Page 337 of Romeo

Jasper had been carrying the same cup of coffee around for so long I knew it had gone cold.

He had taken it onto the porch, brought it back inside, set it on the counter while he checked the back door, then picked it up again before finally sitting across from me at the little kitchen table.

He still hadn’t taken more than one sip.

That bothered me more than I wanted to admit. Jasper could drink coffee through an argument, a crisis, or someone threatening to shoot him. Watching him use the mug as something to do with his hands told me exactly how much he didn’t want to have this conversation.

I had waited through breakfast without pushing. Then I waited while he checked the boat and walked around the cabin as if someone might have somehow appeared in the middle of the bayou overnight. By the time he came back inside, I was done giving him room.

I twisted Granny’s wedding ring around my finger, feeling the worn metal move against my skin while I watched him stare into coffee he wasn’t drinking. The ring helped. It reminded me that there were things in my life I knew with absolute certainty.

Granny was my grandmother. Frank and Georgie were my brothers. Charlie was safe in Rosewood with his parents. Jasper was my husband. Whatever he had learned couldn’t reach backward and take those things from me.

“You promised to tell me everything once we were safe,” I finally said.

Jasper lifted his gaze, and there was no joke waiting in his expression, not even a hint of the smile he usually used when he knew I was nervous. I hated that immediately.

“We’re about as safe as we’re going to get unless you plan on digging a hole under this cabin, so tell me.”

“I know, Ma Belle.” Jasper set the mug down and rubbed one hand over his jaw. He looked tired, though I knew we had both slept. “I’m not tryin’ to keep it from you. I’m tryin’ to figure out where the fuck to start.”

“Start with the part you knew before we got married.” My voice came out sharper than I intended, but I didn’t take it back. “Then keep going until I know everything you know.”

Jasper nodded once.

Instead of reaching for my hand, he turned his palm up on the table between us and waited. That tiny hesitation unsettled me almost as much as his silence had. Touching me was normally instinctive for him. He caught my fingers while we walked, rested his hand against my back when he passed behind me, pulled me close without seeming to realize he had done it.

Now he was giving me the choice before the conversation even began. I placed my hand in his, and his fingers closed around mine carefully.

“There’s a woman named Carly,” he said. “She’s Fury’s old lady; he’s a member of the Soulless Sinners. Carly’s been goin’ through Society records that were left behind by a woman named Sienna. She’s good at findin’ people buried in old files, better than just about anybody I know. King trusts her work because she doesn’t call him with guesses.”

I frowned because the explanation felt like a long road to something I didn’t understand.

“And this Carly found something?”

“Yeah.” Jasper’s thumb stopped moving over my knuckles. “She found a Society file on a baby girl named Kaitlyn Grace Ward.”

The name meant nothing. I searched my memory anyway, wondering if Jasper had mentioned a Kaitlyn somewhere in the endless collection of bikers, wives, girlfriends, children, presidents, enforcers, and cousins I had been introduced to over the last year. Nothing surfaced. When I looked back at Jasper, he was watching me so closely that something cold slid beneath my ribs.

“Who is Kaitlyn Grace Ward?” I asked.

“You are.”

For a second, I honestly thought I had heard the sentence wrong. I waited for Jasper to explain, but he didn’t. He simply held my hand and let me stare at him.

“No,” I said eventually, because that was the only response my brain could produce. “My name is Fiona.”

“I know.”

I pulled my hand free and sat back, needing the small amount of distance between us. “I have always been Fiona.”

Jasper’s face tightened. “Kaitlyn Grace Ward was the name your biological mother gave you when you were born. The people you knew as your mom and dad adopted you when you were a newborn.”

The word biological barely registered.

Adopted did.

I stood so quickly my chair scraped hard against the floor. Jasper started to rise, but I shook my head, and he stayed where he was. My chest felt too tight for the small room, so I crossed to the screened window and stared out at water I couldn’t really see.