AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He releases my jaw and takes a step back, as though allowing me room to process everything he just said. “Ace and Romeo have something to show you that I hope will help bring you some closure.”
Before I can ask what he means, approaching footsteps from the other end of the hallway interrupt the moment. Ace and Romeo don’t look particularly happy with having to babysit me for the foreseeable future, which only serves to make me feel worse than I already do. Will I ever feel like I belong anywhere? Phoenix was the only person who ever felt like real family to me, even if we did have a difficult relationship. Her loss hits me afresh, tearing another gaping wound into my soul.
“I guess we’d better get going, Fuck-up.” Romeo slings his huge backpack over his shoulder.
My eyes dart between the three men, and I clench my mouth shut before I say something snarky. It seems like this is happening whether I want it to or not, so I might as well do what Lorenzo told me to do—deal with it.
And as I exit the mansion on the heels of Ace and Romeo, I push down the thought that keeps invading my mind like a persistent pop-up ad: Despite everything I just thought, I’m glad I’m not doing this alone.
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
ACE
She glares at me and then at my bike before looking longingly at her yellow Honda.
“You can’t fucking ride with your wrist busted like that. So just get the fuck on.” I glance over my shoulder to the space on the seat behind me. Why the fuck can’t anything to do with this woman ever be easy? And why the hell do I love the fact it isn’t easy so damn much?
She rolls her eyes, and a picture of her bent over my bike with her ass red from a spanking flashes through my mind. It makes me smile in spite of myself. “You want to find this sick fuck or not, Trouble? Because the sooner you get on this fucking bike, the sooner we can get moving.”
She huffs dramatically and pulls on her helmet. “This doesn’t mean you get to call me your backpack.”
“Fine.” As soon as she’s on the seat, I rev the ignition so that she lurches forward and has no choice but to wrap her arms around my waist.
“Asshole.”
I bite back a laugh. “That’s my good little backpack.” I take off before she can cuss me out, and the roar of the engine cuts off whatever she was about to say.
Romeo and I checked out the address Lorenzo gave me before we left Chicago. According to Google maps, it’s a house in Jackson, and I have no idea how open the owners are going to be about having strangers poking around their land looking for a grave. But we’re headed there anyway, and I haven’t had a chance to tell Keres yet.
I roll the bike to a stop outside a sprawling ranch-style house that stands alone on a long road. A porch swing rocks in the gentle breeze, creaking softly. There’s an apple tree in the front yard with a tire swing and two small bikes on the path.
Keres shuffles back. “Why are we here? Who lives here?” I hear the uneasiness in her voice. This is a family home. Probably not the kind of house where she expects to find the type of people she wants to hurt.
I pull off my helmet and tap her leg. She takes the signal to climb off the back of the bike and stares at me expectantly as Romeo rolls to a stop beside us.
“Lorenzo said we should come here before we go any further. He thought it might help you,” I say.
“He said you had something to show me. This is it? A house?” She turns and studies the light-blue house.
“Not exactly. There’s something on their land.”
The screen door of the house swings open, and an auburn-haired woman who looks to be in her thirties steps out, her hand over her eyes blocking the glare of the afternoon sun. “Are you Keres?” she shouts.
Keres spins around but doesn’t answer. Her legs are trembling.
I lace my fingers through hers, and for once she doesn’t pull away. “You want us to come with you?”
She glances at me, her eyes wet with unshed tears. “To see what? What’s she going to show me, Ace?”
“Your mom’s grave.”
Her mouth opens, but she doesn’t speak. Instead she shakes her head.
“Lorenzo and, I assume, Max and Dante, buried your mom here somewhere.”
“B-but… my mom? She never—she was never…”
