Page 50 of Queen Of Clubs

“Give me these.” I try to take the bags, but she snatches them away.

“I can carry a few bags,” she chastises.

This whole not letting me do anything for her is going to get old real fast.

“So. Wanna tell me what your manager meant about your brother not being too happy about me showing up?” she asks once we are seated in the car.

“Ah,” I grunt, eyes on the road. “I was hoping you forgot about that tidbit?”

“Nope.” I can see her watching me out of the corner of my eye.

I let out a deep sigh. “Once we moved to LA, you know we got picked up by Boom Voice Records, right?” I look at her quickly, and she nods. “Well, I didn’t get a chance to tell you because it happened after... after we thought you disappeared from our lives.”

“Okay,” she says slowly.

“The guy who found us got us a meeting with the owner. He ended up signing us and became one of the owners of the label himself...” I pause for a moment before continuing. “And he also happens to be my brother.”

“So you really do have a brother?” she asks. “That's... that's amazing. How did you find out about him?”

“He found me. After a while, he started asking about my life, saying that there was just something about me that he couldn’t put his finger on. After he managed to get some information out of me, he did some research or something because a few weeks later he was saying he thought I was his brother and the owner, Henry, was my father. He wanted to do a DNA test.” I laugh, shaking my head. “I thought he was fucking crazy. No way my dad was a billionaire rock star turned record producer. But I took the test anyway, just to prove him wrong. Turns out I was the one who was wrong. The test came back stating that he was indeed my older half-brother.”

“Wow,” she whispers, going quiet for a moment. “So, you have a dad too?”

“Technically. I met him once, but he didn’t care one bit about me, only cared about how the band was doing. Once he got his answer, he put my brother in charge of us, and I haven’t seen him since. Not that I care. Dude seems like a royal douchebag.”

“Oh. Well, that sucks.”

“It is what it is.” I shrug. I never had the need to find my real dad. My mom died when I was a baby, so I didn’t have a clue about who my dad was. Never thought about him much. So as bizarre as it was to find out who he was, I didn’t really care that he didn’t want a relationship. And I don’t think I would have tried if he did.

But that also means I have no idea how he met my mom and ended up with me. I haven’t gotten to ask him if he knew about me, what happened with my mom, or why things ended.

Probably won’t ever find out. Doesn’t matter, though. Boom Voice Records signed us, changed our lives, and gave us our dream. That's all that matters to me.

“What about your brother? How are things with him?”

“Better than with my father,” I tell her honestly. “We’re not besties; the guy makes me want to strangle him for the most part, but he’s a good businessman, cares about the band, and is overall, not too bad of a guy. He’s about thirteen years older than me, so we don’t have a lot in common. He’s very much the business-suit-and-tie kind of guy, and well, I’m not.” I shoot her a grin.

“I could never tell.” She smiles back at me.

This. Little moments like this is what I live for. The bits and pieces of the old Jade. It’s enough to keep me going.

After a quick in-and-out trip to the mall to grab some bras and a few extra things, like a bag to carry all my new things, we get back to the hotel and head up to the room with all of our stuff. “We’re back!” I call out as we step inside.

“Oh, good.” Everett steps into the doorway, an awkward look on his face. “Your brother is here.”

“Fuck,” I mutter and look over to Jade. “Looks like you get to meet big bro sooner than I thought.”

We step into the living room and Jade comes to a stumbling halt as my brother looks away from the window and over to us. “Jade?” Concern fills me when I see her face has gone pale, like white as a ghost.

“Calvin?” she whispers his name so low that I’m not sure anyone else could hear it. How the fuck does she know my brother's name?

“You know him?” I growl, finding myself getting defensive.

My whole body goes stiff as I see my brother's face soften, his eyes taking in my omega. There’s too much familiarity in them. I don’t like it.

“Hello, my Darling. I was wondering when we would meet again.”

Chapter 15