Claiming Felicity (Ace Security #4)(3)

Megan pushed off the counter and faced her friend, but didn’t say a word.

Joseph led Colleen to the front door of the apartment, and right before they left, turned and made eye contact with Megan. “I underestimated you. It won’t happen again. See you around.” And with that, he disappeared out the door with Colleen silent at his side.

As soon as the officers left, Megan locked the dead bolt and raced to her room. She shut her bedroom door and locked that too. She backed into the corner of her room, behind her bed, and sank to the ground. The look in Joseph’s eyes scared her to death. Megan generally wasn’t afraid of much, but suddenly she was terrified of Joseph Waters.

She’d made an enemy tonight.





Chapter One

Present day

“Tell us how you found out about us again?” Logan Anderson asked.

Ryder “Ace” Sinclair was trying to look relaxed sitting across from his three half brothers. He’d introduced himself the night before, but now that his existence had had a chance to sink in, he and his brothers were having a more in-depth conversation. Finding out more about who the others were.

“My mom told me about how she met your dad when he was on a business trip down in Colorado Springs. She knew he was married, but it didn’t seem to matter to either of them. When you find the person meant to be yours, there’s no denying it.”

Ryder ignored the growl of the middle triplet, Blake, and continued. “They were together a couple of times. My mom said she’d never been happier. But something happened here in Castle Rock, and Ace told her he couldn’t see her anymore. Said it was for her own good. Broke my mom’s heart. She found out two months later she was pregnant with me.”

“Did she try to contact my dad? Ask him for money?” Blake asked.

Ryder grit his teeth and tried not to bite his new brother’s head off at the implication of his words. “My mom didn’t want a damn thing from Ace Anderson except his love. She adored him. Would do anything for him . . . including leaving him alone like he requested.”

“So she knew about us?” Nathan asked. He was the youngest of the triplets, and hadn’t asked too many questions yet.

Ryder nodded. “She said he admitted during one of the last times they were together that he had triplets. That he loved you guys more than anything. He told my mom leaving her was the hardest thing he’d ever done . . . even though he wanted nothing more than to be with her for the rest of his life.”

There was silence around the table as the men absorbed Ryder’s words.

He went on. “On her deathbed, she wanted to let me know that I had three half brothers. Told me where you were. Honestly, I think she felt guilty.”

“About what?” Logan asked.

“My mom wrote your dad a letter. Told him about me. That I was his son.”

“When?” It was Nathan who asked this time.

Ryder inhaled deeply. He thought his brothers knew this. He didn’t want to be the one who told them, but it didn’t look like he had a choice. “Right before he was killed.”

“Fuck,” Logan swore.

Nathan just looked at him with big eyes.

Blake pushed back from the table, his chair falling to the ground behind him. He paced back and forth. “I don’t fucking believe this.”

“She didn’t mean to—” Ryder started, but Blake interrupted him.

“But she did . . . didn’t she? She fucking got him killed.”

“Easy, Bro,” Logan said.

“My mother did not kill your father,” Ryder bit out.

“Don’t you mean our father?” Blake retorted immediately.

“Fine. Yes. My mother did not kill our father. Your mom did that. I don’t know what happened. Maybe she found the letter my mom sent. Maybe Ace confronted her about it or told her he wanted a divorce. I don’t know. But what I do know is that my mom died pining for the one man who ever loved her. She never got over Ace Anderson. Loved him to the very marrow of her bones. She kept his picture on our wall. Told me stories about how great a man he was. She never hid who he was from me. Even when we didn’t have enough to eat, she never blamed him for leaving her. When she almost got attacked on her way home because she worked two jobs and didn’t get home until way after it got dark, she didn’t blame him for leaving. When I complained about not having anyone to come with me on Boy Scouts father-son nights, she didn’t bad-mouth him. So fuck you for even insinuating that my mother had anything to do with his death.” Ryder was practically panting in fury when he finished speaking. He thought he was done, but he realized that, no, he had a lot more to say.

“I made the decision to come up here and meet you three when I read in the paper about all that you went through with the Inca Boyz gang, and after some of my own research. I was curious about who my brothers were, but I wanted to look into what kind of men you were before I came up here and introduced myself to you. I wanted to hate you. Wanted to resent you for the life I led growing up. Me and my mom were poor. I never had new clothes growing up—we shopped at Goodwill. There were many nights I went to bed hungry. I wanted you all to know how good you had it with our father. But then I read that fucking article and realized that I probably had an amazing childhood compared to yours. Yeah, I was hungry, and we were poor, but all I knew was love. My mom never let a day go by when she didn’t tell me how much she loved me. She didn’t beat me. Didn’t threaten me. I realized that I don’t resent you at all for having my dad when I would’ve done anything to have at least met him. But if you think I’m going to sit here and let you talk shit about my mom, you’re insane.”