Page 15 of Forever Your Touch (Manwhore #4)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

All five of them met the plane. It had been years since Mason had seen his parents and his grandmother.

He paced, as did Kade. Nikoli sat in one of the very uncomfortable chairs by the baggage claim working on his new game that was very hush-hush.

He wouldn’t even let Lily, his wife, test it out.

She was as big a gamer as Nik and Mason were.

“The plane’s landed, brat . Calm down,” Dimitri said, looking at the terminal boards. “They have to get through customs, and then they’ll be here.”

“I know. I’m just so worried about Papa.

” Anxiousness ate away at his sanity thinking his father could die.

It was a worry that never left him. Out of all six of them, Mason had spent the most time with their father.

Ronin had taken the base job about a year before Nik left for high school, but Mason stayed longer.

He hadn’t moved to Virginia until his sophomore year.

It gave him time to get close to his father.

Just the thought of losing him nearly broke Mason.

They’d scheduled an appointment with the best oncologist in New York, but it wasn’t until next Thursday. How were they supposed to get through nearly a week without knowing what was going on?

“How’s Becca doing?” Dimitri’s wife was close to the due date of their first child. No one knew if it was a boy or a girl because the baby had decided to be stubborn and not cooperate.

“Cranky, miserable, and ready to be done with being pregnant.” He sighed. “She swears if I ever put her through this again, she’s leaving me.”

Mason laughed despite his foul mood. Becca was the sweetest person he’d ever met. She never had an unkind word for anyone. If you didn’t know her, you’d think Dimitri could walk all over her, but that woman bossed his brother like nobody’s business. Mason adored her.

“You fuckers will be coming over the day the kid is born to help me paint the damn nursery. Becca has picked out two colors, pink and a soft blue. She refuses to let me paint it a neutral color like yellow. We have everything for the room, but until we know the sex, it’s an empty shell.”

“You put the furniture and shit together, didn’t you?”

“No. Becca won’t let me until the room is painted for fear we’d get a drop of paint on something.” He shook his head. “That’s what plastic sheeting is for.”

“Didn’t she tell me yesterday her brother is coming to visit when the baby’s born?”

Dimitri’s face went from disgruntled to unsure. “Yeah.”

“But?” he prompted.

“But I don’t know. Her brother just got out of jail. He’s an ex-con and a member of an outlaw MC. How do you tell your wife you don’t want her brother around your kid because of all that?”

“Wait, her brother’s in a motorcycle club?” His eyes widened. Mason was fascinated with motorcycle clubs. He watched every show he could on bikes. He even had an old, rusted out frame of a bike in his uncle’s barn. Once he got his own place, he wanted to start restoring it.

Dimitri rolled his eyes. “Leave it to you to skip over the ex-con part and go straight to the motorcycle aspect.”

“Dude, chill. Becca loves her brother. From what she told me, the two of them looked out for each other growing up. He’s the only reason she didn’t starve to death when she was little.

I think if you try to keep him away from her, Becca will put the fear of God in you.

He’s family. Ex-con or not, he’s always going to be her family, which means he’s our family now too. Deal with it, fucker.”

“ Tío Conner!”

They both turned to see Kade’s son, Mateo, launch himself at Conner.

The man picked the boy up and hugged him, a grin spreading across his normally stoic face.

The kid loved Conner more than he did both his parents.

Mason kept that observation to himself, though.

He wasn’t sure what happened between Conner and Mateo down in Florida, but it left a lasting impression with the boy.

Mateo had been stolen from his parents at birth and raised in the Los Muertos cartel. Conner, Kade, and Angel went after him as soon as they discovered this, but a lot of mental damage had been done to the kid. Mason wasn’t sure Mateo would ever be truly all right.

“You’ve grown a foot since I saw you, sobrino !

” Conner’s black eyes twinkled. Mateo was helping to bring Conner back from whatever dark place he’d been in when he came back from Afghanistan or wherever the hell he’d been stationed.

They’d all feared they’d never get their brother back, but Mateo was helping to pull him back into the light.

Mason would always be grateful to the kid for that.

“No tengo .” The little boy grinned with his denial. Mateo still spoke a lot of Spanish, but with everyone’s help, his English was almost as good as his grasp on his first language.

Mason spotted his mother first and all but ran to grab her up.

Irinia Kincaid was tiny. She was barely five feet, but that never stopped her from bossing all the men in her family who towered over her by over a foot.

