Page 33 of Desperate Victory
“The house… Harrows Park,” Ezra said as he pulled a bag out of the closet and then headed into his bedroom. Like the sitting room portion of his suite, there weren’t a lot of personal items in here… at least not displayed.
He nudged something with his foot at the base of the bed and a panel slid open and a drawer came out. There were photos in there, a small bundle of notes, and a few other items.
Keepsakes. Mementos with emotional ties. Secreted away and not displayed.
“Better to not leave them where Dad or one of his spies could find them. I have a handful of spots. I moved it periodically, just safer for everyone that way.” The last sentence ended on a sigh. “Not that it did much good in the end, I suppose.”
I shrugged. “I get it. Growing up in the group home, we were careful about who we shared what precious few items we had and we guarded each other’s with prejudice.”
Ezra frowned as he lifted out the small packet of letters. No, not letters at least not all of them. Some were postcards. “I keep forgetting you grew up like that. I guess all of you did, except for Em.”
“She would have,” I admitted. “But when the Sharpes came looking, I thought their money and their affluence meant she wouldn’t want for anything.”
“I can’t…” He frowned, the confusion evident in the way his brow tightened. “I can’t picture them as offering any kind of comfort.”
Shrugging, I holstered the gun and moved to stand guard at the door that looked out into the sitting room. “When you have nothing, you don’t see the problem with having so much. You only see the benefits. I knew what it was like to go to bed hungry. I never wanted that for Ivy. Wealth—it seemed to offer a lot of those benefits with very little downside. Clearly, if you had money, you knew how to keep it.”
“You don’t really associate pretty perfumed people with the darkness all that glitz and glamor can hide.” Not a question.
“Nope. My world was pretty basic. Good people. Bad people. Haves. Have nots. I’ve been on the far side of nothing for a long time. I value people. I value their time. I value their commitments and their loyalty. Those are worth a hell of a lot more than money.” Like Mayhem. She was phenomenal all by herself. Her inheritance didn’t interest me in the slightest beyond making sure no one bothered her.
“You’re a poet, Milo,” Ezra said as he stared down at some rock he’d pulled out of the drawer. “You look like a thug with all your tats, and like you belong with the rest of us thanks to that angelic face… but you’re a poet. We would not have liked each other when we were younger.”
“We didn’t,” I pointed out. “You and Adam were very intent on kicking my ass that first time we met.”
His frown passed with a hint of fresh laughter. “Yeah, that didn’t work out so well for us.”
“Live and learn. Live and learn. I don’t think you’re such an ass now. I think you can be. I think you’re a lot more than your money and your position in society—because neither of those things makes you happy.”
The dark look on his face redoubled. “I don’t know who I am without those things. I’ve spent my whole life disappointing my father and worrying my mother. Nothing I did ever seemed to be enough.” He shook his head, closing his fingers around the stone before looking at me.
“Fuck ‘em,” I said without missing a beat. “Shitty parents don’t get the right to judge us. They had their opportunity. They failed. Not you.” I shrugged. “Julius King is a walking, talking, piece of shit that thinks he hung the damn moon when all I will ever see is the man who walked out on my mother and baby sister. A man who wanted to punish me because I chose them over him. I don’t give a rat’s ass what he thinks about me.”
“I wish it was that easy,” Ezra admitted. “I wish…fuck, I don’t know what I wish any more.”
“Yeah you do, you’re just afraid to look at the good stuff and see that it is good. You’re braced for it to go bad. You’re waiting for Mayhem and Adam to cut you loose. Or for me and Bodhi to kick you to the curb because you screw up. You’re convinced you’re going to—and I don’t disagree. You’ll fuck up.”
Shock stamped its way across his face.
“But here’s the thing, cousin,” I said, emphasizing that last word and punching it up. “Real family? They don’t walk away because you fuck up. They don’t let you chase them away. They might kick your ass, and they will definitely slap you upside the head if you take too long to get your head out of your own ass, but they don’t abandon you.”
I checked the time. It seemed a century and yet it hadn’t been more than seven minutes since we came upstairs.
“You mean that,” Ezra said, almost bewildered.
“I do. I told you once, I’ll never let you hurt Mayhem. You’ve treated her badly, but you’ve also made up for it. You chose to suffer rather than let her get hurt. That matters. But you’ve also been hurt and it scared her. Scared Adam. That means you get to live with everyone being a little overprotective for a while.”
“How long’s a while?” He pocketed the rock then emptied the last few items from that drawer into his bag before he went to the dresser and popped out another secret hidey hole.
“Ten or fifteen years, I would imagine.” The droll delivery pulled a real laugh from him. “Anyway, what were you saying earlier about asking me?” I hadn’t forgotten.
“The house—Harrows Park. Technically, it should be part yours and Em’s too. I mean, if my grandfather had ever claimed King beyond the private fund he gave him.”
Wait… “Private fund?”
“Fuck, I knew I’d forgotten to tell you. I found out about it in some of Dad’s old papers. Grandfather paid off King’s mother, she was his mistress for years but he refused to acknowledge him. Just paid for everything.” He zipped up the bag and slung it over his shoulder. “After he died, he left a codicil in his will that said if King were ever to sue for his name, he would lose everything. Every dime. Pretty ruthless. But King and Dad met at some point and became… friends I guess.
“At least until some other guy in the old Bay Ridge Royals chased King off. He was pretty vicious about it. So then King disappeared for a few years…and I guess he came back at the right time, Dad needed the help. King could do things he couldn’t and well… you know how it goes.”