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All behind his back.
Jesus Christ, how could he not have known?
Now that it had slapped him in the face, the resemblance was painfully obvious. Beth with her mother’s crystal blue eyes but her father’s red hair. Lighter than Rusty’s and with Shell’s curls, it had always been obvious Beth’s father was a redhead.
But his own fucking brother?
Why did she do it? Because she wanted him and couldn’t have him? Or was it more sinister? A big fuck you to the man too old for her at the time?
And years? Rusty said they fucked for years.
When did it start?
How fucking young had she been?
Why did it start?
How long did it last?
Did he love her?
Did she love him?
She’d never seemed to care for Rusty much. Never wanted to be around him back then. Had it all been a ploy to hide their relationship? He could barely breathe let alone wrap his mind around the giant bomb dropped in his office.
“Hey!” Izzy said, snapping her fingers in front of his face. She was tall but still had to extend her arm to reach his eyes.
Copper blinked. They were alone in his office. Where had Shell gone? He vaguely remembered screaming at her to leave. And what happened to Rusty? Jesus, not only did his brother just get out of prison, but he found out about a daughter he was denied knowledge of. No wonder the guy had been off lately.
He glared at Izzy as the room fully returned to focus. “Get your hand out of my face.”
“Oh no.” Izzy dropped her hand to her hip. “Don’t you take that tone with me, asshole.”
He raised an eyebrow. Were she one of his men, she’d be sporting a black eye right about now. As it was, she was his brother’s ol’ lady and a pregnant one at that. Probably why she felt safe to get up in his face.
Oh, who was he kidding, Izzy would confront anyone or anything if she felt it necessary. “Watch yourself, Iz. Don’t forget who you’re talking to.”
“No,” she said getting on her toes and right up in his personal space. “You need to watch yourself. You also need to remember why Shell and I came in here to talk to you in the first place.”
Right. Spewing some bullshit about Rusty stealing the money and dealing meth. Like he could believe a word out of Shell’s mouth now. She didn’t want her little secret exposed which gave her every reason to get rid of Rusty.
“Stop it.” Izzy pointed a finger in his face.
He counted to ten. Don’t snap her finger off.
“Whatever fucked up shit is going through your head, stop it. And remember who your woman is. Remember who she is. She is the woman who has been head over heels for you her entire life. She is the woman who would lay down her life for you in a heartbeat.”
“She’s the woman who fucked my brother and had his kid. Then kept it a secret for years.”
“Fuck you,” Izzy spat.
Copper swore to God she was testing his patience like no other. How did Jig deal with this woman day in and day out?
“You don’t deserve her. I do not know all the details, but I know what happened between her and Rusty was not what you’re thinking.” She lowered her voice. “And I’m pretty sure it wasn’t entirely consensual.”
He reared back as Izzy’s words hit him like a slap. “What?”
“You heard me, big guy. So while you’re sitting in this office chewing on your self-pity, think about two things. Remember who your woman is. And remember who your brother is.”
“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“It means your woman is one of the best I’ve ever met. She loves you and this club with every fiber of her being. And your brother is a piece of shit who’d steal from his own club, sell drugs behind your back, sucker punch his brothers, and spend years in jail for nearly beating a man to death. Sounds just like the kind of man who’d force a woman.” With that, she stormed out of his office.
Copper dropped into his chair, a marching band suddenly traipsing through his head. He rubbed at the left side of his chest where another, more intense ache formed.
With a sigh, he pulled the bottle of whiskey out of his drawer and sucked back a long drink. Then he gripped the half-full bottle by the neck and flung it across the room with a roar of “Goddammit.”
The bottle exploded in a sharp spray of glass and whiskey.
Very fitting considering his heart had just suffered the same fate.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
FIVE DAYS AFTER finding out he was in love with the mother of his niece, Copper sat outside behind the clubhouse polishing off yet another bottle of whiskey. He’d had more to drink in the past five days than the past five years.
