I chuckled, brought out of my broodiness by the simple fact that she was cute as fuck. “Wouldn’t dream of it.”
“You ready?”
I winced, but just to hear her little giggle. “Ready as I’ll ever be. Let’s introduce my brothers to their future niece or nephew, yeah?”
The doorknob was cold under my hand, but the moment I stepped into the golden light of the house my dad had rebuilt with his bare hands, all I felt was warmth.
It sheered through me like a nuclear blast, the combination of heat, laughter, and the sight of all the people I loved in the world ensconced in the enormous great room.
“Ah,” Dad said over the cacophony of conversation and the low murmur of Leon Bridges through the speakers. I had no doubt Harleigh Rose had organized the playlist purposely because “Coming Home” was playing. “My son’s home.”
Dramatic, maybe.
The entrance, the song, the announcement.
But Dad, H.R., and I were theatrical.
And maybe the moment called for it, for the levity it brought the three of us in a moment that was almost too heavy with profundity.
Decibel by decibel, the room went silent, and awareness spread through the group like ripples from a thrown stone.
“King,” someone whispered, a man amongst the crowd.
“King.” This time, a woman.
The sound of my name went rushin’ through the room, picking up speech as it gathered force, a tumble of consonants branded by my identity.
No one moved. Nothing stirred.
Just that name.
“King,” a boy said finally, pushin’ around Maja and Buck where they stood gobsmacked and teary-eyed at the edge of the crowd closest to us.
Maybe he wasn’t a boy.
Caught in the in-between of boyhood and young manliness, Ares was all long bones and slender muscle, his dark hair overlong, messy waves tumblin’ over his forehead into those old soul’s eyes starin’ out at me from under slightly furrowed brows.
He stood in the empty space between our family and me, arms dangling, expression frozen.
“King,” he said again as if for the first time, the taste of it foreign but sweet.
“Yeah, buddy.” My voice rasped through the tight clutch of my throat as I crouched. “It’s me.”
“You’re here,” he murmured, the last vowel dissolvin’ into a whisper. “You’re home?”
Somewhere in the clasp of bodies, people began to cry, stutterin’ breaths and sniffles.
Still, no one moved.
This man-boy was my brother, the last of the Garro family I had to greet before I could join the fray for real.
“I’m home,” I agreed thickly. “If you’ll have me.”
“Why’d you leave?” he asked, all curiosity and no animosity.
I swallowed around the stone in my throat. “Had to take care of some things.”
Ares pondered this with pursed lips, then nodded. “You know, it’s the cops that’re supposed to put bad guys in prison.”
A titter of wet laughter, includin’ my own.
“Yeah, that’s how it’s supposed to work,” I agreed, openin’ my palms. “But sometimes, bikers? We’re not real fond of lettin’ the law take its natural course. And in this case? They needed a nudge.”
“More like a fuckin’ push off a goddamn cliff,” Nova said, his voice stripped like bald tires with raw emotion.
I didn’t look at him, not yet, ’cause when Mute died and left us, Nova’d become somethin’ like a best friend, and he deserved more than a glance.
Just like Ares deserved this—my attention and my answers.
He was adopted, technically the son of Zeus and Loulou.
But he was everyone’s son.
And I knew from Cress that he’d been her protector and staunch companion when she’d been livin’ in the hellfire of mournin’ me.
“Thanks for lookin’ after Cress when I was gone,” I said low, heavy with gratitude for him and for whatever force had put this displaced Latin orphan in our path. “Means a lot you stepped up for her.”
He shrugged, the expression mature and casual like he was a grown man who knew the score. “I love her.”
“Yeah,” I tried to say, but all that came out was air. “Yeah, I got that. You know, I love you too, yeah?”
He nodded again, only this time there was a slight tremble in the hands he shoved under his armpits across his thin chest. “Yeah, I mean, you’d have to love us a lot to spend a whole year away from us.”
I didn’t correct his timeframe because the sentiment was the damn truth, and I couldn’t believe a nine-and-a-half-year-old got that. It pained me that he did.
“Yeah, but I’m talkin’ ’bout you.” I thrust my finger at him. “I love you, Ares. I love you so damned much that it hurt me every day not seein’ ya.”
A tremble again, this time in his lower lip. He rolled it between his teeth and took a deep breath.
“You still love me?” I whispered hoarsely, clearin’ my throat. “Even though I had to leave ya?”
It was a question for Ares, but I meant it for everyone standin’ under that roof. For the first time since I entered the house, I let my eyes really sweep the faces of the family starin’ down at me.
Nova with his tattooed arms banded across his chest, feet shoulder-width apart, and muscles taut like he was bracin’ for impact.
Axe-Man holdin’ Cleo close, not so much to comfort her but like a child clutchin’ at a bear to comfort himself.
Bat and Dane, pressed tight shoulder to shoulder like they were usin’ each other to keep themselves upright. Cress had told me about Lila’s brother returnin’, but seein’ him for the first time in years was a shock, a good one.
Curtains with a hand on Boner’s shoulder as the latter dashed at the tears spillin’ freely down his face.
Buck so red in the face from the effort not to cry that Maja finally whispered for him to just let it go already, and Priest alone in one corner lookin’ totally unaffected, but for the angle of his body leaned toward me as if buffeted by a high wind.
Kodiak jerked his chin at me in a way that was somehow fuckin’ profound, and Blade, Heckler, Wiseguy, Lab-Rat, and Skell all echoed the move from over his shoulder.
Cyclops thumped his fist to his chest, and Smoke smiled so wide I could count three of his gold teeth.
Eugene and Wrath, the two men I’d trusted with my secret, regarded me with sombre eyes that said they knew the toll I’d taken for them, and they were fuckin’ sad and deeply grateful for it. Lysander, who’d Cress had finally confided in when he threatened to drive to Sitka, mouthed, “Thanks.”
And Zeus, president of them all, beamed at me as his tears ran silent tracks down his cheeks into his smile. He held his wife close to him, his twins tucked up safe in her arms and fuck, it burned in me like a flame to know I’d given that back to him.
I looked back at Ares with wet blurrin’ my vision so bad I could barely see him.
He took a long time to answer, but I didn’t rush him. It wouldn’t have been fair, and I wanted his honest answer.
It made me realize he wanted to give it, not just for him, but for everyone.
Ares had lived at every single one of these men’s houses at one point or another, or spent time on the back’a their bikes or out to dinner with them. He was our Fallen son, and now, it was up to him to welcome me home again.