She looked like Dimitri, all blonde and blue-eyed.

Dimitri was the only Kincaid brother who hadn’t inherited their father’s black eyes and hair.

Fucker stood out like a sore thumb in family photos.

“Mama.” He hugged her so hard she gasped. “I missed you.”

“My beautiful boy.” Irinia cupped his face and kissed his forehead. She’d never be able to do that if Mason hadn’t picked her up. “I missed you too, syn .”

“Don’t hog Mama, brat .” Kade tapped him on the shoulder. “The rest of us need a hug too.”

Mason released her and looked for his papa.

The difference in his appearance from the last time he’d seen his father nearly crippled Mason.

Ronin Kincaid had always been an imposing figure.

His black hair was now a salt and pepper color that made his pale face stand out even more.

He’d lost weight. Not just a little, but a good sixty or seventy pounds.

He looked small and fragile. The cough that rattled out of his lungs made Mason’s hands shake.

Ronin was very, very sick.

“Mason.” His papa held out his arms, and he went right to him, letting him enfold him. He fought back tears. His papa didn’t need to see him break down. He had to be strong for him.

“I love you, Papa,” he whispered right by his ear. The familiar smell of Old Spice and tobacco assaulted his nose. His father smoked all his life, and he was paying for it now.

“I’m not dead yet, boy,” Ronin grouched and pulled back. “Don’t you all start acting like I am.”

“You no be ornery to my deties , Ronin Kincaid!” His grandmother, bless her soul, was shaking her finger at his papa and demanding respect for her “babies.” God, he’d missed the old woman.

“Love you too, Babby .” Nikoli swooped in and stole a kiss. “You ready to go trolling the old folks’ homes for your new man?”

“I need to find me some booty.” She winked at Nik when Irinia gasped. “You and Mason are still taking me, da ?”

“ Da .” Nikoli laughed at his mother’s outraged expression. “We have a date for next Friday night at bingo.”

“Do not encourage her!” Irinia’s lips thinned, but Mason saw the sparkle of laughter in her eyes.

“But, Mama, if we don’t encourage her outlandish behavior, who will?” Viktor asked mildly.

Irinia rolled her eyes but smiled when Viktor hugged her. “When do we get to see the rest of our grandbabies?”

“We’re headed to my house. All the women are there with the children.”

“Mateo, do you remember your abuela ?” Conner was behind Irinia, and she jumped when he spoke. Fucker was always quiet as a cat. He still held Mateo, who was watching the reunion with curiosity. He’d met his grandparents once before but hadn’t seen them since.

The smile that graced their mother’s face could part the heavens when she turned and saw Mateo. “Hello, sweetheart.”

Mateo didn’t say anything; he just watched her. It reminded him of Kade. He was a trained FBI agent, and he tended to watch everything without trying. His son had picked up on that particular habit. The kid looked just like him too. A mini Kade with his mama’s piercing green eyes.

Eyes that sometimes looked dead. It didn’t happen so much anymore, thanks to Delia, but when that look appeared in his nephew’s eyes, it was a punch to the gut for Mason. Especially since he didn’t know how to help the kid.

Mateo clung tighter to Conner when Irinia stepped closer.

“Say hello to your grandmother, Mateo.” Conner’s firm tone pushed the boy to do as he was told.

“ Hola, abuela .”

“Move out of the way and let me see my grandson.” Ronin pushed past his boys and wasted no time in plucking the boy out of Conner’s arms. They all saw the panic flare on the little boy’s face, but Ronin paid it no mind. “Your papa teaching you Russian?”

“ Sí ,” Mateo whispered.

“ Da ,” Ronin corrected him. “‘Yes’ in Russian is da .”

“ Da ,” Mateo said, his eyes going blank.

Kade retrieved his son, worried at the blank stare. Mason was too. This all had to be too much for Mateo. “Hey, kid. I’m taking Delia for some ice cream later. You wanna come?”

Mateo looked over at him, his eyes so expressionless, it hurt Mason’s heart. “Strawberry?”

Mason smiled. “Yeah, kid. If you want strawberry, you can have strawberry.”

“Can I, Papa?”

“As long as you mind your uncle.” Kade shot Mason a grateful look. They all did what they could to help Mateo.

“Then da, Tío Mason . I want to go.”

After that, they all gathered up the luggage and headed back to Viktor’s house, where the grandparents spent the rest of the day gushing over the grandkids, and the brothers spent the day worrying about their father.