Page 43 of Reckless Vengeance

“Yeah. You want to come for a bit? I can ask Holloway if you can crash there too, if you want? They have loads of bedrooms. Might be a good idea to keep the buddy system in place,” I suggested, making him wince.

“Josie doesn’t like us much.”

“We’re not exactly the type of guys a mother gets excited about when her daughter brings us home,” I joked, sending Caden a text. It was possible he was asleep since it was almost nine, but it was worth a shot.

Skeeter: You cool if D comes and crashes tonight? I want to check on Aurora but don’t particularly want to leave him alone. He’s been staying with me.

It took a minute, but he replied.

Caden: Yeah, that’s fine. Rory’s asleep at the moment, Ty’s with her.

Skeeter: We’ll be there soon.

“Holloway’s fine with you staying,” I told Diesel, pocketing my phone. “You ready to leave?”

“Josie will freak out if we show up like this,” he said with a grimace, and I chuckled.

“She’ll be fine. She likes me now.”

“Doubtful.”

We said goodbye to the others, who were all sticking around for a beer, before we drove to Rory’s and parked out front in the driveway.

I used the code to get in, finding Josie in the kitchen talking to Caden and Lukas. Jensen must have been upstairs with Rory and Tyler.

“You look like shit,” Lukas observed as he ran his eyes over us, and Josie gasped when she looked over.

“What happened?” she demanded.

“My ex best friend runs a rival crew. We ran into each other,” I said honestly, pointing to Diesel. “One of our guys talked badly about his dead girlfriend, so he beat him up.”

“Sit down, both of you,” she fussed, already grabbing a medical bag out from one of the cupboards.

“We’ll clean up before bed. We—” she didn’t let me finish.

“You’ll sit down right now, Skeeter Maddox. If you’re a part of this family, then you’ll let me look,” she scolded, giving Diesel a dirty look when he snickered. “You too. Sit.”

We both sat at the counter, and as much as her fussing pissed me off, it also made me realize that we’d grown on her if she was worried.

Caden seemed happy about us letting her fuss too.

Once she’d cleaned the marks on my face and started on Diesel, Lukas moved to sit on the stool beside mine.

“What’s going to happen to Slash’s house and his belongings? Is it owned by the crew?” he asked curiously.

“Slash’s assets were his own and he had a will made up around the time he bought the house. I have no idea who he left things to since the crew was all he had. He might have left it all to the Psychos, he might have donated it to charity, or he might have left it all for one of the members that he was closer with. It wasn’t something we really talked about since we thought we had a lot more time,” I replied, accepting a cold beer from Caden as he leaned against the counter opposite us.

“I’m surprised he had one, to be honest,” Caden admitted.

“He has a brother who he would’ve rather set on fire than leave any belongings to. Trust me, he wanted to cover his ass,” I said dryly, both guys looking at me.

“He has a brother? Younger or older?” Lukas questioned with surprise.

“Older. They don’t have a relationship.”

“Do they live here?”

“Stoneleigh.”