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She nodded toward Donny. “Him. When he doesn’t believe you’re real. He did it to me once. About drove me nuts.”
I scoffed a laugh. I really liked Donny’s woman. I couldn’t wait to get to know her better.
“How’d you get him to snap out of it?”
She went over and leaned in to press a kiss first to her daughter’s head then her man’s cheek. “Well, he was drunk as fuck at the time, so I had to put up with it till he passed out. Thankfully, along with his hangover the next morning came some sense.”
Donny flicked his gaze to his woman for a moment, frowning. “Different circumstances, hellcat. You weren’t dead.” Then he was back looking at me.
I sighed. “Did you ever find out about Gordon’s family?”
Donny shook his head. “Never gave a fuck about him or his relatives. Once you and Mum were gone and I got shipped over here, I left the past in the past. Although apparently, the club did some digging into him.”
Another man stepped in closer to us, who had “Keys” written on a patch on his chest. “We do a little digging on anyone new to the club. We’ve learned it pays to know what might come at us before it actually does. So, when Taz first came to us, I went hunting for information on his past. Gordon’s uncle is a big deal in Melbourne. Publicly, he owns the casino, but under the radar, he runs anything he can get his hands on. Drugs, guns, girls… he’s a real piece of work.”
I nodded. “Yeah, Uncle Tony is a force of nature. Cops have been trying to get something to stick for decades but no one’s managed to do it yet. He’s careful, and he’s bought off a few key people.”
Donny, who I needed to get used to calling Taz apparently, shook his head. “How does any of that fucking explain you coming back from the dead, Grace? I carried your limp body outta that fucking house!”
His daughter stirred, whimpering at her dad’s outburst. Flick reached over and took her from him. The little girl quickly snuggled into her mum and with a thumb in her mouth, was back to sleep in moments. My gaze got caught on her for a few seconds. She was such a sweet little girl. I’d only held her for a few minutes earlier, and she’d been scared and upset then. I really wanted to have more cuddle time with her when she was like she was now, all sleepy and relaxed.
“Need some answers, Grace.”
With a sigh, I turned my attention back to my brother.
“I did nearly die. I was in a coma from the smoke inhalation, so it was easy to pull some strings to fake my death. You had relatives here in the States that could take you in. I had no one other than Uncle Tony. I was lucky that the AFP took an interest and decided I’d be safer in Witness Protection. They never explained exactly why, but I suspected they were worried Gordon planned to finish off what he’d started.” I shrugged, pushing aside those thoughts. Having a homicidal parent wasn’t something that brought on warm and fuzzy feelings, even now that I knew he was dead. “I’m not Grace anymore. My name is Jacie Lewis now.”
He rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck. “Fuck. Just… fuck it all. They shouldn’t have separated us. Why the fuck wouldn’t they have put me in witness protection with you? That’s bullshit.”
He walked away, hands on his hips, pacing the room. There weren’t many others around, but those who were, were completely focused on us. I hated being the center of attention, although it was pretty much a given that my turning up was going to make a splash.
He came back and stood in front of me. “Did you end up in a nice family? Please tell me you had a good life.”
I nodded. “I was put with an older couple up in Canberra. They adopted me and were good to me. My new dad was an officer with the AFP. I followed him into the force. I knew early what I wanted do and worked my ass off to get there.”
He folded his arms across his chest. “Was that how you knew Gordon had skipped out?”
I nodded. “Yeah. I’m an Operations Engineer in the Digital Surveillance department. As soon as that bastard got out, I set up alerts on him. If there hadn’t been a big incident at the Sydney Airport that needed my complete focus, I would have caught the notification earlier and been able to prevent him from leaving the country. Instead, it took me a little time to track down his location. He didn’t fly directly to the US.” I didn’t want to talk about Gordon anymore. Hell, I’d be happy to never hear his name again, and we all knew that he’d ended up here. “How about you? Did your aunt treat you well?”
He raised an eyebrow. “Well, she fed me regularly, so I guess I can’t complain.”
Flick scoffed. “If that old bitch was still breathing, I would’ve gone to teach her a fucking lesson. She was horrible to your brother.”
Donny shrugged, looking uncomfortable. “I survived. It wasn’t so bad. I enjoyed working on the ranch.”
That confused me. “But you left to join the Marines when you were eighteen?”
He glared at me. “How’d you know that shit?”
I rubbed a hand over the back of my neck and looked at the floor for a moment before returning my gaze to his.
“You’re my brother, Donny. I was curious. Can we sit down? Maybe get a drink or something?”
One of the men standing near called over to the bar and a younger guy came over to take our drink orders, but no one paid for anything. Strange, but whatever. I asked for a beer and a bottle of water before sitting down on a nearby couch. Flick sat next to me and as she settled back, I couldn’t help but smile at her sweet baby girl.
“What’s her name?”
Flick winced a little and didn’t look like she wanted to tell me. Surely the child’s name wasn’t some big secret?
