there. By hook or by crook.”
“Yeah, I don’t think we were leaving that apartment without you agreeing to working for him and leaving that loser. It wasn’t optional. He was just making it sound like it was.”
“You thought I was a complete nut job.”
“I did and I still do. I’m no bed of roses to live with either. You have to be a bit touched in the head to deal with a King.”
“We’re here,” I announce flatly. “The small one over there with the overgrown bushes.”
Camden parallel parks in front of my childhood home as I look at the dead grass, overgrown bushes, and crumbling steps.
“My mother is rolling over in her grave,” I say somberly.
“No she’s not. She’s happy that you’re here. Let’s go, chipmunk.”
“That didn’t last long. You’re back to your lame short jokes.”
“Oops that was a slip. You’re going to have to give me a minute to get used to using only terms of endearment that you approve of. It’s not in my nature to be so accommodating.”
“Oh, forget it. Let’s go and get this shit over with.”
I turn my palm over, and he grabs it with his own.
As we climb the steps I notice a bulge under the back of Camden’s shirt.
“What’s that?”
“My piece.”
“You brought a gun to my father’s house?”
“You think I’m going to take any chances with you ever again? I don’t give a shit that he’s your father. You two are estranged. He may have gone bat shit crazy in there. Hell, I don’t know. What I do know is that I never go into a situation that I can’t control unprepared. Are we on the same page?”
“Understood.”
“Good, then ring the bell.”
Twenty-Two
Jade
I’m doing something that I never thought I’d be doing in a zillion years. I’m meeting my sister for dinner with my new boyfriend, the twin, (as she continues to call him) in tow. We’re meeting at one of her favorite places, so she won’t gripe about the service or the quality of the food. A quaint American eatery near the Art Museum.
She’s been babbling on for the last ten minutes about the students in her eight o’clock class and how they’re a better group of students than her ten o’clock group. Blah, blah, blah. I’m bored already, so I know Camden has to be too. He’s sitting here though, sipping on his scotch, and nodding his head at the appropriate times.
“Sorry to change the subject,” she says as if we were listening to the original subject, “but I just wanted to let you know that the bank has agreed to put dad in the home retention program.”
“Yeah, I got the approval letter a few days ago,” I say.
“Oh, they send you a copy of the letters too I guess.”
“Yeah.”
“So I didn’t ask you before, because I thought it would be too soon, but what did he say to you? Was he … civil at least?”
“He was nothing like I remembered.”
“Really?”
“He cried and he gave me a hug. He thanked me for helping him and then he spent the next thirty minutes of our visit trying to find those damn papers. I didn’t think the power of attorney existed for a minute.”
I can see that Jana is dying to tell me, I told you so, but she’s holding back for once in her life. Maybe we’ll be able to figure out this sister thing after all. It’s what my mother would have wanted. It’s what I want. I love my sister. I always have. I just need to remember that sometimes.
“How long has he been sober?” I ask her.
“About three years. As soon as he heard about the cancer.”
“He really needs to go into a hospice care facility, Jana.”
“He wants to die at home, in the bed that he shared with Mom.”
I roll my eyes. Sure I let the man give me a hug, but I’m not about to get all sentimental about him wanting to feel close to my mother. He barely held her hand when she was on her deathbed. He’s still a bastard in my eyes.
“Did he apologize to you?” Jana asks.
“In his way.”
Camden takes another sip of his scotch, because we’re leaving out the part where he told me that I remember things a lot differently than he does. As if I was lying or mentally unstable, and he wasn’t verbally and mentally abusive.
“So, Jana, why don’t you tell me something about you other than those students of yours.” Camden tries to make conversation.
“All she does is work, Cam. She has a ten year plan or something.”
“Fifteen year plan,” Jana corrects me. “It will work too if Professor Owens doesn’t sabotage me.”
“Professor Owens?” he asks.
“Yeah, he’s the guy I’m a teaching assistant for.”
“Is he bothering you? You want me to have a talk with him?”
