AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I’d known that as soon as Rachel had left, we’d not see her again. We’d tracked her trail, and we knew she’d left the country the same day she’d dumped him on us. We knew this because we’dfound the man she was dating, and I use the term dating loosely. She was fucking him, plain and simple. What we’d found about him didn’t fill me with joy. He was a man that liked variety and he went through the women like they were water.
Skinny had had to dig deep to find out how his money was made. While he owned a well-known nightclub in London that was a legitimate business, he made a fair amount moving drugs through it. But his most profitable venture was the escort service he ran for high end rollers. And I think we all agreed that the escort service he ran was more than just a service. We hadn’t been able to find much information on it. Initially, I’d thought Rachel was working as an escort, but we’d since found that she was managing the escort side.
This didn’t surprise me. For all that Rachel was a stone-cold vindictive bitch, she was a crafty one, and if there was one thing she was good at, it was pulling the wool over people’s eyes. I bet he thought she was a dumb blonde, and he was using her. If I was right, she’d have him over the barrel before long and she wouldn’t care how she got there. She’d walk over whoever she needed to, to get to the top. Rachel was money hungry, and she craved being the centre of attention. Which is probably why she’d stayed pregnant. She would have loved the attention it afforded her. I just hoped that whatever she did to him didn’t blow back on us.
We’d finally found my brother, and the disgust and hurt that filled me at the sight of him probably didn’t help the way I was feeling about his son.
Somehow, he’d ended up in Birmingham. He wasn’t working, and that’s how Skinny had found him because he’d signed on to get benefits. Navy, Bull, Bond, and I’d ridden to Birmingham to the address that Skinny had found.
If I thought the housing estate that Reaper’s kids had lived on was bad, I had to rethink that. It was at least two steps up from where my brother was living. Leaving Bull and Bond with the bikes, Navy and I walked up four flights of stairs as there was no way we were getting in the lift. The stairs stank of pee, we saw used needles thrown carelessly on the stairs, and at one part of the staircase there was brown wiped all along the one wall. I wasn’t sure if it was dried blood or excrement, but I made sure to stay well away from it.
My skin was crawling by the time we made it to the dirty, dark red door that was on Mike’s information.
“Fuck, I’m going to need a shower asap,” Navy muttered, voicing what I’d been thinking.
Lifting my hand, I pounded at the door and waited. After a minute, I pounded again. “Jesus Christ, give me a fucking minute,” we heard shouted from within. There was some scrabbling and cursing before the door opened.
I took a step back at the smell as Mike filled the door. I couldn’t believe that this was my brother. Mike and I’d been built the same. Growing up we’d looked so much alike that most people thought we were twins even though he was two years older than me. Yet here he was, standing in front of me, shrunk to half the size he used to be. His black hair long and unkept, he sported a scruffy unkept beard, bloodshot green eyes the whites yellowing. He wore a greying, dirty vest, and a pair of tracksuit pants that looked like they’d seen better days. I’d clocked the track marks in his arms straight away. That he’d deteriorated so much since I’d last seen him three years ago came as a shock.
“What the fuck do you want?” Mike snarled at me. I grimaced at the smell of his breath, wondering when he’d last brushed his teeth.
“I’m here about your son,” I told him.
He started to laugh, manically, “Why? Did that bitch Mel send you after me for money? You can tell her to go fuck herself. She left me so she can suck it up.”
I didn’t recognise the man in front of me at all. He’d been the one I’d looked up to most of my life. That only changed when I joined up. It was like somehow I’d kept him on an even keel and as soon as I wasn’t there to keep him straight, he lost all his moral compass. Then he’d betrayed me by sleeping with my fiancée which was the last straw.
“I’m not here about your and Mel’s kids, Mike. I’m here about Kaleb. The boy you had with Rachel.”
He shrugged before callously saying, “I’m guessing she’s dumped him on you and that’s why you’re here. He’s not my problem. I told her to put your name on the birth certificate. I already had two kids I didn’t want. Why would I want to add a third?”
I had to try one more time, he was my brother and until three years ago we’d been close.
“Mike,” I uttered gruffly, but he stopped me holding up a hand, his eyes clear and for just a minute, it was almost like I was looking at the old Mike, “Kev, stop. I’ve got nothing to offer anyone. The boy is better with you. You’d be a far better father than I could ever be. He’s yours. Now fuck off and don’t come back.”
With that, he shut the door in my face. I stood there for what seemed forever. Finally, Navy clasped my shoulder saying, “Let’s go, brother, there’s nothing you can do here.”
With a nod, I walked away from the door that the man that was my brother in blood had shut in my face. Knowing it would be the last time I’d see him.
I walked away, following a brother that I knew would walk through a hail of bullets for me. I knew this because he’d done it.
Bull and Bond didn’t say anything when we got back to them. They must have seen by the look on my face that the meeting hadn’t gone well. We’d mounted our bikes for the trek back home. It was a long, quiet ride.
There was an accident on the motorway, and we’d ended up stuck for a couple of hours before we could get off at the next junction. We’d stopped for something to eat and to stretch our legs before we’d continued. The accident and then stopping had added another three hours on our journey. So, it was past eleven at night before we pulled into the Crow Manor driveway to park.
Parking up, I took my helmet off and ran my hands over my head, then pushing the palms of my hands hard against my eyes, rubbing the tiredness from them.
“You good, brother?” Bull questioned.
Dropping my hands, I look up at his words, seeing the concern on my brothers’ faces. I shook off the gloom as best as I could.
“No,” I responded honestly. “But I will be.”
My brothers were worried for me, I knew this. I needed to pull my head out of my arse and start taking stock of my life. My wallowing and resentment needed to stop; it wasn’t me. I also wasn’t being fair to Avy, and I’d vowed when I first met her, I’d not make her life harder than it needed to be. And here we were, barely two months into our marriage, and I was letting her down. Not that she’d complained once. That wasn’t how my woman worked.
I got a chin lift from Navy, Bond, and Bull, then they called out “Night, brother,” as they walked away.
“Night,” I responded and got off my bike, stretching my back out.
