Page 103 of Ace of Spades
EPILOGUE
She’d found them! Kinsey Landon held her mother’s letter in her hand. She’d read it a hundred times or more in the past year, ever since learning she had brothers. Three of them, to be exact. “Alex, Court, and Nate,” she murmured, testing their names on her tongue for what was probably the hundredth time. It was strange that she knew about them, but they didn’t have a clue of her existence.
The surprise was that they were the owners of a biker bar. That didn’t sound like men she’d want to know. But they were her brothers. Since finding them, she’d researched bikers, learning there were two kinds. The men and women—doctors, lawyers, businesspeople—who rode mostly on the weekends were one kind.
Then there were the clubs, what the bikers referred to as the one-percenters. They were the outlaws of the motorcycle world, men who called their wives and girlfriends their “old ladies.” She snorted. Seriously? The Hell’s Angels came to mind, along with what little she’d heard of them—nothing good. It appeared her brothers belonged tothe latter group, the one-percenters. Not the kind of men she could see herself liking.
Did she want to let them know of her existence? The part of her that had never known she had brothers said no. She’d done just fine without them for her twenty-two years on this earth. Yet, she had brothers. She wasn’t alone, or wouldn’t be if they wanted her in their lives. That was the biggie. Well, the second biggie. The first, did she want them in hers? What if they were members of the Hell’s Angels or the Outlaws? If so, she didn’t want any part of that.
She read her mother’s letter again, even though she had it memorized.
My darling Kinsey,
If you are reading this, then I am no longer with you. Please don’t cry too much, sweetheart. I’ve been blessed to have you in my life, and having you has kept me sane.
You see, I had three sons who were taken from me, and my heart has cried each day from missing them. Without you in my life, I don’t know how I would have gone on.
Before she finished reading the pages she held, her gaze strayed from her mother’s words, landing on the birdbath outside her window when she caught the flutter of wings. The parrot was back. Like so many parrots one could glimpse around Miami, this one had once been someone’s pet that had either been let loose or had escaped. She knew that because he talked to her.
She grabbed the baggie of birdseed she kept just for him and slipped outside, careful not to make too much noise. He was skittish.
“Hello, Oscar,” she quietly said as she lowered herself to the ground, far enough away as to not send him flying away.
“Hello, Oscar,” he parroted in a high-pitched woman’s voice, tilting his head, one beady eye on the bag of birdseed.
He’d said that shortly after he’d appeared at the birdbath, which Kinsey took to mean that was his name and he was a male. She tossed birdseed onto the stone slates, a little closer than the last time. She was slowly getting him used to her.
“Hello, Oscar,” he chirped as he fluttered his wings, landing on the opposite side of the birdseed. “Oscar’s a naughty boy.” He eyed her again, before hopping forward until he could dip his beak to scoop up the food.
As he pecked at the seeds, she said, “I don’t know what to do, Oscar. See, I found out I have brothers. Brothers, Oscar. Imagine that. I want to meet them, but what if I don’t like them?”
Oscar paused, looked at her as if considering her problem, then said, “Hello, brothers.”
Kinsey laughed. “So it’s that easy, huh?”
There was one part of her mother’s letter that she’d read the most and had memorized:I had to believe that I had instilled in my sons honor and a love of learning so they would grow to be fine young men. I know in my heart they grew into men I would be proud of.
She needed to find out if that was true before she burned her mother’s letter and forgot she had brothers. Kinsey pulled her phone out of her jeans pocket and called Aiden, asking him to meet her for breakfast.
“I need you to go with me to a biker bar,” she said the next morning.
“Huh?”
Kinsey lowered her menu, peering over the top at her best friend. “I said, I need you to go with—”
“I heard what you said.” His eyebrows scrunched together. “I’m just trying to figure out why you said it.”
“It’s a long story.”
Aiden leaned back against the booth, spreading his arms along the top. “I’m listening.”
“Read this.” She handed him her mother’s letter.
“I found them,” she said when he finished. “They own a biker bar, Aces and Eights. So what are you doing Saturday night?”
“Going to a biker bar?”