Page 2 of Legacy
When I married Conner’s brother, I knew what I was taking on. And when Paul died in Afghanistan, there was never a doubt in my mind that I would raise his brother. I would be the family the boy needed.
I was the only family he had.
Hell, he was the only family I had.
“What have they been asking you to do?” I didn’t really want to know the answer, but I needed to know. I needed to know what I was up against and how far Conner was embroiled in it all.
His eyes skirted away. His face closed down.
“Conner.” The bark in my voice couldn’t be ignored, and he lifted his face guiltily. I steeled myself. One look at his face and I knew it was bad.
“I’ve done a few drop-offs.” He shrugged.
I inhaled sharply. “Drugs? You are dealing drugs?”
He shook his head vigorously. “Just envelopes. But I—”
It was going to get worse. I didn’t know how, but I knew it was. I did the counting thing again. Without it, I would probably succumb to one of the panic attacks that always overtook me in stressful situations. If I had one of those now, I would shut down. And if I did that, I would not be of any use to Conner.
“I dropped one.”
My eyes shut. Yep, I had known it was going to get worse.
“I didn’t mean to, and I looked for it.” His voice became almost hysterical. “I searched, Kate, but now—”
Blowing out a breath, my lips pursed. I had to calm myself. I was the adult here and Conner was the child. He was looking for me to make this better. He needed me to scare the scary men away.
“How much did you lose?” I didn’t have any savings. We lived paycheck to paycheck, but I could do overtime. The haulage company I worked for was always behind with their admin, so they would jump at any offer to stay later that I made.
“They won’t tell me, but they said I belong to them now.” His voice broke. “I told them I didn’t want to do it anymore, Kate. But they…” He motioned to his face.
Reaching out, I covered his hand with mine. “It’s going to be alright, Conner. I promise it’s going to be okay. I’ll sort it.”
Chapter Two
Legacy
“No flowers for your pretty lady today?”
I didn’t answer him. Instead, I went back to drinking. It was early, not even lunchtime, but today of all days, I needed to take the edge off. I needed to forget for a little while, even if that meant getting blackout drunk to do it.
“Legacy?”
I snapped my eyes at him. “She’s not my woman.” Waving my hand between us, I sucked in a breath. “Leave it alone, Duke.”
I expected him to start taking the piss, but surprisingly, he didn’t say a word. Instead, he patted my shoulder before sliding onto the stool next to me.
“I’ll join you. No one should drink alone on a day like this.” He chuckled. “Or ever.”
Leaning my elbows on the bar that took up almost an entire wall of the common room in our clubhouse, I stared hard at the dark amber liquid in my glass. And I felt nothing.
Absolutely nothing except, of course, the gnawing empty pit that kept growing in my stomach.
God, I missed him. And ten years hadn’t done anything to lessen the pain of losing him. He had been my brother. Not by blood, but then again, I had lost my actual brother as well.
Two brothers gone in the space of a few years. No wonder I was an emotionally distant mess. I should have probably gotten help. The military had tried to help me. In fact, loads of people had. But truthfully, there was no helping a man like me. It was easier just to cut myself off. Riding with the Savage Sons gave me the best of both worlds. I had a family of brothers around me. Hell, half of them had watched me grow up, vowing never to patch in. But I didn’t have to get close to anyone. I had their back, and they had mine, but there was none of the warm and fuzzy stuff that came with being attached.
I wasn’t close to any of them. Not like I had been with Paul or my twin brother Emmet before him. And that suited me just fine.
