Fiasco (Dirty Aces MC Book 6) by Lane Hart (black male authors .TXT) 📕

when I open the main door, there’s a man on the other side of the glass in a Dirty Aces cut and jeans, but it’s not the one I wanted to see.

“Go away, Nash. I don’t want to talk to you right now,” I say when I start to close the door on him. But lightning fast, he opens the glass door and pushes his way in past me.

“Too bad. We need to talk.”

“Get out or I’ll…I’ll call the police.”

He stares at me coolly as if he knows I’m full of shit without commenting on that blatant lie.

“What do you want? It’s late.” I cross my arms over my chest to show my annoyance at his visit.

“First, I wanted to come over and apologize for not telling you the truth about us when we first met. I know it sounds stupid to say I was worried that you would throw us out, but put yourself in my shoes for a second and think about it. Would you have taken the chance of being honest while your friend was dying from two bullet wounds?”

I know he means Phillip, and now that I know him, even if it hasn’t been for long, I would do anything to keep him alive.

“Fine. You’re forgiven. Now, please leave.”

“I know I’m not exactly the ideal brother, and I never will be. I’ve killed people, and I would do it again. I can’t pretend I’m a good guy, but I am glad that I finally got to meet you. It’s nice to know that there may be some good in me, in our mother and father, because you turned out pretty well.”

“Phillip told me why you killed people. It was for a good reason,” I admit.

“Good reason or not, I took lives, took people from their friends and family. They may not have been decent, but the families were.”

“The fact that you can understand that means you’re not as bad a person as you think you are. Unlike you, I didn’t grow up in the foster system. I was lucky to have good, adoptive parents, but they’re dead now, so I’m an orphan yet again.”

“I’m sorry,” Nash says. “Guess I’m all you’ve got as far as family goes.”

“Guess so.”

“Then, as your brother, tell me what happened with Fiasco…with Phillip tonight and what we can do to fix it.”

“How do you know something happened?” I ask.

“Because Fi-Phillip came to the pool hall. I’ve never seen him so upset.”

“Well, he may have just lost what little visitation he has with his son and daughter because of me. He has a right to be upset.”

“I didn’t know he even saw his kids.”

“Once a week, every week. And he always gives both mothers everything he can from his paycheck to help out financially.”

“Really?” Nash says in surprise.

“Really. He loves them so much. And now…” I shake my head and swipe the tears from under my eyes. “You and I know how much it hurts to find out your parents aren’t around and didn’t want us. It would be so wrong for his children to ever think that for even a second!”

“He’s a good father?”

“He is,” I say with a smile as more tears fall. “He cares about them and loves them more than anything, but he doesn’t think that he’s capable of being a father to them without supervision. And now, because of me, their mothers don’t think he is either.”

“Jeez, that sounds awful,” Nash says, and then he’s wrapping his arms around me and holding me as I cry.

When the tears finally begin to lessen, I take a deep breath and push Nash away. “Thanks, but I’m not the one who needs comforting.”

“Of course you do. You care about Fi-Phillip, and you don’t want him to be unhappy.”

“I think I love him,” I admit honestly.

“You do?”

“Yes.”

“Then we need to figure out how to fix this shit so that you two can be together, because I think he loves you too.”

“Really?”

Nash nods. “He’s never been so upset, especially about a woman. But tonight…it was like he just fell apart.”

“He blames me for what happened because I pushed him to have a playdate with the kids here. I didn’t even think about Ace, the dog we rescued, until they were almost here. I put him up in the bedroom so the kids wouldn’t see him. Then they heard him and saw him when I took him out. Kids can’t resist petting a dog, but his back leg is broken and in a cast.”

“He was protecting himself,” Nash says. “The dog thought the kids may hurt him, and he was already hurt.”

“Yes.”

“I’m not calling F-Phillip a dog, but I think he was hurt tonight and lashed out at you too, but he didn’t really mean it.”

“Whether or not he’s mad at me doesn’t matter if he can’t have visitation with his son and daughter.”

“Don’t they have some sort of custody agreement with visitation and child support all laid out?”

“No. Lawyers are expensive, so they’ve just handled everything between the three of them.”

“First things first, I think we need to get him a lawyer,” Nash suggests.

“That’s a good idea, but…”

“I’ll pay for it,” he says. “It’s the least I can do for him and for you.”

“Thank you,” I tell him with a smile and give him another quick hug. “Having a brother is starting to come in pretty handy.”

“Yeah, having a sister who is a nurse was pretty convenient for me and the MC too,” Nash jokes. “Don’t worry, Joanna. We’ll figure out a way to make things right not just with Phillip’s kids but with you and him.”

“You really think we will?” I ask.

“Yeah, we will. I promise,” Nash says, and I really want to believe he’ll make it happen.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Joanna

“So, what can I help you with today?” Lauren Carmichael, the first civil attorney in the area who could give us an appointment, asks.

Nash, Devlin, and I are sitting across from her at the long conference table in her office, hoping