“No!” she blurts out quickly. “I mean I don’t need him roughed up or anything,” she whispers so the restaurant won’t think she’s ordering a mob hit.
“Oh, okay.” Camden chortles.
I tilt my head for a moment and look at my sister.
“Jana, are you sleeping with your professor?”
“What?! Absolutely not.”
“Do you like him?”
“No, Jade, of course not.”
Huh. I wonder.
“So, Camden, how did you get my sister to go on a date with you after all of this time? She seemed so dead set against it.”
I give her a look of death.
“Dead set against it, huh?” Camden leans back in his chair, legs spread, and licks a droplet of scotch off of his mouth. Fuck, he looks delicious. “Well, I’m very persuasive when I want to be.”
Jana looks between us with a satisfied smile.
“Well it’s a good thing you are. I’ve never seen her happier.”
Ugh, this girl.
“Jade why aren’t you drinking? OH MY GOD! Are you pregnant?” My sister’s decibel level goes from ten to one when she says the word pregnant. Again so the restaurant won’t think that she’s sitting with an unwed mother.
“Are you on crack? No. I’m just taking it easy lately,” I say.
“Oh, because I’m too young to be someone’s aunt.”
I roll my eyes.
“I know, Jana. Don’t worry. You’re safe for a real long time.”
“So what did you think about my sister?” I ask Camden as I sit on his bed peeling off my clothes.
“She was amusing.”
“That’s it? Amusing?”
“Okay if you need more, she’s a bit uppity, and an education snob, but she loves you. So I like her.”
“What else?”
“I think she has the hots for her professor.”
“You do?! Me too!”
Camden walks into the bathroom and checks the water for the shower.
“Is it hot?” I call out.
“Yeah, it’s good. Come on.”
I lean against the shower wall as Camden rubs my shoulders. The water feels good as it beats down on the two of us.
“This is a big shower,” I say. “Bigger than Roman’s even.”
“Uh, huh.”
“Big men like big showers or something?”
“Something like that.”
I turn around to look my new lover in the eyes. Camden’s hard to read, but I’m learning more about him every day. He’s being particularly evasive.
“Something like that?”
“Everyone has their own reasons for liking what they like, Jade. Roman has his reasons. I
have mine. But since you brought it up, let’s get it out on
the table.”
“Okay.”
“You’ve been hiding from Cutter for days.”
“Not hiding.”
“Hiding. You’re hurting his feelings.”
I turn my lips up. “Really? I doubt that.”
“He’s worried that you hate him.”
“Of course I don’t.”
“Are you freaked out about what happened?”
“A little.”
“What about it exactly?”
“I don’t know if I could ever do what, you know, what he was talking about you two would do to me if I was good.”
“He was just trying to turn you on.”
“But you have done that before? With other women?”
“Yes.”
“Are you always this honest?”
“Always,” he smiles.
“In this shower? Was that the whole point you were trying to avoid? You have a big shower so three people can fit inside of it easily.” I roll my eyes.
“I know we’re not getting sensitive about past lovers, because I think you may be the only woman who has a list to rival mine.”
“That’s not even close to the truth!”
Camden laughs out loud.
“Seriously though, Cutter and I will only do what you’re comfortable with. If you decide you never want him in the room again, then he won’t be.”
“You won’t be mad?”
“No, Jade. This relationship is just us. Cutter is only a secondary character.”
“And if I want him to … play again?”
“That’s fine too. You set the ground rules. We will abide by them.”
“Okay.”
“So will you talk to him now?”
“Yes, I will. I’m sorry. I was being a punk.”
“It’s okay that you’re attracted to Cutter you know. There’s nothing wrong with it. I don’t live in some bubble where I think you’ll never look at another man, and of course it makes total sense that you’re attracted to someone who looks a lot like me.”
“Oh, brother.”
“Just as long as you know that at the end of the day that you belong to me, Jade. All thirty-day contracts have been nullified. This is a lifetime assignment. I love you. You will always belong to me.
The King Brothers Boxed Set Page 17
