Page 7 of Lies Beneath Secrets

“Hey, watch your mouth. I might not be your parent, but I’ll whip your ass nonetheless,” Knox shouts back.

“No, you aren’t my parent! So, you can’t tell me what to do and what I can and can’t wear!” she screams back at him.

“Oh, but yes, I can. I have a legal document stating I can. You’re my responsibility and when I say you aren’t going to a damn party tonight dressed like a tramp, I fucking mean it. Go to your room and change, or don’t go at all.” Knox points toward the hallway that I’m standing next to. “Go!” he snaps when she doesn’t make a move to do as he says.

“This is so unfair!” she shouts and stomps off, not even bothering to notice that I’m standing there holding Gabby.

“Such is fucking life,” Knox says, then turns toward me and Gabby. “A little preview of what’s to come.” He waves his hand in the direction Kendra went.

“Yeah, I got a little preview of that already.” I walk past him and over to the couch, placing a still half-asleep Gabby on it. I grab one of the blankets that’s draped over the side and cover her up.

“Christ, the hell happened to you?” Knox asks when I go back to the kitchen. He already has a beer pulled from the fridge and hands me one as well. I nearly forgot my stop at the barber this morning. After all that has happened, it feels as though that was a week ago already. I rub my now bare chin.

“It was time for a change.” I already miss the beard.

“Well, you look fucking ridiculous.” Knox opens up his beer and takes a sip. “How’s day one of being a parent?”

“I took her to that damn store on the edge of town to get her some clothes, and she had a meltdown right there in the middle of the place because I wouldn’t buy her some life-sized pony thing for $900.” Knox whistles and takes a sip of his beer.

“So, not too bad then?” He chuckles.

“Doesn’t sound like you’re doing much better.” Knox got custody of his siblings ten years ago. Kaleb and Kendra. Kaleb is now twenty, Kendra is fifteen and apparently very defiant.

“Damn kid is testing me at every turn. Did you see that skirt she was wearing? Shit, she looks like one of the damn girls who come to the clubhouse.” Knox shakes his head.

“I don’t know how the hell I’m going to do this shit. Day one, and we already are struggling.” I take my knife from the sheath on my belt and pop open the beer Knox gave me, then take a large swig from it.

“You’ll figure it out. I kept a bunch of Kendra’s clothes from when she was little. Should fit Gabby. I’ll dig them out,” Knox tells me, then pulls out a chair at the table to sit. I do the same, thanking him for the clothes.

“I need to find a place to live too.”

“Like I said last night, stay here as long as you’d like. You know I have the room and when Kendra isn’t being a moody teenager, she really enjoys kids, so she can help watch Gabby when we need to be at the club and shit. So can Kaleb.”

“Fuck, I hadn’t even thought about that. Damnit, how the hell am I going to do this?” I put the beer down on the table and tilt my head back.

“Please. You have one. I had two. You’ll figure it out just like I did. You remember me when I brought them home? Shit, I was a damn wreck.” I laugh, remembering the state I found Knox in. He wasn’t at the clubhouse for weeks, and I started to get worried. I went to the place where he was living at the time to find it torn apart and him taking care of two kids.

“Yeah,” I agree. I’ll never forget that tired expression on his face. He had an actual beard growing in and some severely dark circles under his eyes. “That was a rough time, brother.”

“Shit yeah, it was.” We sit there for a while, drinking our beer before I decide to bring it up. Something I haven’t thought about since getting the call about Gabby.

“I talked to Gabe that night he died,” I say and look up at Knox to gauge his reaction. Nothing, not even a flinch.

“Yeah? What did he have to say?” he asks me, twisting the bottle on the table with his fingers. The silver from his ring catches the light a little at the action.

“That it was King that killed Boe,” I say, then take a drink of my beer, eyes trained on him the whole time, unsure of what his response will be. I keep my hand down under the table, hovering over my knife just in case. Having to defend myself from him isn’t what I want to do, but I will if this goes south. Gabe did say not to trust anyone.

“Figured.” He puts the bottle to his lips and drinks down the rest of the beer.

“You figured?”

“Boe had been suspecting something was up with King right before he died. Told me that if something happened to him, King was where the suspicion should be. I was supposed to go out there that night Boe was killed, but I sent Gabe instead because my bike wasn’t starting. Never in a million fucking years would my damn bike not start. Someone fucked with it.”

“Shit. So, King knew you were going there?” Knox nods in answer. “Gabe said not to trust anyone.”

“Well, we know damn well Len isn’t one to trust. King doesn’t take a shit without Len there to help. For everyone else? It’s a shot in the dark.” As if shit wasn’t hard enough already.

“Fuck.”

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