Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(38)

They’d divorced shortly after.

But to Core’s memory, his mother had never had reason to smile genuinely, except for one glorious period of time, and his father had never truly been out of their lives, except for that glorious period of time.

It had fucked him up the first night he met Kiki—which was also the first time they fucked—when he woke up the next day with her in his bed, and he knew.

He just knew, right away.

She was it.

No question.

He’d been happy as hell. She was the shit. They fit. They were perfect.

And it fucked with his head, scared the piss out of him.

But he drove Kiki away.

Now it was happening again.

He knew who Hellen was.

No question.

And he needed to keep her away or she’d find out what he was.

It wasn’t a good sign Eight was leaning his ass on the seat of his bike in Core’s driveway when Core got home.

He rode up next to him and shut his bike down.

For obvious reasons, Eight was no longer on the Greeks. He was ferreting out Nails if she was in Denver and dicking with Hellen’s family. So Core was thinking this wasn’t going to be a late-night beer with his bud, but instead, bad news.

“All cool?” he asked, swinging off his bike.

“We gotta talk.”

Core studied him, but he shouldn’t have bothered. Unless he wanted to, Eight didn’t give much away.

He nodded, let them in, then walked Eight through his house after giving Nanook’s head a quick rubdown.

He let his dog out the back, stepped out with him, and Eight followed.

Core bought his house two years ago when they opened their first dispensary, money started pouring in, the club had maintained their righteous path for three years, and Core finally felt like he had a solid foundation under his feet.

Since he bought it, though, he hadn’t done dick to it, outside buying furniture.

Except the back patio.

He’d laid some attractive pavers, built a wood-burning fireplace and a built-in grill with a sink, a fridge and a high bar for eating. He’d installed some decorative brick around the base of the pillars that held up the roof that covered it and dropped a load on some pimp, comfortable furniture. He took care of his yard and planted some awesome greenery.

The fence needed to be updated, and that was his next project, but he liked being out there. Every inch of it was his hard work and it looked nice.

He should get on with the house, but he had no clue where to start with that.

The bones were there since it had been flipped.

Though he could do a backyard, home décor was not his gig.

Nanook went to his personal bathroom space at the side of the house, Core went to the seating area.

He took a load off and watched his brother do the same across from him.

“Want a beer?” he asked.

“Nah, bro, not gonna stay long. Got pussy waiting for me at home.”

That was Eight. He had pussy waiting for him everywhere.

“What’s up?” Core prompted.

“Marcy came into one of the dispensaries with a message.”

Core sat up straight.

“She talked to Brain,” Eight went on. “Brain talked to me.”

“Is Hellen okay?” Core asked swiftly.

Eight gave him a look.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

“Listen, brother—” he tried to pedal it back.

“Marcy wants you to know, Hellen’s meeting with some dude named Bryan tomorrow at ten. Bryan wants to talk things through.”

Core felt the back of his neck start burning.

Eight kept his eyes trained on his brother. After several beats, he asked, “Got nothin’ on that?”

“Not my business,” Core pushed out.

“Right,” Eight said disbelievingly. Then kept at him. “She’s got some meet set with her pops Wednesday night.”

Fuck, Core needed a beer.

He said nothing.

“Marcy also told Brain a story.”

Goddammit.

“This isn’t mine to have,” he informed his bud. “We’re not that.”

“When she was a kid, Hellen had a dog.”

Core grew very still.

“She loved that dog. It was her best bud. She fed it and it slept with her. Then one day, her pops comes home from one of the many business trips he was always on, and for some reason, he’s pissed about something. So the dude just gets home to his family, and in the middle of a lot of screaming and crying and begging, not only Hellen, but her mom and sister too, he takes her dog, leaves and comes back…without the dog.”

Core’s fingers curled around the arms of his chair.

“Never brought the dog back,” Eight went on. “She never saw that dog again. No clue what he did with it. Also never had another pet because she never got over losing her bud. When he was taken away, she was six.”

Jesus Christ.

Like he knew what was being discussed, Nanook jogged in, alternately panting and sniffing the ground. He went to Eight to say hello and get a head scratch.

Then he came to his dad.

He sat beside Core’s chair, and Core buried his fingers in his boy’s thick ruff.

“Apparently, Nanook triggered her,” Eight continued. “Marcy said Hellen isn’t doin’ too good.”