Page 38 of Rough Patch

Of course, she did. Being his wife wouldn’t be enough for a woman like Fiona. He’d been stupid to ever let himself think it would. Of course, neither would Mayberry, but he didn’t tell her. He could let her have this fantasy. “Come back to work.”

“And leave the baby?” She shook her head. “No.” In one long gulp, she downed the champagne from her flute. He’d ordered it shortly after round three ended and it arrived just before round four commenced. “Not with anybody but you. Or Jez and we can’t ask her to give up her life to watch London.”

“You could bring her along. Who’s gonna tell you no?”

Only someone with a death wish.

“No.” Fiona’s refusal was as loud as it was adamant. “I want her to have a life free from danger and the illegal aspects of it all.” She sat cross-legged in front of him. “I just want her to be able to choose.”

He’d never realized how she felt about the club or having it pushed on her. Maybe that was why she’d surrendered control so easily. Or maybe it was the baby that had softened her outlook on things. Either way, part of him missed the old Fiona, the hard as a rock woman who spewed orders with the ferocity of a volcano and made sure the club’s operations ran smoothly. Of course, the rest of him enjoyed this new, more easygoing woman wearing Fiona’s body.

With all the new dangers facing them, Mayberry didn’t sound so bad.

Fiona stared at Hamilton. He squirmed, too big for the small kitchen chair he sat in. A cup of coffee steamed in front of him. “Just thought you should know.”

“Did you tell Grier?”

Hamilton looked down at the table, probably unsure of where his loyalties were supposed to lie since she’d all but surrendered control of everything to Grier. He shook his head and wrapped a meaty claw around his mug.

“How do you know, Hamilton? I mean… obviously there won’t be any paperwork.”

He sighed and even his sigh was big enough to ruffle the curtain next to him. “If I tell you, you can’t fly off and do anything crazy. Because it wasn’t just one person who kept this secret. It was all of them. Every single person involved. You dad, your mom, Jim.” He looked down. “And Jez.”

“And she just… what… told you?” When he nodded, Fiona’s blood burst into flames in her veins. “Then you’d better tell me.”

For a few minutes, he looked everywhere but at her. The floor. The ceiling. The countertop. “Jez was only fifteen when she met Will. Your dad was eighteen and Will was twenty-five. She was just a run-away who hitched a ride with a guy on a bike. I don’t think she planned it. I don’t think she knew what sleeping with Will would do.” He stood and poured more coffee into his mug then turned to lean his back against the counter. His legs stretched out into the floor and he crossed the ankles before he looked up again. “But Will couldn’t get enough. And she loved him. Right up until she turned up pregnant. Then that new car glow wore off and he started kicking her ass. I think maybe he hoped she would lose the kid. This was right when they were starting the club. Your dad and mom hadn’t even met yet.”

Apparently, these were important details and Fiona tried to focus, but this was a lot of information to digest without the aid of something eighty-proof. She went to the cabinet and pulled out a bottle of Grier’s favorite whiskey. “Pour us a real drink. I think we need it.”

She waited while he found glasses, held them under the ice dispenser then poured them each four fingers before he came back to sit across from her. He took a long drink, drained more than half his glass, then sat back twisting it so the ice made a little clinking sound against the sides. “Anyway, your dad came in one night and Will had a gun to her head. Probably would’ve shot her, but your dad yanked him away. Will ended up with a gunshot wound, Jez went into labor, and when your dad came back to finish the job, he found the compound empty. Carr took all the money, the guns, the drugs, everything. Your dad and Jez and One-eye started over. Found this place. Only used the compound when the heat was too big. Your dad loved Jez, but she was too young. And then he met your mom and it was over between him and Jez until your mom died.”

Funny, but he’d skipped over a lot. “Maybe you should tell me what happened to the baby.”

Hamilton nodded and poured himself another glass. “All right.” He sniffed and took another drink. “She kept the baby as long as she could, but Carr wouldn’t leave her alone. He’d disappear for a while, run off doing God knows what then he’d be back, beating on her door, threatening her.”

“Why didn’t she leave?”

Fiona would have. She would’ve packed her shit and got the hell out of dodge before the kid had its first dirty diaper.

“She tried. And he tried to take the kid. Your dad saved her again. He beat Carr to within an inch of his life, but he just couldn’t finish it.”

“Bullshit. Max was never too weak to do a job, especially if he loved her as much as you say.”

“Those boys grew up together. When your grandma died, Will’s family took your dad in so he wouldn’t have to go away from here.” Hamilton sighed. “Anyway, after a while of hiding her, and Carr finding her… your dad made Jez give up the baby. He told her it was the only way to keep him safe. A few years later, Carr came back, they all made peace for a while—that’s what everybody thought. That picture you had was from the last weekend they were all up at the compound together. Jez took it. That last night, he tried to kill her, tried to make her tell him where she’d taken the baby. By then, she couldn’t. Even if she wanted to. She’d lost track of him. She tried to keep up. When you tell this story later, you make sure you let that part be known.”

Fiona nodded. How the hell could she tell this story later?

“So Carr beat her, stabbed her and left her for dead in the compound. It was dumb luck that your dad found her. Saved her life. Kept her safe. She saw the picture in your office and… she’s a wreck, Fi.”

A wreck? She was a wreck? “It’s a pretty big coincidence he ended up here.” Coincidence her ass. Max and Jez were big fat liars. Horrible liars who sacrificed a little boy so Jez could stay part of the club? The tarnish on her father’s memory deepened in tone until it was nothing but a black blob. And Jez… goddammit.

“Not so much. She found him. She was waiting tables at some restaurant. And in walked this grungy kid with a scar on his head and a dimple in his chin. She said he looked just like she’d always imagined he would and she knew him right away. But some kids were giving him grief and he left before she ever got to talk to him. So she waited and waited for him to come back. When he told her his name, she knew for sure it was him. Then she told him about the club. Told Max about him. And the rest is… you know the rest.”

Yeah. They’d both been manipulated into a marriage she’d thought was her choice.

Grier was the baby Jez gave away.

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