Page 54 of The Kings of Kearny

Jakob glanced back at me, a little furrow between his brows. “Maybe. His face is familiar, but I can’t put a name to him.”

“Want to wait in the car until he comes out so you can get another look at him?” I asked.

He shook his head. “We can’t. We have to go to Daniel’s for a cookout.”

I frowned. “What?”

“He called while you were inside and invited us. Made a point to remind me that you told him you’d like to go over for dinner sometime.”

Damn my past self. “I don’t want to leave Gran alone in a strange place for too long.”

Jakob stepped close and put his hands on my shoulders. “I get it, but we have to go.”

I stared up at him. Shit. He had that intractable look on his face again. For some reason hereallythought we needed to go. Whether it was because he didn’t want to piss off his gang leader or because something was going on between the two of them after all, I had no idea, and I didn’t like that.

The need to question him about this was strong, but I pushed it down and did my best to remind myself that it was none of my business. I’d gotten into enough trouble already by involving myself in the Kings’ problems.

“Okay, but I have to call Gran first,” I said.

He nodded and let me go.

I called Gran as we pulled out of the parking lot. She’d roped Jennifer into watching her favorite telenovela with her, and the two of them had spent the past three hours chumming it up together. I tried to ask a couple of leading questions to check in on her mental state, but she rushed me right off the phone. The last episode had ended on a cliffhanger, and she and Jennifer were both antsy to start the next one.

“Here, talk to Liam,” Gran said.

I heard muffled noises like she was passing the phone off. “Love you too!” I yelled.

That woman.

“Hey there,” Liam rumbled. “How’d it go?”

I put him on speaker, and together, Jakob and I caught him up on my visit to the police station. I made sure to openly hero-worship Katherine.

Liam chuckled. “That’s nothing. You should see her in a courtroom.”

“No offense,” I said, “but I’d rather avoid that.”

“Fair enough,” he said. “Jakob, we need someone to watch Magnolia. Choose a new guy you trust who won’t be recognized.”

“Already on it,” Jakob told him.

A loud noise echoed over the phone, followed by rapid-fire Spanish.

“I have to go,” Liam said, sounding rushed. “They started the next episode without me.”

The line went dead. I looked from the phone to Jakob. His dad was nothing like I imagined he would be. Proud of his son, willing to watch telenovelas with his wife and my gran, and all while simultaneously heading up one of the country’s most dangerous motorcycle gangs. I really needed to stop making assumptions about people if I didn’t want to continuously make an ass out of myself.

~*~

DANIEL AND EVA KINGlived outside of town in a large two-story home set back in the woods. They must have owned a decent plot of land because the closest neighbors were over half a mile away. Good thing, otherwise someone probably would have called in a noise complaint.

Music blared from the backyard as we pulled up, so loud that I heard it over the rumble of the car’s engine. Twilight had given way to dusk during the drive over, and the external floodlights were on, illuminating a driveway crammed full of motorcycles, muscle cars, and trucks. It looked like over half the Kings had turned out.

Jakob parked a few hundred feet away from the house and cut the car lights. We rolled up the windows, muffling the sound of the thumping bassline.

“You ready for this?” he asked.

I turned toward him. “For my first Kings party? Sure. Can’t be much worse than a rowdy shift at the bar, can it?”

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