Perversion (Perversion Trilogy #1)(52)

The crowd laughs.

Grim clears his throat again and looks to the floor. Then, his eyes land on mine. Something sizzles in the air between us for a split-second before he tears his eyes from mine.

After what seems like a million years, he speaks again.

“I never knew my real old man. I don’t think my mom knew him all that well, either. But for the last five years, I had Belly. He was my pops. A man who stepped up when no one else did. Someone who saw something in me as a positive, as an asset, when everyone else turned away screaming and ran in the other direction. He didn’t tell me no. He told me ‘how can we use this so you can live your life as YOU. So you can thrive instead of suffocate’. That meant a lot to me. He also kept me fed me and kept a roof over my head when no one was forcing him to. You see, when I first came here, I thought Marci and Belly were getting money to take in foster kids like most do. But then I found an opened piece of mail one day, and it was a waiver of payment for guardian care. They requested that they not be paid when they had every right to be. They didn’t get shit because they didn’t want shit. They just wanted us. Me. Sandy. Haze. Digger, may he rest in peace. They wanted us just as we were. Fucked up and deranged and unpredictable.

Belly said I reminded him of lot of a younger version of himself. If it weren’t for him, I’d be in a super max prison somewhere, awaiting my turn in the chair. Yeah, Belly was a brutal son of a bitch. He was a hard-ass, too. But that hard ass had a heart bigger than I knew someone could have. He showed me kindness when I didn’t deserve it.” Grim pauses and looks up at me. “Above all else, he showed me what’s important in this short life.”

He looks to Marci and Sandy.

“Family. Loyalty. And protecting those two things like they’re an extension of your own body. Because they are.”

Grim winks at Sandy and Haze, who are sitting next to Marci. “Even though that lesson came with some fucking brothers I never wanted.”

Haze shoots him the middle finger. Sandy laughs along with the crowd, but when realization sets in, he crinkles his forehead. “Heeeeyyy now!” he sings loudly.

Marci pats Sandy’s shoulder, then shoves him playfully to the side of the couch.

Grim continues. “I would do anything for my family. For Bedlam. Of course, part of the package deal was Marci. My Ma.” Grim’s eyes meet Marci’s. He speaks directly to her now. “You know, I had a mama once. But I think if she were still alive, she’d be more than happy with you filling in for her. She’d also really like your pot roast.”

Marci waves him off and pretends to be embarrassed, but a smile is growing on her reddening face. Her eyes are filled with a mixture of happy and sad tears.

And proud ones, too.

Grim shakes his head, struggling to get through to the end. After a few seconds, he looks back at the crowd and steps toward the mantle, grabbing a bottle of whiskey. He holds it high up in the air.

“My life!” he shouts.

Most of the crowd joins in on the chant, holding one hand over their hearts and their drinks high in the air.

“My Death. My Loyalty. My Honor. For Bedlam. For Brotherhood. For Always!”

Grim chugs from the bottle while the crowd whistles and cheers. He then raises it again to the picture on the mantle of Belly riding his bike with Marci on the back. “I’ll miss you, Pops. Always fucking will.”

I’m seeing him for the first time. I’m just a kid, and he’s just a teenager. Lost, scared, confused, unfocused, unloved. But he’s found his people. He’s their leader now, and my heart swells with joy for him. The feeling is profound. Life changing.

I’m shaking. Yes, Grim has changed. Tristan, the boy I met, wasn’t capable of speech or being touched, never mind love.

Grim is.

The thought is both exciting, and absolutely terrifying.





Twenty-Seven





The music starts back up. Some people start dancing, including Marci and Sandy. I didn’t know Belly for that long but enough to know this was exactly what he would’ve wanted. A celebration, not a tear-filled sad-fest.

A man wearing a biker’s cut appears from the back of the room just as Grim has almost reached me through the crowd. “Haven’t seen you in years, brother. Glad to see you can talk now. And here I thought someone cut out your tongue.”

“Not yet,” Grim says. “Bear, glad you came, brother.” The two men grasp hands in greeting.

“You know that Belly was important to The Lawless. That man was one of the great ones in my world. I’m honored to have known him.”

“Me, too,” Grim says with a tight nod.

“I’m sorry. Where are my manners,” Bear says with a thick southern drawl as he notices me standing quietly to the side. “I’m Bear. Who might you be, darlin’?”

“She ain’t your darling,” Grim growls.

Bear rakes a tattooed hand through his blonde hair. “No, she ain’t. Mine’s at home about to pop with baby bear number two.”

“How is Thia?” Grim asks.

“Knocked up. Hormonal. Pissed off.” He sighs happily. “And as fucking beautiful as ever.”

Grim’s hard face softens. “This is Tricks.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” I say, offering him a smile. I never thought a beard and a cut could be considered gorgeous, but mix that with a deep and slow southern accent plus a dazzling kind of charm like you wouldn’t believe, and I could see why a normal woman, someone who isn’t me, would be attracted to him. Bear is devastatingly gorgeous.