“So it’s not just me.” Miki breathed a sigh of relief. “’Cause I want to kill Kane all the fucking time.”
He was right about Kane having his mother’s laugh. She threw herself into it, an audible confetti of glee. Wiping a tear from the corner of her eye, Brigid leaned forward and wrapped her arms around Miki’s shoulders, pulling him, stiff and reluctant, into a tight embrace. His breath shortened, and then he finally simply held it, waiting for the woman to let him go.
A second passed, then three, but Kane’s mother showed no sign of giving him his freedom. Her fingers stroked the back of his head, tangling through the soft strands of hair at his nape. As he blinked furiously, the world swam behind his wet lashes, and he shifted in her arms.
Brigid’s hair tickled his nose, and he turned his face, catching a whiff of tangerine and lemon on her soft curls. Like her son’s, the pale skin at her collar was dappled with a dusting of golden freckles, and a faceted purple stone twinkled in the ear she’d been pressing into Miki’s cheek. Short of clawing free, he was trapped, cocooned in a baby powder, citrus motherly prison as Kane’s Irish-born mother slowly wrapped strand upon strand of affection around him.
“Someone should have loved ye, sweet boy,” Brigid crooned, a husky murmur laden with honey and cracked sorrow. “But ye’ve got the Morgans now. Kane’ll take care of you. All of us will.”
“Oh, God fucking help me,” Miki swore and tore himself free before he drowned in Brigid’s concern. He couldn’t meet her eyes. She saw through him, through everything. From every steak he’d shoved down the back of his pants while shoplifting for food when he ran out of money to the times he helped Damien siphon off gas from cars in a club’s parking lot so they had enough to get their equipment home… she saw it and knew he’d done wrong.
He slid as far away from the woman as he could without falling off of the couch. Brigid looked startled and reached for him. Miki recoiled, and he scrambled back, losing his tenuous balance on the soft cushions. Landing hard on the floor rattled Miki’s teeth in his head, and his leg went sideways, banging the edge of his kneecap against the couch’s hard frame.
“Mom, feed him. Don’t smother him.” Kane strode into the room. He reached down between the couch and the table to pull Miki up off the floor. His thick eyebrows met above the bridge of his nose, and he ran his hand over Miki’s injured knee, scrutinizing the man’s expression. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” He swallowed. Leaning forward, Miki whispered into his ear. “She’s fucking killing me, dude. I don’t know what to do with her.”
“Just eat the food and smile. Nod if you have to,” Kane advised, kissing the tip of Miki’s nose. “And don’t agree to have dinner with the family. Mom, don’t touch him until I come back. Or better yet, head home. I’ll call you in the morning.”
“Yer leaving?” Brigid stood up, her heels clicking when they struck the floor. “Do ye want me to make up something to take with ye?”
“No, I’ll grab something when I come back.” He was talking to the air. Brigid was halfway to the kitchen before he could protest. Easing Miki back onto the couch cushions, he slanted his mouth over the other man’s lips, savoring a kiss before resting his forehead on Miki’s temple. “Mind if I come back?”
“No, so long as you’re taking her with you.” Miki eyed him. “She’s… fucking scary, man. No wonder all of you are cops. Nothing can scare the shit out of you. Look at what raised you.”
“No, babe,” he whispered, stroking the hair from Miki’s face. “She’s just a mom. I’ll talk to her. Tell her to take baby steps.”
“Dude, I know she’s your mom but…,” he whispered hotly. “Man, she’s always touching, and she hugs a lot. And she doesn’t let go. It’s weird.”
“Baby steps,” Kane promised. “Now, I’m going to grab her and see if I can’t shove her into her car when I head out. Sanchez just called. We pulled a body that might be Carl. There’s a patrol car heading over here to keep watch while I’m on the scene. I’ve got to go check it out, but I’ll be back in a couple of hours. If you want me back.”
“Yeah,” Miki growled. Hooking his fingers into Kane’s shirt, he shook the man lightly. “Just don’t leave me here alone with her. She’ll be having me make gingerbread houses or something before you come back. I just fucking know it.”
Chapter 15
They say I’m nobody to fear
And no one to love,
Soul blacker than ink.
Sin fits like a glove.
And the soft damning whispers,
Follow me where ever I go.
They can’t hear me crying.
Even as they kill me real slow.
—Forgotten Son